by Barbara Pym
Dispassionate to the point of discomfort, "Quartet In Autumn" is filled with strong insights unburdened by empathy. "Quartet in Autumn" follows the changing lives of four people who have worked in the same office for some years and who are now approaching retirement. The quartet is made up of t...
Wow. What a depressing read -- particularly so, the first half of the book (or thereabouts). We're meeting four main characters who thoroughly seem to be passengers, not drivers of their own lives, in a trajectory from nowhere to nowhere (and not necessarily a different part of nowhere, either) --...
I think that if this had been the first Pym book I'd read, I would have had a very different perception of her style and thought process. Not better or worse, just very different. In a sense, this does feel like a successor to Excellent Women. In another time, Letty and Marcia might have been two ...
I don't think that I can talk about this book without revealing a major plot point, so if you are planning on reading, skip this review! This book had a very different tone from our first Pymalong, Excellent Women. Where Excellent Women was rueful, A Quartet in Autumn was somber. I still liked it,...
Barbara Pym gives us glimpses into the lives of four people - two men and two women, working together in an office, all approaching retirement, each living a solitary life. By constantly shifting points of view, she gives us insights into their own thoughts and feelings as well as those of the peopl...
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