Una questione accademica

Finished in one sitting! Another wonderful trip into Barbara Pym's cosy (i think she says the word "cosy" about 20 times). This time, we follow Caro and her husband Alan, a junior lecturer at the local University who is desperate to sort out a disagreement with his soon-to-retire professor regarding Leggi tutto

For me, every Barbara Pym book starts with 5 stars. This is not my favorite Pym, but still delightful. 7/29/22: I just reread this. I'll keep it at five stars, but I can definitely see why I said it wasn't my favorite. I might say it is actually my *least* favorite Pym.

This was edited together from two of her drafts, and Pym apparently never considered it ready for publication. It should have stayed buried, as it is the worst Pym I have ever read. What sets Pym, like Austen, apart from her contemporaries is not just the razor-sharp social commentary and witty phra Leggi tutto

Light-hearted and delightful, yet with that tiny stand of melancholy (not as pronounced as in some of her others) that one finds in her books, An Academic Question by Barbara Pym was published posthumously in 1986, with Pym’s literary executor (and novelist in her own right) Hazel Holt actually putt Leggi tutto

Written mainly in the early 1970’s An Academic Question was put together posthumously by Barbara Pym’s biographer and friend Hazel Holt. Maybe because of the way it was essentially compiled - by someone else – from Barbara Pym’s drafts and notes the novel has a very different feel to it. The novel h Leggi tutto

3.5 stars, I flew through this! The first person narration made it easy to read. I liked the story more as it went along though I didn’t love it the way I do Excellent Women or A Glass of Blessings. This was published posthumously and from two separate drafts, so that surely adds to the quality some Leggi tutto

Three stars because it is Barbara Pym - but not sure if she would have liked it published like this.