Dorothy Parker - without the acid
This was such an enjoyable read - she has all of Dorothy Parker's insight and eye for detail, without the acidity and cynicism. Mollie Panter-Downes captures a time and place that are both long-gone, but manages to evoke them so clearly that you are right there with her. But don't be expecting something saccharine - far from it. Her wit is devastating, and she can capture a character in only a few words. This is a delight - read it!
brilliant minute observation of human nature
I don't normally choose to read short stories but this collection holds together beautifully as they all centre around the stresses suffered by those on the home front in World War Two. What I really like about them is the author's careful, sympathetic and wry observation of human nature. Somehow they seem to slip down as happily as cocoa might have under wartime rationing, and I am sure I will be re-reading them many times.
Tribute to an England past
Mollie Panter-Downes takes a wonderfully penetrating look at how World War II affects the daily lives of families, wives, and veterans. She paints a nostalgic picture of these very 'English' lives, yet does not shy away from the harsh realities the conflict produced for those left at home. The title story is particularly moving in its potrayal of Mr.Craven's mistress 'Mrs. Craven'. This middle-aged spinster's deep loneliness and anguish when her companion has gone to fight and his regular letters suddenly cease, touches at the heart of human suffering. From the five Persephone books I have read, this stands out as a favourite.
Middle class England at war
Mollie Panter-Downes wrote for the New Yorker for over fifty years, and these stories have, until now, never been reprinted. The stories give a wonderful picture of people adapting to the war and the changed circumstances, both social and material, that they find themselves in. The title story poignantly explores the emotions of a woman who has had a long affair with a married man, almost a second marriage, and realises that if her lover is killed, she will have no right to know what has happened, there will just be a deafening silence. In The hunger of Miss Burton, a woman fantasises about food, all the food she can no longer obtain, to compensate for the emptiness of her life. In Goodbye, my love, Ruth spends the last weekend of her husband's leave trying to be cheerful, making plans to keep herself busy while he's away. The news that his leave has been unexpectedly extended shocks her to tears. These stories are full of such insights into the uncertainties of war, particularly for those left behind-mothers, wives, women in all circumstances. They are the kind of short stories which are always too short, there is the seed of a novel in almost every one.
