The Shell Seekers

I went on a splurge looking for authors similar to Barbara Pym, and when I started this book I was at the point where I thought maybe I should stop, but no need! I really enjoyed all the cozy pleasantness this book had to offer (and all the idyllic settings – the house in Ibiza, the seaside home and artist‰ЫЄs studio, the English village, the modern but cozy flat). But those looking for a Pym replica will be disappointed – Rosamunde Pilcher doesn‰ЫЄt have the same wit and clarity. Where Pym is sharp and pithy, Pilcher is sentimental and soft-focus (and I‰ЫЄm not just talking about the Hallmark Hall of Fame adaptation, which I should have known better than to watch, because 1980s, Angela Lansbury, obviously).

Pilcher simplistically divides her characters into ‰Ычgood‰ЫЄ and ‰Ычbad‰ЫЄ categories. The bad people are greedy and obsessive and exploitative and unpleasant; the good people are happy with their lots and are generous to their loved ones and get along with everyone and cherish life‰ЫЄs simple pleasures and are so reasonable about everything. This book mostly has good people in it, with two or three villains to give the main character something to fight against. This is different from the other similar-to-Pym books I‰ЫЄve read recently (Elizabeth Taylor, Molly Keane, Penelope Fitzgerald), where although charm and beauty may not abound in the same way, the characters are more subtle and complex, mixed with character traits, choices, and actions which are not simply labelled good or bad. Pym recognizes the ridiculous and contrary and terrible in people while treating them with compassion and respect. But Pilcher dumbs it down. Nancy and Noel are desperate for money, make bad choices, and are unhappy, while Penelope and Olivia and most of the rest of the cast stand superior and righteous against them.

There are so many things that were just so lovely about this book, but I couldn‰ЫЄt get behind the characters. And yet, four stars – because I enjoyed reading it so much.

The library only had this book in large print, and to be honest it was kind of annoying to have to go back to regular print books afterward. Damn my eyes! I am not old yet.