Bilgewater

Bilgewater / Jane Gardam, 227 p.

Clearly I have made Jane Gardam my quarantine friend and comfort read, and this might be my favorite.  This is the hilarious and sweet coming-of-age story of Marigold Green, known to the boys in the boarding school where her father teaches as Bilgewater.  Motherless since birth, and wholly convinced that she is hideously ugly, Marigold nevertheless has a nearly idyllic sounding childhood with her loving father and their live-in helper Paula.  The narrative arc feels familiar but the story is filled with surprises.  Really lovely.

Red Joan

Red Joan / Jennie Rooney, 390 p.

Inspired by the true story of an English spy for the Soviets who was unmasked at the age of 87.  Joan studies physics at Cambridge in the 30s and meets charismatic cousins Leo and Sonya, Russian-born and dedicated to the Communist cause.  Joan is sympathetic to the ideology but is also entranced by her new friends.  During the war she takes a job in a secret lab dedicated to producing a British atomic bomb, and gradually Joan succumbs to her friends' pressure to help the Russians obtain their own weapon.  Well plotted and told, but the science reads at a middle-school level, making it hard to believe that Joan could really be a scientist.  There is also one historical howler: Rooney apparently believes that it was Hoover who dropped the bomb rather than the man from Missouri.  Otherwise very enjoyable historical fiction and soon to be a film starring Judi Dench.