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.

The People on Privilege Hill

The People on Privilege Hill / Jane Gardam, 196 p.

I have found my quarantine reading groove with Gardam, whom I and others have blogged about in the past.  This collection of short stories is varied and delightful, even featuring a brief visit to the Old Filth characters of Filth, Veneering, and Fiscal-Smith.  Very nice.

Faith Fox

Faith Fox / Jane Gardam, 375 p.

By the author of the Old Filth trilogy, this was first published in 1996 and was re-issued this year by Europa editions.  The title character, Faith, is a beautiful newborn baby throughout the course of this novel, so her actions are limited to the standard baby's repertoire.  It's the kooky adults in her orbit that make up the story here.  Faith's mother Holly is a cheerful, busy, well-loved force of nature, and her death (on page one) in the delivery room sets in motion a chain of events both moving and very funny.  Faith's father feels a little too busy to deal with her, her grandmother is too traumatized, her uncle too spiritual, her aunt too mysterious, and for a while Faith's fate lies in the hand of the Tibs, a group of Tibetan refugees living at a commune run by her Uncle Jack.  It all sounds dreadful, but in Gardam's telling it is sweet and absorbing. 

Old Filth

Old Filth by Jane Gardam, 290 pages.
The first book in a trilogy following the life of Sir Edward Feathers, "Old Filth." The story, well-crafted and quietly moving, moves back and forth in time, starting with Feathers as an old retiree in the English countryside and jumping to his childhood. Seemingly happy when he was raised by Malay servants, young Feathers then became "an orphan of the Raj," wherein he (like many other children of colonial officials) was fostered out to a household in Britain, and endured a less prosaic upbringing.  The story skips back and forth. An engaging story. I am looking forward to reading the second book, The Man in the Wooden Hat.
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God on the Rocks

God on the Rocks / Jane Gardam, 195 p.

A strange and oddly powerful story of a young girl, the daughter of a slightly-fanatical clergyman, and her coming of age in the midst of the disintegration of her parents' marriage in the period between the World Wars.  Her revelations come from multiple sources, most movingly those of a gifted painter living with Alzheimer's in a sort of 'rest home.'  A cast of oddball characters and thoughtful, idiosyncratic dialogue make this engaging.

Old Filth / Jane Gardam 290 pp.

The first in a trilogy, this is the story, told largely through reminiscences, of Sir Edward Feathers, better known as Old Filth. (Failed in London, try Hong Kong)  Filth has ended an eminent career as a barrister in Hong Kong and returned to Dorset with his wife Betty.  But before his seemingly tranquil life of comfort and privilege,. he had a tumultuous childhood as a 'Raj orphan.'  Told in dry, witty, and observant language, what stands out here is Filth's individuality.  The events of his life aren't symbolic and don't fit into neat boxes, but the delicately sketched experience reads like the truth.

The Hollow Land

The Hollow Land  / Jane Gardam, 158 p.

I can think of very few reads that serve as a better antidote to quarantine and fear than this, the story of two boys, one country and one city, who become fast friends in a sparsely-inhabited former mining area near England's Lake District.  They have adventures, meet quirky characters, and grow, all under a soft English sky.  A fantasy, an idyll - maybe.  All the better!

The Man in the Wooden Hat / Jane Gardam 233 pp.

This is the second in the Old Filth (failed in London, try Hong Kong) trilogy, giving the reader the story of Elizabeth, Filth's wife.  Like Filth, she is a child of the Empire's Far East, and is also marked by youthful suffering: in her case, she and her parents were interned and nearly starved in a Japanese camp during World War II.  Betty and Filth have a strong marriage if a somewhat incomplete one; we learn here about Betty's long connection to Veneering, Filth's archenemy at the Hong Kong Bar, and to Veneering's beloved son Harry.  A bit slower to get rolling than Old Filth, but ultimately just as satisfying.  I am halfway through the third volume and will be sorry to finish.

The Flight of the Maidens

The Flight of the Maidens / Jane Gardam, 278 p.

Hetty, Una and Liselotte leave school in 1946 in the north of England.  Will the postwar world open up for them as they hope?  Insightful and very funny.

Last Friends / Jane Gardam 205 pp.

The final title in the Old Filth trilogy mops up the story of Filth, his wife Betty, and his enemy, friend, and wife's love Veneering.  The focus shifts to Veneering, just dead from a fall while vacationing in Malta, and alternates with the story of his early childhood and that of the few stragglers the plot has left behind:  Fred Fiscal-Smith, an attorney and hanger-on to the group, and Dulcie, the woolly widow of Betty's godfather, the judge known as Pastry Willy.  Terry Veneering's story is as well drawn as that of Filth and Betty; he's born in the north of England to a coal-peddler and a crippled Russian acrobat.  He is doomed (or fated) to love one woman his whole life who happens to be married to a man he detests, Old Filth himself.  But much of this novel is a sort of fade-out on the group, telling of the last days of Dulcie and Fiscal-Smith who almost by definition are less vital to the story.  And I was disappointed to note quite a few editorial fumbles this time, in particular a lot of bizarre uses of commas.  (Yes, I am a nit-picky ass, and not especially gifted with commas myself, but I must call these things as I see them.)