Quartet in Autumn (Picador Classic, 35)

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There’s some quiet, quotidian humour. When Marcia retires, on her first Monday she’s described by this little pearl of an image: The women were drawn more clearly than the men. Marcia is a memorable character and so well drawn – interesting that she may be somewhat autobiographical. It was somewhat of a sad read...two men and two women in their 60s, and the women retire from their jobs halfway through the book and the men are close to retirement. It is not clear what these people do...they occupy an office together and the company has no plans to replace them once they leave the employ of the company, so it appears their jobs are no longer necessary and/or are being automated. Edwin wore his, which was thin and greying and bald on top, in a sort of a bob…and the style was an easy one which Edwin considered not unbecoming to a man in his early sixties. It is also about the thin but strong bonds that unite people in ways that aren’t always recognized, bonds of little-realized significance, bonds of what might easily — and rightly — be called love.

For each one of us could be (or might become) Edwin, Norman, Letty or Marcia. They are ordinary people who have reached their sixties and, for various reasons, find themselves alone. Their main focus in life has been their jobs, but that is about to end. Being co-workers is what binds them to one another, and the thread seems very tenuous, but even with the two ladies retiring, the four seem to find the thread is strong enough to resist breaking. Marcia, in her free time, and she has lots of it, does such mundane and meaningless (at least to me) things as arranging plastic bags in a drawer in her house based on their shapes and sizes. And she kept the plastic bags in a drawer as opposed to leaving them out somewhere in the house because...’there was a note printed on them which read ‘To avoid danger of suffocation keep this wrapper away from babies and children’. They could have said from middle-aged and elderly persons too, who might well have an irresistible urge to suffocate themselves.’ 😯 In the introduction to my copy by Alexander McCall Smith, he mentions the humour, and cites several episodes he thought particularly amusing. Were there any incidents that appealed to your sense of humour? Andras , Pym did work in an office, though as an editor her experience was probably different from the Quartet's. I imagine that they are spending a load of time filing and other routine jobs soon to be taken over by computers. Letty says something about them only having worked together for a couple of years. I wonder if they were shunted off there by a benevolent organisation that didn't want to make them redundant. Yet. . . day two of my illness brought what felt like a similar repeating pattern by day, with this novel presenting to me a world so puny, it seemed almost absurd. Characters doing the same boring things, every day, rinse, repeat.

Success!

After a month, the two men Edwin and Norman wonder how their retirement is going and invite them for lunch to catch up. After all those years, they finally do something together. Isn’t that odd? Letty lies about what she is doing while Marcia wears her issues on her sleeve. The men think it was a success.

Lux is a fascinating character (somewhat reminiscent of Amber in The Accidental who arrives and disrupts a family occasion). Lux is, of course, both the bringer of light and a soap. And in this story the girl called Lux brings both illumination and cleansing. She is not British, but she came to the UK because of Shakespeare’s play Cymbeline. What is so delightful about this book is that Barbara Pym gives excitement and life to what basically would be thoroughly boring existences. The title is Quartet in Autumn. Are the main characters a 'quartet' or just four people thrown together by chance?If they said “No Visitors” then we can’t very well barge in,” Norman pointed out, as he and Edwin sat in the office finishing their lunch...

Very funny and keenly observant of the ridiculous as well as the pathetic in humanity ― Financial Times The plot revolves around the contrasting retirements of the two women Letty and Marcia. Letty lives in a shared house and Marcia has inherited a house. Marcia is recovering from a mastectomy, and is the most eccentric of the four, though the two men Edwin and Norman are not far behind. Marcia is a hoarder, and due to fears of another war she keeps a collection of hundreds of milk bottles in a garden shed, and a cupboard full of canned food, which, being almost anorexic, she never touches. Letty has a friend in the country who she planned to move in with, but who is now engaged to a much younger vicar. Edwin spends most of his free time attending church services and events.

I wondered why she chose this title of Autumn? I believe that the following quote that I discovered is quite apt: The writing shows Pym’s superb ability to convey depth and nuance in apparently effortless, transparent prose. Here she is early on, describing the quartet’s (separate, not collective) visits to the local library: Thanks for the information on WW2 experiences and book suggestion Venbede. I have always hated and been scared of war and bombs (the fear was worst when I was a child) and found the idea of them terrifying so I always find it hard to imagine not being affected long-term by living through a war that directly affected you. I hated the sound of air raid sirens on T.V. shows, even the comedy "Allo, Allo" after I found out what the sound meant. Hearing it still gives me the creeps. But perhaps in the past most people were affected, but the culture was to keep it to yourself. While reading this book I also read 'Three Mothers and a Camel' by Phyllida Law (British actress and mother of Emma and Sophie Thompson). She was deeply affected by being an evacuee from Glasgow to the countryside during WW2. It was also interesting comparing her everyday life experiences to the characters in 'Quartet in Autumn'. All the same, I do feel I’d like to send her something,” Letty said, irritated by Mrs Pope’s attitude. “After all, we did work together all those years.”...