Excellent Women--Barbara Pym

This has to be one of the most difficult reviews I've tried to write.  Here I am on my third attempt, and not sure this will see the light of day. 

What is so difficult?  Nothing I seem to say does justice to the book.  I can't describe it with respect to any other writer because the comparison quickly comes to nothing.  If I say Austen, you get the wrong impression one way; if I say Angela Thirkell, you get a wrong impression another way; if I mention Heyer, I run the risk of alienating half of the audience.  There is, in sum, nothing to be said in the way of comparison.  Pym is unique.

Excellent Women tells the story of a number of excellent women, chief among them our narrator--Mildred Lathbury, who finally tells us, near the end of the book, what is meant by excellent women:

from Excellent Women
Barbara Pym

'Esther Clovis is certainly a very capable person,' he said doubtfully. 'An excellent woman altogether.'

'You could consider marrying an excellent woman? ' I asked in amazement. 'But they are not for marrying.'

'You're surely not suggesting that they are for the other things?' he said smiling.

That had certainly not occurred to me and I was annoyed to find myself embarrassed.

'They are for being unmarried,' I said, 'and by that I mean a positive rather than a negative state.'

 The whole novel is populated with such excellent women--women, who if Mildred is any indication, always hold out a wan hope of their status changing--women who, while excellent, might prefer to be a little less excellent and a little more admired for other attributes.

By turns hilariously, laugh-out-loud funny, biting, and touching, Excellent Women is truly an excellent read.

*****