Wry views of a feisty generation
If you鈥檝e never read Jane Gardam 鈥� and most Americans haven鈥檛 鈥� you鈥檙e in for a treat. She鈥檚 been writing fiction for grown-ups since 1975, and has won numerous literary awards, including the Whitbread twice and the Booker shortlist.
But it was only with the 2006 Europa edition of 鈥淥ld Filth,鈥� her wry and moving novel about an emotionally scarred Raj orphan loosely based on the life of Rudyard Kipling, that she finally broke the Atlantic barrier. Her character, Sir Edward Feathers, is unforgettable: a retired barrister and judge who was called Filth by his peers 鈥� an acronym for Failed in London, Try Hong Kong, but also because he was so punctilious. Gardam鈥檚 novel captures this emotionally stunted remnant of a dying empire in his old age.
Who knows why it took so long for Jane Gardam to surface stateside, because her writing is wonderful. She鈥檚 right up there with Mary Wesley (鈥淭he Camomile Lawn鈥�) and the two Penelopes (Lively and Fitzgerald), with a strong, unmistakably British voice that ranges from bracing irony to deep compassion.
The 14 stories in Gardam鈥檚 marvelously titled new collection, The People on Privilege Hill, focus to a large extent on members of her generation (she was born July 11, 1928, soon to turn 80) or that of her parents. These generally feisty individuals recall sometimes troubling events from their prime while they cope with the affronts of aging in a changing world. Not all the stories are winners, but even the slightest offer the pleasures of Gardam鈥檚 brisk, sharp sensibility.
The title story brings back the splendid character Filth from her last novel. He鈥檚 approaching 90, a widower who鈥檚 retired to Dorset and misses the warm tropical rains of the Orient, where he practiced law for many years. Gardam brings us right inside the old man鈥檚 head: 鈥淗e was cold and old. He was cold and old and going out to lunch with a woman called Dulcie he鈥檇 never much liked. His wife Betty had been dead some years.鈥�
Despite the frigid rain, he walks on principle, determined to keep his legs in working order. He meets up with two old colleagues and former rivals, also headed to lunch at Privilege House on Privilege Road. Gardam economically paints a vivid, indelible portrait of the three men walking in the rain with their disparate umbrellas, each of which captures the personality of its bearer: 鈥淚n single file the three old judges pressed ahead: black silk, apricot toile and a bundle of prongs.鈥�
Many of the stories deal with eccentrics or eccentricities, and several end abruptly with sudden death. 鈥淭he Latter Days of Mr. Jones鈥� is a sad tale about an odd man whose peaceful dotage is shattered when he鈥檚 falsely accused at 83 of lechery. 鈥淧angbourne鈥� concerns an old woman who was hurt in love by 鈥渢he Bounder鈥� who left her, and transfers her affections 鈥� and her estate 鈥� to a gorilla at the local zoo.
Several stories involve women who cast their minds back to a mystery from the past that they are still unable to definitively resolve. In 鈥淭he Milly Ming,鈥� a 90-year-old living on the site of a former home for unmarried mothers for which she used to volunteer thinks she鈥檚 unearthed the reason Amelia Menzies opened the refuge back in 1899. In 鈥淭he Last Reunion,鈥� four women return to their 40th reunion because their college is about to close. Among them is smart, remarkable Elizabeth, who left abruptly at 19 to marry, not the Polish physicist she was dating but another man. Now sliding into Alzheimer鈥檚, Elizabeth returns hoping to find her lost love, but unable to tell her friends why she left so suddenly all those years ago.
Whether considering a serendipitous encounter that saved a young man during the 1941 blitzkrieg, a widow reminiscing about her prickly daughter鈥檚 wedding 25 years earlier, or an unloved wife whose ankle and marriage both snap, heartbreakingly, when she finally risks venturing out of her cocoon, 鈥淭he People on Privilege Hill鈥� offers wise, mature, wry glimpses of an often unfathomable or vanishing, but invariably intriguing, world.
Heller McAlpin, a freelance critic in New York, is a frequent contributor to the Monitor鈥檚 book section.
