Book: Less than angels
Mar. 15th, 2011 08:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livAuthor: Barbara Pym
Details: (c) Barbara Pym 1955; Pub 2010 Virago; ISBN 978-1-84408-581-1
Verdict: Less than angels is amusing in a slightly dated way.
Reasons for reading it: I don't always love Pym, but sometimes I'm just in the mood for that slightly acerbic humour that was popular among some female mimetic novelists in the middle of the 20th century, and Pym usually exemplifies it well. Also, um, I have something of a crush on an anthropologist so I was drawn to a book set in an academic anthropology department.
How it came into my hands: Library.
Less than angels is about what I expected. It's sarcastically funny, but has a degree of compassion for its characters that makes it not too unpleasant to read. There isn't really much plot, just a bunch of people forming and breaking relationships and trying to get grants to kick-start their careers in anthropological research, but you really care about the ordinary people and want them to be happy.
It's not the sort of book that's very fashionable currently, but it rather appeals to me. It's quite striking that much of the setting is very dated now (there's a whole bunch of really subtle class nuances that almost need footnoting, for example), but the depiction of academic life in a small, not highly successful department could be absolutely contemporary. Also lots of the observations about people are still completely true, even if the background details are dated. Things like the different attitudes to romantic relationships and how those are expressed, and a general culture of accepting that women are equal but not always fully appreciating the ramifications of that.
So yeah, it's a bit of a niche interest, but I enjoyed reading it and it's a good example of what it is.
Details: (c) Barbara Pym 1955; Pub 2010 Virago; ISBN 978-1-84408-581-1
Verdict: Less than angels is amusing in a slightly dated way.
Reasons for reading it: I don't always love Pym, but sometimes I'm just in the mood for that slightly acerbic humour that was popular among some female mimetic novelists in the middle of the 20th century, and Pym usually exemplifies it well. Also, um, I have something of a crush on an anthropologist so I was drawn to a book set in an academic anthropology department.
How it came into my hands: Library.
Less than angels is about what I expected. It's sarcastically funny, but has a degree of compassion for its characters that makes it not too unpleasant to read. There isn't really much plot, just a bunch of people forming and breaking relationships and trying to get grants to kick-start their careers in anthropological research, but you really care about the ordinary people and want them to be happy.
It's not the sort of book that's very fashionable currently, but it rather appeals to me. It's quite striking that much of the setting is very dated now (there's a whole bunch of really subtle class nuances that almost need footnoting, for example), but the depiction of academic life in a small, not highly successful department could be absolutely contemporary. Also lots of the observations about people are still completely true, even if the background details are dated. Things like the different attitudes to romantic relationships and how those are expressed, and a general culture of accepting that women are equal but not always fully appreciating the ramifications of that.
So yeah, it's a bit of a niche interest, but I enjoyed reading it and it's a good example of what it is.
