Customer Reviews

An Episode of Sparrows

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
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This tiny little book is an absolute gem of simplicity, love and hope. A precociously aware, yet innocent little girl has been left with the owner of a struggling restuarant and his wife, to raise, by her mother, a woman on the fringes of show business, who cares for no one but herself. The child, Lovejoy, becomes obsessed with the idea of creating a garden in the ruins of a bombed out church, and enlists the aid of a local boy, Tip Malone. When they remove earth from a nearby enclosed garden, they are prosecuted by Miss Angela Chesney, an opinionated, domineering woman who can see no other path in life except her own, and who rules even her elder, more compassionate sister with the iron fist of mockery. It's a short story but one which made me laugh and cry because I could feel the sheer frustration, as well as the determination of Lovejoy as she battles the inexorable might of the adult world, a world which can not, or will not, see things from a child's perspective. I'm sorry that I've missed this beautiful book until now, but am grateful to have found it in an op-shop.

As a child I read this book. I read it again. I remembered the poignant moments of this novel. Lovejoy's heartbreak over the destruction of her garden, her intense loneliness and desperation when she learns her mother has left her, Olivia's pain when she realizes she cannot live to belong to someone. Godden writes of the gritty streets of London in the post-war years. Her story of Lovejoy, Tip and Sparkey fighting against the brutal realities of survival to create something beautiful ins both inspiring and charming.

Overall stands the statue of the Virgin disturbing and consoling the efforts of the girl who tries to keep things clean and pretty.

The characters of this story, the Chesneys, Mrs Combie and her husband Vincent, Father Lambert and Charles and Liz give flesh and spirit to the bleakness of a world trying to rise from ashes, with hope, tarnished and torn, but insistent.

"An Episode of Sparrows" captures, with the consummate artistry of Rumer Godden, a little sparrow-girl who nearly falls to the ground. Lovejoy's garden, in the shadow of a ruined church in postwar London, blossoms with such awful frailty that one holds one's breath with suspense. Vincent's West End-style restaurant, trapped in Catford Street, blossoms as well. thanks to Miss Olivia's at last fulfilled desire for "an ordinary little bit of life." Lyrical use of language, touches the heart,lifts the mind. A marvel of restraint and poetry.

This book along with "The Battle of Villa Forita," The Greengage Summer," "In this House of Brede.", and "China Court" are forgotten treasures. I wish everyone had a chance to experience these books.

"An Episode of Sparrows" is my favorite book of Miss Godden's. She writes with amazing sensitivity about children -- almost as if she were one of them. But this is not a children's book. Rumer Godden understands the passions which drive people. She has a true author's ability to get beneath the superficiality of people's daily lives and expose their true hopes and fears.

"An Epsisode of Sparrows" is set in post-war London. It concerns the plight of Lovejoy Mason, one of the "sparrows" (slum children on Catford Street) who has been abandoned by her mother; Lovejoy finds solace and escape in planting a garden in that most unexpected of places, Catford Street. Catford Street is teeming with the raw lives of slum people.

In contrast, Olivia and her sister Angela, elderly spinsters live on the other side of Catford Street--the respectable side. Olivia especially yearns to experience the joy of being needed.

How these people and other rich characters such as the Irish Malone family and Vincent, the restaurant owner-- interact is wonderful to behold.

I own very few books; this is one of them. I'm sorry that "An Episode of Sparrows" is out-of-print.

This book, along with The Greengage Summer, The River, and the Battle of the Villa Fiorita are four of her books that are the sort of book you will want to read over and over. Godden has a way of making children's voices be heard quite clearly, loudly, and a way of having their words resonate in your mind for a long long time. And they are honest words, from the heart. She is a British treasure that most Americans do not know about. i can't say enough about her books. for children age nine or ten and older and adults.

I must confess that I have not read this novel. But as a librarian I just received a donation of books and among them I found the spanish translation of "An episode of sparrows". As I was cataloguing it I noticed at the last pages, with a clear handwriting the notes that I'll try to translate for you:

"I really enjoy this novel.
Unless I missed some details I think I could ubicate the plot of the novel in a humble neighborhood of England after Second World War.
The way the author shows all what a child can feel and think about adults is something I have to take in consideration on my work as a teacher and in my relationship with the kids around me.

Good feelings, being noble, honest and simple, and to show concern about the others, are in contrast with petulance, pride and not worryng for one's fellow man.
In the story there are some aspects that took my attention:

Sometimes those who offer help to people in disgrace dont do it because they are charitable, but as a way to be recognized at their own social and economic status. On the other side, those who leave their children on the hands of strangers dont have the right to do it, and I dont see them as humans.Even animals take care of their own cubs.

The novel left a deep mark in me."

This notes are dated September 2 1987. and signed "Prof. Luis Rogelio Gutierrez.

I will include An episode of sparrows in my next readings.

Miguel R. Mendoza
Librarian
ITESM-Campus Chihuahua

I read this story more than once when young and still remember how much i loved it. I am now in my seventies and can not imagine giving my copy away. A good story , well written.

Lovejoy is an interesting child - one would almost think that the book was written in the current time. She has an absentee mother who works as a performer who treats Lovejoy as an accessory, leaving her with a couple who themselves have no children and are having financial struggles. Her perspective is curious, and encouraging - she has an amazing positive attitude considering her circumstances. You will enjoy the ending - it does surprise the reader!

This is my first RG book, and I have another on the shelf to read. Recommended by homeschooling consultant Carole Joy Seid - high school and adult ages.

I read this when I was a child and it really stuck with me due to the quality of the writing. I never really thought about it much but the author has the gift of making her characters come alive in a way that's pretty unique. Her character portrayal is sensitive and brilliant.

A sad story and pretty bleak overall. I'm glad she's written other works and am looking forward to checking them out.

This was a wonderful book about children in London just after the end of World War II. It gave a marvelous picture of the time and the place. However, I wouldn't call it a children's book. It is about children, but I can't see a child reading it, unless it were an older elementary age or middle school age child. The book was written in an adult format with an adult style and with adult themes interwoven into the story about the children. It was a captivating story, and a good read, one that you don't want to be finished, where the characters stay with you and seem to be real. It was a fascinating account of "street" children living in a bombed out area of London, and the hard scrabble lives they led, and how one of the characters sought to bring some beauty into her life. The story was based on something that actually happened to the author when she returned to London as an adult, after having been away for a number of years.