An Imaginative Experience: A Novel [Hardcover]

Mary Wesley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 1995

An accomplished and affecting comedy of manners, from an eighty-year-old author, follows the love that builds, after a chance meeting, between an impulsive woman and a man who has recently lost his wife and child. 15,000 first printing.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Those who relished Wesley's A Sensible Life and the seven other novels in which she displays her tart tongue, mordant humor and laser eye for human foibles, may be a bit taken aback by her latest effort. Compared to her previous work, this novel is both more sentimental and more cynical; it lacks some of the edgy balance that made the earlier books deliciously distinctive. When Julia Piper pulls the emergency cord on an InterCity train to London and leaps off to rescue a sheep in a field, astonished observers can't know that she's returning from the funeral of her husband and small son, killed in a car crash that was alcoholic Giles Piper's final destructive act. But two of those observers-book agent and sometime novelist Sylvester Wykes, who is heartbroken and humiliated by the failure of his marriage, and nasty ne'er-do-well birdwatcher Maurice Benson-eventually meet up with Julia, through a series of coincidences that are sometimes credible, sometimes not. Unbeknownst to each other, they will conduct an invisible tug of war between benevolence and malevolence that will determine Julia's future. Wesley's prose is as spare and witty as usual, but this time her acerbic view of human nature seems positively dyspeptic. All the male characters, save Sylvester and a kindly Pakistani grocer, are alcoholics, lechers and abusers of women. In Wesley's books, there's always one character that one wants to strangle, and here it's Clodagh May, Julia's mother, but several others come dangerously close to being equally odious. Wesley's abhorrence of racism is neatly underscored by having both British and American bigots; but, in the end, most characters are so rude, racist, uncivil and selfish that the fated romance between Julia and Sylvester seems to flower in a noxious wasteland. Wesley's dialogue still comes bouncing off the page, and she still produces observations that make other writers seem to write with blinders on, but the rickety plot of this one makes it not quite up to standard.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

When Julia Piper pulls the emergency cord on a British Rail train and runs out to rescue a stranded sheep, she inadvertently attracts the interest of two fellow passengers: Sylvester Wykes, a youngish, sophisticated book editor, whose wife has just left him; and Maurice Benson, an obnoxious bird watcher and aspiring writer. From this improbable opening, Wesley (A Dubious Legacy, LJ 10/1/92) has deftly fashioned a delightful love story and charming comedy of manners. Hoping to write an article about Julia, Maurice discovers that she is grieving for her young son, recently killed in an automobile accident. Staunchly independent and down to earth, Julia supports herself by cleaning houses for people she never sees. She is taking refuge in one such empty house when the owner, Sylvester, comes home unexpectedly, remembers her from the train, and promptly falls in love. With wry humor and intelligent, likable characters, Wesley gracefully steers her fantasy to a happy ending. Warmly recommended.
Patricia Ross, Westerville P.L., Ohio
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Viking Adult (April 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670856495
• ISBN-13: 978-0670856497
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,050,328 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best book from my favorite author--SUPERB!, May 15, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: An Imaginative Experience: A Novel (Hardcover)

Wesley has done it again! I have read a number of her works, and this is the best yet. Her writing style is very fluent, yet thoughtful as well. Sometimes her books are so steamy that it is impossible to put them down (and this is no exception). I strongly feel everyone should give any of Wesley's novels a try-- YOU WILL NOT BE DISSAPOINTED. Other works of note from Mary Wesley are "The Camomile Lawn" and "A Sensible Life" to name a couple (there are several others, all superb)

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars so beautiful it makes you want to weep with joy, June 25, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: An Imaginative Experience (Paperback)

Sentimental yet not sappy, this beautiful book is a joy to read. Each word counts, each detail adds meaning to the novel, nothing is wasted. The result is a slim book packed with deeply felt emotion, memorable characters, lively scenes, honest human interaction, not to mention a wonderful dog and an upended sheep. Long live Mary Wesley.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Charming novel of grief and love, June 1, 2004

By 

Lynn Harnett (Marathon, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Imaginative Experience (Hardcover)

Mary Wesley's charming, witty and poignant novel of grief and love opens with a young woman's impulsive act of mercy, as seen by two men whose imaginations are instantly engaged.

Julia Piper pulls the emergency cord to stop a London InterCity train in order to up-end a sheep near the tracks, thereby saving its life. Maurice Benson, a self-described bird-watcher or "twitcher," redolent of alcohol and tobacco, wonders if "there might be a story there."

Sylvester Wykes, a newly divorced publisher, recoils at the suggestion. He had received an impression of vulnerability, even despair, from his brief glimpse of Julia and when the train pulls into the station, contrives to prevent Maurice from pursuing her.

For Sylvester it seems the incident will end there, but for his occasional musings. But Maurice is determined, partly to revenge himself on "toffee-nosed" Sylvester, to follow it up. "He had what he liked to think of as a flair," developed during brief stints with the police and a private detective. "Neither career had remotely satisfied those who employed him and in consequence had given him small job satisfaction."

Wesley's dry and occasionally biting humor serves to underscore Julia's terrible loneliness and isolation. She has, we learn, just lost her child and her ex-husband in a car crash. "Julia's mother raised her voice to a shout. 'It was all her fault, that accident; everyone knows Giles was a terrible driver.' "

The story meanders leisurely among the characters as Julia picks up the pieces of her life and Sylvester forcefully puts his own house in order, hiring a cleaner through the notice board in Patel's grocery. They communicate, sight unseen, through notes, until the reader begins to wonder if they will ever meet. The cleaner, naturally, is Julia, finding solace in the resurrection of Sylvester's garden.

Meanwhile, the twitcher, growing more odious and bloated with every appearance, stalks her, his petty curiosity turning mean and sinister.
Wesley populates Julia's neighborhood with a human comedy of venal sorts, none of them as horrible as Julia's monster of a mother, but all thick skinned to a fault.

Discussing a party in Julia's apartment building one neighbor asks another if Julia is invited.
"Angie said, 'No one with any nous invites a woman whose partner's a drunk.'
" 'But he's dead,' said Janet.
"Angie said, 'They came once in the early days. He was belligerent, bopped someone on the nose, nobody we cared about luckily, but Peter said we mustn't ask them again. They were contrary to the Christmas spirit.' "

But in the way of a tightly contructed novel, which this is, the raucous party brings Sylvester and Julia (and Maurice) together, showing that even awful people have their uses.