Customer Reviews

Lamb in Love: A Novel

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I just finished Lamb in Love and wish that I hadn't! I will miss spending time in the little English village of Hursley getting to know Norris Lamb and Vida and Manford and all the other characters in this charming and poignant novel about hope and courage. Beautifully written with humour and warmth I found myself alternately laughing out loud and welling up with tears. A wonderful and true snapshot of the magic and drama of "ordinary lives" told with compassion and wit. A memorable book - don't miss a trip to Hursley!

The golden promise of Carrie Brown's debut novel, Rose's Garden (1998) is more than fulfilled with Lamb In Love, an affecting tale of two very ordinary people transformed by the power of love.
Choosing Hursley, a small English village as her setting, Ms. Brown again writes with eloquent grace in spare, prismatic prose - an intriguing glint here, a revealing glimmer there as she artfully sketches the emotional terrain of her characters.
Fifty-five year old Norris Lamb is the village postmaster, a position he undertakes with the utmost respect and solemnity, viewing the mails as "a marvelous system of common trust," keeping "his postal scales highly polished," and employing "a new rubber stamp frequently so as to avoid smudges."
He is also a philatelist, the volunteer organist for St. Alphage,, and a self-described "...stick whom his neighbors consider a confirmed bachelor. Terrified of women, perhaps? [....](So careful with his appearance, etc.)"
But then, on the night of the 1969 American moon landing when Norris walked outside to get a closer look at the galaxy, he saw an even more remarkable sight - 41-year-old Vida Stephen dancing nearly naked in a garden. Norris had known her all his life, "But he'd never seen her like that before. He'd never seen anything like that before." And, quite suddenly, "He is Norris Lamb in love. Lamb in love."
Vida lives at Southend House, a derelict mansion, where for twenty years she has served as nanny for Manford Perry, a retarded young man who is also mute. His mother dead and his architect father often gone, Manford is totally dependent upon Vida who is devoted to him. Never having had a holiday or ventured far beyond Hursley, the routine of Vida's life is relieved only by letters from her one living relative, Uncle Laurence, who lives on Corfu, a seemingly unbelievably beautiful locale of which she can only dream.
Old enough now to be considered a spinster, Vida is viewed by fellow villagers with pity.
"But Norris knows - he believes he alone knows - what is there to be rescued and revived. He imagines that he sees what others, lacking the wondrous prism of his passion, cannot."
The question that torments him is how he will win her.
Unable to declare himself in person, Norris enjoins fellow postmasters to help him - he pens love letters which are posted to Vida from foreign lands. He leaves bouquets of flowers on a bench that she frequents. Finally, he ventures beyond Hursley, to Winchester where he buys Vida a gift - a nightdress an intricately patterned robe of Oriental silk.
Norris finds himself emboldened by love. Not allowing "reason to interfere with the anticipation of adventure, even danger, that accompanies the matter of delivering his gift," he sneaks into Southend House and artfully arranges the robed gown on her bed.
At first puzzled then frightened by these unfamiliar attentions, Vida confides to Norris that she feels stalked. He is desolate, "utterly undone." Later thinking, "Oh, you're a bungler, Norris Lamb. Nothing but a bungler. Go on, step aside. Give it up. She won't look twice at you!"
But look twice she does, and in an unexpected way.
With a warmly wise and uplifting denouement, Carrie Brown reminds us of love's transcendency and the unquenchable strength of hope. A writer with luminous gifts, not the least of which is a painterly attention to detail, Ms. Brown has imbued the heartwarming Lamb In Love with whimsy, passion, and noble spirit

I don't know how I missed this lovely book when it was first published! American author Carrie Brown has done a masterful job of portraying life and love in a small English village far removed from the hustle and bustle of London.

Brown has populated her novel, set in 1969, with a cast of endearing, lovely, yet "odd" characters. Norris Lamb, 55, the village postmaster, falls in love with Vida Stephen, the 41-year-old caretaker for Manford Perry, a young man who is both mute and retarded. Vida has cared for Manford for 20 years in the absence of his wealthy American father, who travels most of the time.

How Norris falls suddenly in love with someone he has known all his life is told in loving detail by the author. This is a slow, engaging, delightful book without the silly conflicts or sickeningly sweet narrative of modern romances.

The way in which Vida cares for Manford, and her fears, compassion, and aspirations for him, are portrayed in a totally captivating manner. When Norris becomes a part of their lives, you will be touched by his actions toward both Vida and Manford. Norris' bumbling attempts at love are so endearing. As he said to himself:"I have a gift for being in love, but there are technical difficulties".

I highly recommend this book.

If you love books where you feel you've entered a believable world with vivid characters (and you like a good love story as well) this is a book that shouldn't be missed. Although the characters in this one are what most would consider "ordinary", the kind of people that are almost invisible due to their plain exteriors and apparently dull lives, the reality is astounding, breathtaking. Few writers can capture so realistically the kind of passion and compelling emotions of seemingly plain folk as well as Brown has done. This is the kind of book that changes one's view of the world, so be forewarned and be prepared to be inspired, to laugh, to cry - in short, to experience everything a good book should be!

We Norris Lamb's of the earth appreciate the ordinary heroism told in this simple, but profound story. Even those of us who are handsomer than Norris have many of his foibles, although we acknowledge that his human traits are delightfully unique in their arresting hues and combination. We Norris Lamb's of the world are the very men who weep while reading this sweet tale with the loveliest of prose. We number many more than the Vida's of the world could imagine. And we appreciate and love the Vida's of the world. That is why this book must be read. In this story, from the simple and ordinary blossoms a powerful romance that, with rare exception, heretofore only has been portrayed as occurring between men and women with the build of Jeremy Martin (read the novel to understand). "Lamb in Love" reveals the miracle of selfless love transcending selfish, unromantic infatuation and obsession. I truly loved this book. It will be made into a fine movie, I am sure, perhaps starring Colin Firth as Mr. Lamb (that's just my recommendation). Now, I have said and revealed too much, so I must retreat to my post to sort the mail and admire my stamps. And I will await the movie with all the anticipation of a man waiting behind the horse chestnut tree for Vida to appear.

The characters of Norris, Vida, Manford and the rest of the town seem like real people. My wish is that Brown writes a sequel soon. I would love to find out how Vida's trip to Corfu was, whether Manford ever learns to speakor play the organ, whether the town gains new respect for him and whether Vida and Norris ever marry and adopt Manford from the never-present Mr. Perry

I am progressing backwards through Carrie Brown's three novels, starting in December with "The Hatbox Baby", her third and most recent effort. I have just now completed her second offering, "Lamb In Love".

Brown tells of postmaster Norris Lamb's quiet passion for Vida Stephen, a woman he's known since childhood and for whom, in his late 50s, he has discovered a deep love. Vida, employed for years first as a nanny then as a companion to Manford, the idiot savant son of a wealthy widower who is always traveling on business, has never been married either. But Vida loves Manford as deeply as if he were her own, and her complete devotion to him (at what might appear to be the sacrifice her own possible domestic life) is but one element attracting poor Norris to her.

Norris embarks on what he thinks is a very romantic - but secret - plan to court Vida without revealing his identity. He mails her anonymous love letters through friends in the postal trade, so Vida begins receiving love letters from such exotic places as Cairo and Greece.

She is enchanted and puzzled, just as Norris wishes her to be. She can't figure out who is behind these very romantic, tender missives. She guesses several men in Hursley, the little English village where they live, but eventually rejects them.

Meanwhile, Norris gets quietly closer to Vida and Manford becomes his unwitting accomplice. But as Norris comes to know Vida better, he also comes to know Manford. Manford is no baby anymore and, though he cannot speak, he possesses a quiet intuitive intelligence and he senses the intangibles in life, like real love and kindness on the part of others. It is ultimately through Manford that the two lovers are brought together in the most wonderful and touching of ways. Manford also brings them around to themselves and, in so doing, their lives seem poised on the brink of fulfillment at last.

But Vida has an uncle in Corfu who invites her to come there and live with him. Vida's never been out of Hursley in her entire life - it's the chance of a lifetime, and Norris knows that. Will she go? Has Norris lost his bid for love? And what will happen to Manford?

In the summer of 1969, a time when men magically land on the moon, Norris and Vida discover that what they think they'll never have from life hovers ever so closely if they only believe in it.

Carrie Brown is so wonderful at those small, tender moments in life when time seems to stop or a momentous outcome rests on the most unlikely of people or events. Her keen abilities at characterization clearly define Norris, Vida, Manford and the other minor characters with which they interact. Her sense of place is quite sharp and it was no surprise to discover that Brown had lived in England for a time, as her descriptions of the weather, the gardens of the house in which Vida lives, and the insular qualitys of village life were described with quiet authority.

You, too, will be in love with "Lamb In Love". It will renew your faith in the things that CAN happen.

I loved this book, from beginning to end (and was sad when it was over). A must-read for romantics, and those of us looking for magic in the every day. I can't wait to read "Rose's Garden," Brown's other novel. An author I'll definitely be watching for.

I liked the way the book created a space for you to imagine and immerse yourself with one person's love for another. The relationship between Lamb and Vida felt comforting and real. Vida's mothering of Manford really brought out the positiveness in humanity. The story felt warm and inviting and prompted me to read it in candlelight with a warm steaming cup of cocoa.

Lisa Nary

This is my first encounter with author Carrie Brown, but I doubt it will be my last. I do most of my "reading" on audio cassettes because I have a long commute each day. Not only did I love this poignant love story, and the author's superb way with words, but the reader, David Rintoul, gave one of the best readings I have ever heard. He captured the ache, the passion, the delight, the stuffiness, the ordinariness of Norris. And each of the other characters, with their

wonderfully distinctive accents, came very much alive for me. I felt as though I knew each one of them by mid-book.

I have "re-visited" the village and its folk twice now, and probably will again. I will be very much disappointed if there is not another Norris/Vida/ Manford novel. And if there is one, I do hope Rintoul will be the reader. There can be no better one!