When Barbs, a loud radical feminist goes missing, her neighbours are in a quandary and when a body is found in the river, all sorts of speculations run riot. In this comedy of errors, the author's theme is human immutability.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Speculation among the comfortably neurotic residents of a suburban London community over the disappearance of a neighbor creates a seamlessly chatty narrative in British writer Ellis's 10th novel (her The 27th Kingdom was shortlisted for the Booker Prize). First published in the U.K. in 1992, the bookAtitled after a phrase in William Blake's poem "Jerusalem"Arecords in pitch-perfect dialogue the fretting of middle-aged Scarlet, a tense housewife with low self-esteem who lives with her smug advertising executive husband, Brian, and Camille, her truant teenaged daughter from an earlier marriage. Unchallenged by the indifferent public school she attends, Camille is conflicted about relinquishing her childhood and embracing an adult world she views as phony and mendacious. Next door lives Scarlet's best friend, single working woman Constance, who espouses the liberal view of global do-gooding yet can't bring herself to care about their missing neighbor, an American named Barbs, who might just be the unidentified body recently pulled from the local canal. The friends dance around some serious questions: Was "women's libber" Barbs sleeping with Constance's Turkish boyfriend, Memet? Did she get what she deserved? Meanwhile, they reveal deep-seated fears about themselves, their relationships with men and their own mortality. In turn, they reflect a larger society's anxieties about class, the intrusion of foreigners and the clash of traditional values with new market forces. One is grateful throughout this quick-going, entertaining comedy of manners for Ellis's urbane humor and her ability to see quintessential human situations in mundane daily existence. (Apr.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Booklist
In a small middle-class community in London, Scarlet, a bored housewife who thinks she's going mad, sets off suspicions about a neighbor who hasn't been seen for a while. Has American-born Barbs disappeared under suspicious circumstances? Brian, Scarlet's self-absorbed advertising-executive husband, is dismissive, as usual. But her idle neighbor, Constance, a woman with a gypsy heritage and criminal relatives, helps feed the suspicions. Camille, Scarlet's petulant teenage daughter, and her friends join in with the adults in bored speculation about Barbs' whereabouts. The speculation distracts them from ordinary life: marital discord, sexual infidelity, teenage rebellion, conflicts between mother and daughter. But none of them takes any official action, even when a blood-stained body is removed from the canal. Their casual fanning of the mystery, including theories about who might have harmed Barbs and why, provides an opportunity to dissect the personality of the missing woman, her social consciousness, and her relationship with others. In so doing, they reflect, momentarily, on their own personality flaws. Vanessa Bush
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Love those Brits,
This review is from: Pillars of Gold (Hardcover)
Middle class and lower class in today's England. Scarlet, middle-aged housewife, is slowly cracking up because every day seems alike and she sees no purpose in it. Her teenage daughter Camille decides to grow up but does not like it one bit. Husband and step father is a shadow in the background, because men do not really count. Scarlet's neighbor and very best friend is Constance, who has a Turkish boyfriend and who sells things that fall off trucks with the aid of her Gypsy family. Constance is the amateur psychiatrist, who explains the facts of life to Scarlet - either with straight forward, no nonsense talk, or else with the help of strong spirits.This is a wonderful book, taking a surgical knife to England's middle class. And it is written in a tight, concise language that is so often missing nowadays. The Brits still know how to handle the language.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Coming of Age For All Women,
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This review is from: Pillars of Gold (Hardcover)
Alice Thomas Ellis has written a coming of age book for all women of all ages. Taking place in a working class neighborhood in England, this book is humorous, hilarious and frank at times. However, at other times I was bemused by the characters. But, at no time was I bored!Alice Thomas Ellis won a Writers Guild Award and was on the shortlist for the Booker Prize, which she richly deserves. This is the first book by Ellis that I have read, but I intend to read every one she has written! Scarlett is a middle aged woman looking for herself and not fully understanding where she has been. She is married to Brian, an up and coming salesman. She has a daughter, Camille, who is going through the terrible pangs of adolescence. Camille will find her way; she is intelligent and observant- too observant. Constance lives next door, and is Scarlett's best friend. Connie is s free spirit, a modern day hippie/gypsy. She is concerned with good works and becoming the best she can be. In this neighborhood lives an American, Barb. Except, where is she? She has gone missing- her home is empty, and no one has seen her. A middle aged woman has been dragged out of the canal by the police, could this be Barb? The neighborhood is rife with mystery. The teenagers are guessing that Barb has been murdered. The adults all talk about Barb but no one wants to go to the police- too many questions too be asked, and no one wants to know the answers. Daily discussions begin and many questions asked, some lives are changed, whose? This is a book about change and coming to face the reality of life. Do the neighbors all understand the ramifications? This is also about truth and consequences, lies and falsehoods, and finally about love; family love, sexual love and love of self. A book to be reckoned with. As good a book as you will read at anytime. prisrob
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"Barbs went around asking to be murdered.",
By
This review is from: Pillars of Gold (Paperback)
Writing the wittiest dialogue I've read in a long time, Alice Thomas Ellis pokes gentle fun at contemporary working-class society, populating her novel with adults who are pot-smoking ex-hippies, kids who cut school in order to drink and play at being more grownup than their parents, and various friends, including a gypsy who peddles hot merchandise, her unfaithful Turkish lover, and Barbs, a self-conscious and obnoxious do-gooder--who also turns out to be a missing person. Taking pot-shots at the advertising business, the press, psychiatrists, school systems, nuts-and-granola nutritionists, marriage, parent/child conflicts, and the tendency of people to avoid getting involved--Ellis crafts a hilarious tale based on the discovery in a nearby canal of a body which matches the description of the missing neighbor Barbs. No one knows who the victim is, and the police, in fact, do not know that Barbs is missing. Her neighbors have not reported her absence for fear of being wrong--"we do not want to make idiots of ourselves." As days pass and Barbs remains missing, each of the neighbors comes up with reasons for believing that her absence is temporary and that she will return. It is not until the teenage children of the main characters decide to have a dinner party in Barbs's empty house, discovering many clues in the process, that the matter of her absence gains critical importance. Revealing most of her information about character through their actions and unusually clever dialogue, Ellis presents a series of intimate dramatic scenes, usually between two characters whose conversations and reactions to each other's comments show the author's psychological astuteness--parents and children miscommunicate, married couples avoid issues, friends tell each other what they want to hear. Not a word is wasted in this very witty, very wry, and beautifully wrought tale, one of the funniest pieces of ironic writing in recent memory. Mary Whipple
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