Customer Reviews

Prisoner's Base

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It's inconceivable that I am the first to review this Celia Fremlin book! However, I shouldn't be too shocked, in that I had not heard much about Celia Fremlin until I stumbled across a mention of her on a mystery blog that I like to read.

I am not given to hyperbole, but Celia Fremlin is the modern equivalent of Jane Austen or Ivy Compton-Burnett. Good Lord, can this woman write! Her level of observation is incisive; and on almost every page there is a line to make you smile or laugh out loud at its cleverness. And the best part of this? Fremlin isn't "trying" to be funny - she just is. Her world is the "two inches of ivory" that Austen spoke of, but Fremlin's more middle-class. She's particularly good at exploring the generation gap, especially when it comes to what she sees as the excesses of modern "victim psychology." You would NOT want Celia Fremlin to turn her pen against you, because you'd be so thoroughly disemboweled, in such a literary and classy way, that you wouldn't know what hit you.

As for the plot, I can't say it's all that exciting or original: A traditional Englishwoman who loves her garden finds that her obnoxious daughter, who is prone to taking in strangers who need help, is now plotting to sell a piece of property that doesn't belong to her. I wouldn't say that it's suspense that carries this book along, but rather the reader's (or at least my) desire to spend as much time with Fremlin as possible, watching her observe people's behavior and then wryly screw it to the wall. This was my first Fremlin, and it looks like I'm going to have to look a bit for more, but it will not be my last. What a fabulous find she was!