The Sweets of Pimlico [Mass Market Paperback]

A. N. Wilson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 1989

The timid and rather lonely Evelyn Tradescant is a recent failure at love who has a passion for natural history. She meets Theo Gormann by accident and is drawn into his net. But Evelyn soon discovers she has a share of power in their relationship, power that she relishes manipulating . . . .

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Evelyn Tradescant, a London mathematics teacher recently jilted by the stuffy Geoffrey, is befriended by Theo Gormann, a mysterious, charming German emigre thrice her age. Through him, Evelyn encounters John "Pimlico" Price, enigmatic bisexual owner of a Scottish candy factory. As both men pursue Evelyn, her romantic life is further complicated by an incestuous romp with her adorable bisexual brother, Jeremy, not so coincidentally a sometime lover of Pimlico's. In quick succession, Gormann reveals that he wishes to bequeath to Evelyn half of his very large fortune; Pimlicowho would otherwise have inherited nearly the entire estateproposes marriage; and Gormann is seriously injured. The novel is replete with wonderfully quirky, stylish writing; bizarre, not completely likable yet compelling characters; lively dialogue; and matter-of-fact, often hilarious, treatments of sex. As Wilson skillfully involves the reader in Evelyn's odd little world, the action grows increasingly weird, and characters intertwine even further. But the work ultimately disappoints with an anticlimactic ending. This is the first U.S. publication of a veteran novelist's first effort (his 11th book, Incline Our Hearts , has recently been published). With his prodigious imagination, Wilson can doand has done, in other books and in parts of this onebetter.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (March 1, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140066977
• ISBN-13: 978-0140066975
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,173,252 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars VIEW FROM OLYMPUS, February 17, 2008

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DAVID BRYSON (Glossop Derbyshire England) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Sweets of Pimlico (Mass Market Paperback)

Whenever I have heard him on the airwaves, A N Wilson has always adopted a rather lofty and superior tone. I was therefore curious to see whether he had anything to be superior about in his own work, and I have to concede that to some extent he has. This is his first novel, set mainly in London but partly in Brighton during the height of the IRA bombings in the late 70's. For anyone unfamiliar with London, Pimlico is an upmarket region on the north bank of the Thames, and the `Fish Square' where much of the action takes place is obviously Dolphin Square, an expensive condominium of which I have some small experience as a visitor.

It would be impossible to reproach The Sweets of Pimlico for predictability. The story centres round a young woman teacher of mathematics, the daughter of a retired diplomat. What changes her life is a chance encounter with an elderly German aristocrat who is, it turns out, known to the rest of her family for a variety of reasons. The story that develops from there on has real originality. How `realistic' the scenarios are was not something that I asked myself to any great extent as I read, because the considerations that arise are not the sole property of the named players. Love receives a very cold-eyed appraisal, in particular where money comes into the matter. You would not expect to find many novels these days that lacked sexual themes nor is this any such novel, but the interesting aspect to me was how uncertain, indeed possibly non-existent, was the sexual dimension to the lives of some of the most important characters. One would also have expected a nonchalant and you-can't-shock-me treatment from Wilson of the varied sexual proclivities of those of his characters who have any ascertained sexual proclivities at all. This expectation is fulfilled, but while the general tone does not resemble, say, Simon Raven, I was still startled by the offhanded casualness of the incest theme, something I had always thought of as one of the great remaining taboos.

There is a good deal of high-quality humour, and the condescending tone that Wilson carries around with him makes this more and not less effective, I seemed to find. Sometimes the snobbery is quite explicit, as in the revelation that the despised vicar had come from Southend. At other times it is more subtle, as in the episode of the misaddressed letters and the way the heroine's genteel parents react to what they have just read. Best of all, perhaps, is the unmistakable parody of a Whitehall farce when the heroine's flat is visited fortuitously and all together by a string of parties who have been carefully trying to avoid one another.

The great leveller is of course death, and here Wilson rises to real dignity and gravity in his tale, without however losing grip on his cynicism. Love or death, they happen to human beings, and human beings do not stop being the way the Creator made them, whatever happens. The whole tale is a fine harlequinade, acted out on a stage of comparative wealth by a cast of the moderately privileged. The ironic and perhaps unworthy question occurred to me - in this context of Lady Tradescant, Baron Dietrich Gormann and a few others, how did the author feel about being born into this cruel world as Andrew Wilson? It seems to me that we should probably think of him as really a Wylson.