Customer Reviews

Wild Strawberries

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

All of Thirkell's novels are funny, but the Leslie family may be the funniest of all. One of the best things about them is that they think they are funny, too. It would be difficult to imagine anyone reading this book who has any vestiges of a sense of humor who could not feel happier after reading a few pages. Yet they all have some depth. There has been sadness in their lives and they deeply care about each other, but mostly they live so in the moment that life itself doesn't intrude upon them easily. Thirkell didn't get on the best 100 of the century, but she might be entitled to the first 20 or so. Read all her books and see which 10 or 12 you would omit!

Angela Thirkell is a novelist after the fashion of Jane Austen. She use wit, charm, and style to uncover and skewer some of the foibles, follies, and eccentricities of her characters. Unlike some others, she always does so lovingly and with great regard for the human person. This story centers around a few young people and the romantic entanglements they experience throughout a summer in rural Barsetshire. The plot of the story might well have given rise to the movie "Sabrina." There are no wild twists or sudden curves; however, they are not needed because the beauty of the prose and the careful observation of each person allows this novel to open up into an entire world of exploration. Once you have read it, you will want to return to it again and again to enjoy the characters, the settings, and the sumptuous prose. While this is a superb read, it is, remarkably, not the very best of Thirkell. The reader who is just starting has some real treats ahead for them

Of the many charming characters that people Thirkell's Barsetshire, the Leslies are the most delightful. Meet them in this book and then enjoy them again in later Thirkell novels (notably Marling Hall).

Thirkell doesn't provide suspense or surprises, but is perfect light enjoyment for those who appreciate light English wit, sillier than Austen but not as silly as Wodehouse (both of whom are authors I love).

I really don't understand why the publishers had to ruin some of the lines and mess up the chapters so that one gets distracted by what is obviously bad editing (or no editing) and rotten typing. It's like no one proofread anything and it makes it harder to enjoy what ought to be an excellent example of English humour.

This was the second of Thirkell's Barsetshire stories I've read. Normally, I'm a great fan of farce, silliness and all-around hijinks, but this one left me confused often enough to subtract a star. Moreover, unlike "The Brandons" this story was so self-contained among the family that it gave almost no local impressions.

I give the header on this review to warn readers of a very, very politically incorrect incident, standing apart from the tone of the novel and lasting a page or so. Those with heightened sensibilities will toss the book across the room - pronto! Fans of Comedy Central's "Strangers With Candy" will adore it. The author does address the issue of homosexuality among the English Upper Class (don't all gasp at once!) in a rather forthright manner for 1934. However, I didn't for a minute believe that Uncle David was a bachelor because the "right woman" hadn't come along.

This is a wonderful book by a wonderful author with the worst formatting and copy editing I have ever seen in a commercially published volume. It reads as if it was scanned in from an old pre computer version, cursorily spell checked and grammar checked, which made things worse, and then formatted following some arcane principle that made it almost impossible to follow the turns of speech. Thirkell's work is sufficiently robust that to have this version is better than nothing, but it is really somewhat
disrespectful to her heritage.

The typesetting is just dreadful. However, the wonderful gentle Thirkell storylines and characters are as charming as ever. Some lines are just nonsense because of the typesetting, so that is sad.

I love Angela Thirkell's Barsetshire novels and am reading them as I can find them, so was thrilled to see them being reprinted. I agree with other reviewers here that the rather slapdash editing and printing in some of the books is frustrating, but for me nothing can spoil the pleasure of another visit with Thirkell's wonderful characters.

Here we visit Rushwater House and meet the Leslie family which includes three of my new favorite characters: Lady Emily Leslie, her long-suffering husband Henry, and their daughter Agnes. She, like her mother Lady Emily, is totally enthralled with her children and their well-being, and extends this loving (yet hilariously obtuse and therefore maddening!) attention to all in their charge - house guests, friends, servants - you name it, no detail is too small, no hurt feeling too insignificant to escape discussion and dissection by these two well-meaning matrons. Mr. Leslie tries to avoid the entanglements and complications caused by his beloved wife's good intentions, but that's impossible, of course, and leads to some of the funniest dialogue.

There are other wonderful characters only Thirkell could create: sweet, innocent Mary Preston, visiting for the summer and becoming instantly invaluable to Lady Emily as she runs interference with the servants, smooths feathers and charms everyone with her calm good sense - sense that deserts her as she falls prey to Lady Emily's son David's facile charm and casual selfishness (of course the reader would cheerfully strangle him!) You know, of course, that Mary should be with elder brother John - mature, responsible, and a widower - but will Mary realize it? Will high-spirited grandson Martin's big birthday bash come off without a hitch? Will the snarky, snobbish and dreadfully odious Mr. Holt manage to worm yet another invitation out of Lady Emily? Thirkell may not have been quite the Jane Austen of her day, but for me she always creates a charming, funny, witty English Country-house world that is a pleasure to visit again and again - delightful!

I really liked this book, I would describe it as a fizzy screwball comedy. And I mean that in the best way, just like the great 30's comedys this book bounces along with charm. I have always loved the british comedy of manners books and I really like this and will try other novels in the series.