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Rating: 
Summary: In the autumn of her life, an elderly magician lets go
Review: Frieda Haxby Palmer has isolated herself in an abandoned hotel on the Western coast of England. Meanwhile, her three adult children, and their spouses, fret about what she's up to and who will get her money. The plot unfolds amidst superbly realistic descriptions of the family life of England's "chattering" class and the Exmoor countryside of Frieda's hermitage. Each time we start to sink into that dream world, however, the author jerks us awake: with a deliberately noisy twitching of her puppets' strings, a recondite allusion, a diatribe against Thatcherite politics, or a subtle evocation of the magical, mystical, mythical West that has captivated the English imagination since King Arthur sailed off from Cornwall. Readers willing to go along with Frieda will find themselves journeying through a fascinating physical and mental countryside. It's not the Forest of Arden, but neither is it Lear's blasted heath. At the end, we find ourselves on Prospero's "golden sands," as a would-be benevolent dictator learns to relinquish control and entrust the future to the young.
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Summary: Now i REALLY want to go visit England
Review: If i worked in the British Tourist Office, this book would be in the "Never Recommend this Book to a Prospective Tourist" list. The characters are despicable. The Witch, Frieda, is the most endearing character of all, and that is sad. Although she did a horrible job raising her children, she acknowledges no responsibility for how screwed up they came up to be. Ha! She plays both sides of the deck, claiming to be "green" and then profiting from industries that destroy the environment. Her son-in-law is a pretty boy politician, her favorite grandson has been brainwashed to believe he is the cat's meow, her own son is a self-important idiot who can't see beyond his own nose... Read it if you want to feel relieved at how your own family is not that bad after all.
Rating:
Summary: Now i REALLY want to go visit England
Review: If i worked in the British Tourist Office, this book would be in the "Never Recommend this Book to a Prospective Tourist" list. The characters are despicable. The Witch, Frieda, is the most endearing character of all, and that is sad. Although she did a horrible job raising her children, she acknowledges no responsibility for how screwed up they came up to be. Ha! She plays both sides of the deck, claiming to be "green" and then profiting from industries that destroy the environment. Her son-in-law is a pretty boy politician, her favorite grandson has been brainwashed to believe he is the cat's meow, her own son is a self-important idiot who can't see beyond his own nose... Read it if you want to feel relieved at how your own family is not that bad after all.
Rating:
Summary: Now i REALLY want to go visit England
Review: If i worked in the British Tourist Office, this book would be in the "Never Recommend this Book to a Prospective Tourist" list. The characters are despicable. The Witch, Frieda, is the most endearing character of all, and that is sad. Although she did a horrible job raising her children, she acknowledges no responsibility for how screwed up they came up to be. Ha! She plays both sides of the deck, claiming to be "green" and then profiting from industries that destroy the environment. Her son-in-law is a pretty boy politician, her favorite grandson has been brainwashed to believe he is the cat's meow, her own son is a self-important idiot who can't see beyond his own nose... Read it if you want to feel relieved at how your own family is not that bad after all.
Rating:
Summary: Author uses old-fashioned style for new look at society
Review: If you read James Wood's review in the New York Times, you would get the wrong impression of this novel. The reviewer, I think, completely misunderstood it. The book is a attempt at a genre novel, notably a gothic romance where the main character hides away in an isolated mansion and behaves in a somewhat crazy fashion, at least in the view of her family. Drabble writes in the fashion of a 19th century omniscient author who intrudes and comments on the action; to return to the fashions of long ago in this case is an experimental approach to the work. What she's trying to do, I think, is jolt us into seeing contemporary England much like the 19th century writers like Dickens offered a social critique of their times. Woods calls Drabble's characters caricatures, but unlike Dickens' portrayals, these characters are not types nor are they exaggerated. They are indeed individuals, but we see them more from the outside than the inside. There are many characters in this short novel; thus they can't be as well rounded as Drabble's usual characters. The main character, the so-called witch, is not insane as Woods says, but merely eccentric. She alone seems to escape from the strictures of modern English society and finds a meaningful kind of freedom. Her grown children do not understand her or appreciate her because they are too caught up in the necessities of contemporary life in England: the materialism, the busyness, the indulgence of children, etc. The generation in the prime of life (her grown children) has forgotten all about endeavors to reach a just society because they are too well off and are distracted. Discussions concerning a just society are just a game to these people who have every material advantage, but something very essential has been lost and only the "witch," Frieda, has any idea what that might be. The novel is a sophisticated critique of contemporary life among the upper middle classes in England. This novel deserves to be read. Mr. Wood finds cliche where there is none in this unique work.
Rating:
Summary: Author uses old-fashioned style for new look at society
Review: If you read James Wood's review in the New York Times, you would get the wrong impression of this novel. The reviewer, I think, completely misunderstood it. The book is a attempt at a genre novel, notably a gothic romance where the main character hides away in an isolated mansion and behaves in a somewhat crazy fashion, at least in the view of her family. Drabble writes in the fashion of a 19th century omniscient author who intrudes and comments on the action; to return to the fashions of long ago in this case is an experimental approach to the work. What she's trying to do, I think, is jolt us into seeing contemporary England much like the 19th century writers like Dickens offered a social critique of their times. Woods calls Drabble's characters caricatures, but unlike Dickens' portrayals, these characters are not types nor are they exaggerated. They are indeed individuals, but we see them more from the outside than the inside. There are many characters in this short novel; thus they can't be as well rounded as Drabble's usual characters. The main character, the so-called witch, is not insane as Woods says, but merely eccentric. She alone seems to escape from the strictures of modern English society and finds a meaningful kind of freedom. Her grown children do not understand her or appreciate her because they are too caught up in the necessities of contemporary life in England: the materialism, the busyness, the indulgence of children, etc. The generation in the prime of life (her grown children) has forgotten all about endeavors to reach a just society because they are too well off and are distracted. Discussions concerning a just society are just a game to these people who have every material advantage, but something very essential has been lost and only the "witch," Frieda, has any idea what that might be. The novel is a sophisticated critique of contemporary life among the upper middle classes in England. This novel deserves to be read. Mr. Wood finds cliche where there is none in this unique work.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't waste your time
Review: Margaret Drabble is guilty of self-indulgent dribble. Her characters are lifeless at best and her story tiresome. The dialogue is unnatural, her descriptions needlessly wordy.
Rating:
Summary: Too Difficult to get Into
Review: This novel is written in third person present tense (like reading stage directions) with a fly on the wall perspective. I made it through three family dinners where the family intermittedly discusses the possiblity that their possibly just overly flamboyant mother may be insane and social philosophy (all the while bemoaning the position that most of the middle classes and superior cannot truly divest themselves of their self importance enough to discuss it objectively).
The third dinner was all that I could take and I quit about a hundred pages in. This won the Los Angeles Times award so it's somebody's bag, but not mine. I found absolutely no resemblance between Drabble's writing style and Dickens', as has been suggested. I can think of no other author to compare it to except possibly Fitzgerald or Conrad (without the descriptiveness).
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