The Flight of the Maidens

Rating:
Summary: The state of the nation
Review: I was attracted to this book for two reasons: 1) it was set in England in 1946 (an interesting period), and 2) I read "Queen of the Tambourines"--also by Gardam--and quite enjoyed it. When I read a professional review of "The Flight of the Maidens," I had the impression that the novel was about three young women in post-WWII England who go off to university and what happens in their lives.

Actually, the book covers a very brief period of time, summer 1946 to be exact--from the end of the school year until just as the university academic year begins...Gardam really does a splendid job of recreating a period of change and reconstruction. Through her characters, she illustrates the crumbling of the upper classes and the rise of the working class. The three main characters are unique, but they are, nonetheless, products of the period, and their lives all bear scars of the war that they lived through. I look forward to reading Gardam again.

Rating:
Summary: Only one of the three short stories is worth reading
Review: Jane Gardam set out to write a very ambitious book about three girlfriends and their diverging lives in the summer between their last year of high school and their first year of college. The setting is England, post World War II and Gardam's characterization of post-war city life is interesting. Though the novel begins and ends with the three girls hanging out and contemplating their futures, in between they have very little contact with each other. This novel is really just three short stories about Hetty Fallowes, Una Vane and Liseolette Klein and their adventures during one fateful summer.

Which can be a fine premise for a book. It just did not seem to work here. I felt that the author really short changed the stories of Una and Liseolette. Una is the daughter of a doctor who committed suicide and a mother who now runds the local beauty parlor ("Vane Glory"). That summer, she becomes romantically involved with her socialist milk delivery boy during the course of their long bike rides together. Liseolette, a German citizen living with kindly Quakers, discovers that she has living relative, after previously not knowing whether all of her family perished in the concentration camps. Both of these stories are potentially very interesting, but Gardham does not devote enough time to either one. The characters seem flat and unemotional; their revelations seem contrived and premature.

It seems that Gardham's favorite character is Hetty, and as a result, mine was too. Hetty is the daughter of a disillusioned, emotionally dead veteran and an immature, thoughtless and hypocritical mother. Hetty's mother prides herself on her piety, yet is having a blatant affair with the vicar, whom she begs Hetty to confess her own sins to. Yet for all her faults, Hetty's mother loves her, and Hetty loves her mother. Desperate to escape her mother's oppresive concern, Hetty rents a room in the Lakes District under the premise of studying for her college courses. Distance gives Hetty the distance she needs to appreciate her parents for what they are and are not.

Though my parents are wonderful people, and my mother is nothing like Hetty's mother, I could appreciate being 17 and feeling extremely ambivalent about my parents. They could exasperate me and even embarass me, and five minutes later I would be reflecting on something about them that I loved. This horrible but exciting feeling of adolescence is beautifully depicted in Gardham's story of Hetty and her mother.

Overall, the story of Hetty somewhat redeems the rest of this "novel", which is full of superficial characterizations and excessive symbolism.

Rating:
Summary: Hopelessly romantic...
Review: Jane Gardam's "The Flight of the maidens" takes us back to England, post WWII, in 1946.

It is summer, and we meet the three friends, Hetty Fallowes, Una Vane, and Lieselotte Klein. They are about to leave their safe homes in Yorkshire to enroll in Universities in London. We follow these 3 young ladies through summer, we see how they solve the different challenges they encounter, and how they prepare for college. Hetty leaves town, renting a room far out in no-where land to read the whole reading list before University starts up, Una gets romantically involved with Ray, and Lieselotte ends up in California, to stay with distant relatives.

This is, what I would call, a hopelessly romantic book, with no other purpose than to make you feel good..

"The Flight of the maidens" came highly recommended from a friend, and I really wanted to like this book. But honestly, it didn't take me long to realize that this was not my thing. Sorry Paul, no offence - this is not a bad story or awful writing.. this was simply not my cup of tea... (Although I have to admit that I liked Hetty...)

Rating:
Summary: Hopelessly romantic...
Review: Jane Gardam's "The Flight of the maidens" takes us back to England, post WWII, in 1946.

It is summer, and we meet the three friends, Hetty Fallowes, Una Vane, and Lieselotte Klein. They are about to leave their safe homes in Yorkshire to enroll in Universities in London. We follow these 3 young ladies through summer, we see how they solve the different challenges they encounter, and how they prepare for college. Hetty leaves town, renting a room far out in no-where land to read the whole reading list before University starts up, Una gets romantically involved with Ray, and Lieselotte ends up in California, to stay with distant relatives.

This is, what I would call, a hopelessly romantic book, with no other purpose than to make you feel good..

"The Flight of the maidens" came highly recommended from a friend, and I really wanted to like this book. But honestly, it didn't take me long to realize that this was not my thing. Sorry Paul, no offence - this is not a bad story or awful writing.. this was simply not my cup of tea... (Although I have to admit that I liked Hetty...)

Rating:
Summary: The Story of the Maidens, Without Sentimentality
Review: Jane Gardam's The Flight of the Maidens follows three young women during the summer before their entering university in England in 1946. That basic description may have you assuming that this novel would be a sweet, sentimental exploration of these three girls "growing up." I know that's what I thought it would be. It's not. All three young women face challenges that while completely believable, are not predictable or "canned" in any way. Each one of them surprised me in several ways, and it is this element of subtle surprise that I think distinguishes this novel. The characters are charming, without being corny; the story is entertaining, without being predictable. Enjoy.

Rating:
Summary: The Story of the Maidens, Without Sentimentality
Review: Jane Gardam's The Flight of the Maidens follows three young women during the summer before their entering university in England in 1946. That basic description may have you assuming that this novel would be a sweet, sentimental exploration of these three girls "growing up." I know that's what I thought it would be. It's not. All three young women face challenges that while completely believable, are not predictable or "canned" in any way. Each one of them surprised me in several ways, and it is this element of subtle surprise that I think distinguishes this novel. The characters are charming, without being corny; the story is entertaining, without being predictable. Enjoy.