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S'està carregant… The Sugar Mother (1988)de Elizabeth Jolley
   No hi ha cap discussió a Converses sobre aquesta obra.  starbox | May 22, 2021 |   Reading this in a hit over a few days, it seemed better to me than The Well, an exceptional novel. Then I did that thing. Where you discover something about the author. And it turns out that she is writing about herself and her situation and the situation of those around her. It also turns out she is a despicable person - by my not particularly high standards. For example: https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/the-jolley-deception-20120427-1xpol.h... Never EVER read anything about authors. They are so likely to be total shits. bringbackbooks | Jun 16, 2020 | Reading this in a hit over a few days, it seemed better to me than The Well, an exceptional novel. Then I did that thing. Where you discover something about the author. And it turns out that she is writing about herself and her situation and the situation of those around her. It also turns out she is a despicable person - by my not particularly high standards. For example: https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/the-jolley-deception-20120427-1xpol.h... Never EVER read anything about authors. They are so likely to be total shits. bringbackbooks | Jun 16, 2020 |  ) HelenBaker | Dec 4, 2013 | velvetink | Mar 31, 2013 |
Jolley's latest novel (after Palomino) is again set in her native Australia but could take place anywhere. Edwin, a pedantic and in many ways childish 54-year-old professor of literature, has been left a grass widower for a year. His obstetrician wife Cecilia has taken a sabbatical trip to Europe, leaving him to the care of their circle of friends, a group of gently swinging couples. Almost before he knows it, Edwin is taken over by his new next-door neighbors, Leila Bott and her mother, a pandering, inquisitive woman who distinctly resembles Mrs. Malaprop. In fact, they somehow move in on poor Edwin and take over his house. But it is futile to pity him: Edwin is the author of all his troubles. . But it is when Mrs. Bott suggests that Leila act as a ``sugar'' (for ``surrogate'') mother that common sense truly flies out the door. The novel is full of unexpected jokes and surprisesone of which is the unconventional behavior of its well-limned, subtly drawn middle-aged characters. The reader is often uncertain about which events have occurred outside Edwin's mind and which inside it, but this doesn't matter: the sheer fun of Jolley's writing and her lighthearted yet serious lesson that not even the old are predictable make this a pleasure to reador even read out loud. Llistes notables
An aging but handsome university professor, Edwin Page, is married to Cecilia, a much younger woman who is an obstetrician and gynaecologist. (He was attracted to her in the first place by all the mysterious things she knew about the human body.) When the childless Cecilia goes away for a year's study leave, Edwin finds himself more and more in the company of Leila and her mother who live next door. Leila's mother is a very good cook, and Leila, it turns out, is perfectly willing to be a surrogate mother... The Sugar Motherexplores the way the many little impacts of distance, separation and change can gather force and move people in unexpected directions. It is a witty, disturbing story of self-deception and of hopes, perhaps secret hopes. No s'han trobat descripcions de biblioteca. |
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 Google Books — S'està carregant…GèneresClassificació Decimal de Dewey (DDC)823Literature English & Old English literatures English fictionLCC (Clas. Bibl. Congrés EUA)ValoracióMitjana: (3.91)
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Written in the third person, but told entirely from the perspective of old-for-his-age academic Edwin, the other characters remain somewhat unknowable. There's his younger wife- gynecologist Cecilia, who's off on a year-long posting to Canada. We never actually "meet" the wife...she crops up in phone conversations, and in Edwin's musings. Her ready laugh, the "swinging" scene, to which she has introduced the ..we sense unwilling...Edwin... And is there more than just comradeship with her fellow obstetrician, Frau Doktor Vorwickl?
To Edwin's door come locked-out neighbors, the uneducated and rather vulgar Mrs Bott and her plain, hefty yet grateful, undemanding and childlike daughter Leila. Once in, they soon take up residence....mother's cooking and daughter's fleshy charms work their way...gradually...into Edwin's heart. But meanwhile neighbour Daphne (friend to both Edwin and Cecelia) , not to mention the people from the swinging club, are prowling about. And Cecelia phones home, and will be back after a year..
It's both incredibly well-observed and funny, while - even in such surreal scenarios - confronting deeper questions about one's needs and desires. (