Pillars of Gold

by Alice Thomas Ellis

When Barbs, a loud radical, feminist American of distinctly independent means goes missing, her neighbours are in a quandary. Her absence allows them to luxuriate in the loathing they have always felt for her. But when a body is found in the river all sorts of speculations run riot.

Genres: Fiction

181 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Alice Thomas Ellis was short-listed for the Booker prize for The 27th Kingdom. She is the author of A Welsh Childhood (autobiography), Fairy Tale and several other novels including The Summerhouse Trilogy, made into a movie starring Jeanne Moreau and Joan Plowright.

Reviews

[Moonkiszt · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pillars of Gold. . . altogether a mystery to me. I pegged it as one, and read it as one. Until the end whereupon all is revealed. Argh.

Then it felt more like a Miss Read fizzle. (and I like Miss Read books.) I was rather miffed at the end. To calm myself I tried to figure out why the title of the book is what it is. Have just read William Blake's Selections from 'Jerusalem' to the Jews. . . .and no wisdom has descended upon me.

Enough time devoted here. Reader beware. You are being tricked. But you are probably clever enough to figure that out, unlike this rube.

2 stars. So there!

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny and witty, and a biting commentary on the plight of the modern family. Ellis's books are never without beauty, though, and I found this particularly beautiful: "...suddenly it occurred to Scarlet that really she was already religious, as anyone who had borne a child must surely be: not in the conventional sense but rather as a passenger on a train would expect someone to be at the controls. The responsibility for bearing human beings was too great for a human being to bear: to bring a child into the world was a terrible thing to do unless you could be sure that there was someone at the end to take it out with at least as much love and care as you had brought it in with." Ellis herself gave birth to 7 children, one of whom died 2 days after birth, and another who died in his late teens. She indeed believed that Someone was at the controls, and this belief is always at least implicitly the foundation on which her novels are built.

[O Babs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Almost entirely in the form of conversation. Very little exposition. Therefore reads somewhat like a play, though it is still a novel. Interesting exercise from such a talented novelist.

[Hilary · Rating 1 out of 5]

Disappointing offering from this usually reliable author. Implausible situations and a narrative composed almost entirely of dialogue, this did not hold my interest.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Warning : Alice Thomas Ellis' books are not for the sentimental! Her books are full of tart observations about the little deceptions that make up most of human interactions and relationships.

I think this is one of her best books. It's essentially about 4 women. Scarlet and Constance are neighbors and friends, despite their disparate backgrounds and totally different characters. Scarlet is a suppressed but clear-thinking housewife whose life is made miserable by a pompous second husband and a rebellious teenage daughter. The daughter in question, Camille, spends most of her time playing truant, flirting with bartenders to cadge free drinks, and hanging out with friends. Constance comes from a large family that has often strayed onto the wrong side of the law. Her numerous brothers, for instance, do not hesitate to park stolen goods in Constance's house, and are always happy to go intimidate or beat up anyone who threatens their little sister. A free-spirited woman with gypsy blood, she is nevertheless limited by her love for Memet. It is a typical feature of ATE's writing that Constance is absolutely clear-eyed about Memet's shortcomings, including his probable infidelity and general unreliability. The fourth woman is Barbs, whom the reader never meets. Indeed, the plot of the novel revolves around the fact that Barbs, a brash American do-gooder with an infallible instinct for stoking up trouble, has disappeared from the neighborhood. At the same time, an unidentified female body has been dragged up from the local canal. Is it Barbs? And was she murdered? Scarlet worries about Barbs' disappearance and her own moral duty in going to the police. Constance has no scruples about staying away from the police as much as she can and Camille is mainly interested in using Barbs' empty house to host a party. As these 3 women go about their lives, they make acid-tongued, but very witty observations about their neighbors and family members, each from their own point of view.

The book doesn't have a lot of plot per se - it just describes a couple of days in the life of Scarlet and Constance's lives. So it should be read as a miniature, a slice-of-life, rather than as a mystery novel.

[Jo Ann Hall · Rating 3 out of 5]

The sly humor of The Inn at the Edge of the World is present here, along with Alice Thomas Ellis's usual commentary on the assumptions we make about one another. I've read that Ellis is a modern Jane Austen and that's accurate. The plot is slow and a couple of critical characters' fates are left unresolved, but I still recommend it for the author's zingers of observations about human nature which left me open-mouthed at times.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

A woman's body is pulled from a nearby canal and one of the neighbor ladies is missing, yet everyone is having an unusually hard time reporting the coincidence to the police. Droll and dry from one of my favorite authors.

[Betty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Breezily written and chock full of mordant observations about people. If even one of the characters had been more sympathetic, I would have liked it better. As it is, the lot of them makes you glad you don't know your neighbors. Still, Ellis is a brilliant writer.

[Alison · Rating 3 out of 5]

ok

[Cynthia Dunn · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Terry Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a hoot!