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Spiderweb
Spiderweb [Paperback] Lively, Penelope
Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
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About the author
Penelope Lively
129 books942 followersPenelope Lively is the author of many prize-winning novels and short-story collections for both adults and children. She has twice been shortlisted for the Booker Prize: once in 1977 for her first novel, The Road to Lichfield, and again in 1984 for According to Mark. She later won the 1987 Booker Prize for her highly acclaimed novel Moon Tiger.
Her other books include Going Back; Judgement Day; Next to Nature, Art; Perfect Happiness; Passing On; City of the Mind; Cleopatra’s Sister; Heat Wave; Beyond the Blue Mountains, a collection of short stories; Oleander, Jacaranda, a memoir of her childhood days in Egypt; Spiderweb; her autobiographical work, A House Unlocked; The Photograph; Making It Up; Consequences; Family Album, which was shortlisted for the 2009 Costa Novel Award, and How It All Began.
She is a popular writer for children and has won both the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Award. She was appointed CBE in the 2001 New Year’s Honours List, and DBE in 2012.
Penelope Lively lives in London. She was married to Jack Lively, who died in 1998.
Her other books include Going Back; Judgement Day; Next to Nature, Art; Perfect Happiness; Passing On; City of the Mind; Cleopatra’s Sister; Heat Wave; Beyond the Blue Mountains, a collection of short stories; Oleander, Jacaranda, a memoir of her childhood days in Egypt; Spiderweb; her autobiographical work, A House Unlocked; The Photograph; Making It Up; Consequences; Family Album, which was shortlisted for the 2009 Costa Novel Award, and How It All Began.
She is a popular writer for children and has won both the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Award. She was appointed CBE in the 2001 New Year’s Honours List, and DBE in 2012.
Penelope Lively lives in London. She was married to Jack Lively, who died in 1998.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 140 reviews
August 12, 2024
“But age and the ageing are a matter of absolute confusion, Stella reflected. An anarchic situation, a Lewis Carroll state in which like Alice, you do not know where or who you are at all.”
Stella Brentwood is a recently-retired anthropologist who, somewhat on impulse, takes a cottage in a small Somerset village near the widower of her long-time best friend Nadine. Nadine always knew she wanted to marry and have children, whereas Stella resisted and has remained single, enjoying her career traveling to remote areas of the globe, exploring different cultures and mapping the family and social connections of other people.
As you’d expect from someone in the midst of a major life change, Stella is reflecting, considering the decisions that shaped her past and the impulses that drive her future. She gets a dog and makes some attempts at getting to know the neighbors, the closest of whom is a disturbing family (two menacing teenage boys along with their withdrawn father and raving mother) that give the narrative a story to parallel Stella’s.
I enjoy Lively’s writing style, and this one had the structure of an anthropologist’s observations, an unusual stance which provided the opportunity to explore aging through the roles we take on and those we resist at different stages of our lives.
We do get set in our ways as we get older, but we can change, we can jump the track and take on something entirely new. When to do this, and when to accept the settled personalities that reflect how we see ourselves and have made up who we are is one of the particular challenges of aging. We may get wiser, but making these decisions doesn’t get any easier.
Stella Brentwood is a recently-retired anthropologist who, somewhat on impulse, takes a cottage in a small Somerset village near the widower of her long-time best friend Nadine. Nadine always knew she wanted to marry and have children, whereas Stella resisted and has remained single, enjoying her career traveling to remote areas of the globe, exploring different cultures and mapping the family and social connections of other people.
As you’d expect from someone in the midst of a major life change, Stella is reflecting, considering the decisions that shaped her past and the impulses that drive her future. She gets a dog and makes some attempts at getting to know the neighbors, the closest of whom is a disturbing family (two menacing teenage boys along with their withdrawn father and raving mother) that give the narrative a story to parallel Stella’s.
I enjoy Lively’s writing style, and this one had the structure of an anthropologist’s observations, an unusual stance which provided the opportunity to explore aging through the roles we take on and those we resist at different stages of our lives.
We do get set in our ways as we get older, but we can change, we can jump the track and take on something entirely new. When to do this, and when to accept the settled personalities that reflect how we see ourselves and have made up who we are is one of the particular challenges of aging. We may get wiser, but making these decisions doesn’t get any easier.
July 14, 2024
"And for Stella observation had been her way of life."
"Moving around the world, she was always alert, always curious, but comfortable also in the knowledge that, in the last resort, this was nothing to do with her."
"There it is, she thought, As he said. There it is. I had my chance to belong - to belong to someone, to belong somewhere. And passed it up. For good reason. Knowing myself. Knowing the expectations of a place like that, which I could not have met."
"But you'll not marry me, will you? You'll not settle for anywhere or anyone, will you? You're a risk-taker, but that's the one risk you'll never take."
There are some people who fit in naturally. There are others who fit in as best they can. And there are some who don't fit in and never do. Stella Brentwood, the protagonist of this novel, is one of the latter group. An anthropologist, she's been an observer for her entire life, though she has had friends and two love affairs - one of which ended when her lover left her, and the other when she was the one who ended things. Spiderweb is a portrayal of someone who will allow herself to get close to the world (other people) on her terms, but pulls away when the world seems to be getting too close to her.
My GR friend, Dolors, perfectly captured some of the essence of Penelope Lively's fiction: "Love, loss and independence vs loneliness seem to be common themes in her works ." That's at the heart of this novel.
A couple of parting thoughts: There's a passage which struck me as extremely perceptive, and one which I could identify with. (I won't say how I identified with it.)
"It is perhaps only the nicely adjusted who can afford to dismiss their antecedents. Those passionately interested in their roots are usually either the historically oppressed or the oppressors, both needing to prove a point."
And I love the way in which Ms. Lively ended the novel - almost as mirror of its beginning.
And a thank you to another GR friend, Therese Sanchez, who read Spiderweb and reminded me that I had read it years ago, but had never reviewed it on Goodreads. I felt it deserved another reading and I'm glad that I did that. I'm slowly rereading all of Penelope Lively's books and having a wonderful time doing so.
"Moving around the world, she was always alert, always curious, but comfortable also in the knowledge that, in the last resort, this was nothing to do with her."
"There it is, she thought, As he said. There it is. I had my chance to belong - to belong to someone, to belong somewhere. And passed it up. For good reason. Knowing myself. Knowing the expectations of a place like that, which I could not have met."
"But you'll not marry me, will you? You'll not settle for anywhere or anyone, will you? You're a risk-taker, but that's the one risk you'll never take."
There are some people who fit in naturally. There are others who fit in as best they can. And there are some who don't fit in and never do. Stella Brentwood, the protagonist of this novel, is one of the latter group. An anthropologist, she's been an observer for her entire life, though she has had friends and two love affairs - one of which ended when her lover left her, and the other when she was the one who ended things. Spiderweb is a portrayal of someone who will allow herself to get close to the world (other people) on her terms, but pulls away when the world seems to be getting too close to her.
My GR friend, Dolors, perfectly captured some of the essence of Penelope Lively's fiction: "Love, loss and independence vs loneliness seem to be common themes in her works ." That's at the heart of this novel.
A couple of parting thoughts: There's a passage which struck me as extremely perceptive, and one which I could identify with. (I won't say how I identified with it.)
"It is perhaps only the nicely adjusted who can afford to dismiss their antecedents. Those passionately interested in their roots are usually either the historically oppressed or the oppressors, both needing to prove a point."
And I love the way in which Ms. Lively ended the novel - almost as mirror of its beginning.
And a thank you to another GR friend, Therese Sanchez, who read Spiderweb and reminded me that I had read it years ago, but had never reviewed it on Goodreads. I felt it deserved another reading and I'm glad that I did that. I'm slowly rereading all of Penelope Lively's books and having a wonderful time doing so.
February 7, 2020
This is the first Penelope Lively book I read having bought it at a sale recently. To me the book spoke personally. Being an older woman myself, as one who has retired from a lifelong much-loved job a couple of years ago, I was deeply moved by the fact that, inspite of living in another country, in a different culture, the basic feelings & emotions of women are so similar. The physical changes, the way one is perceived by other age groups, the way we look at those younger to us, our memories of our younger selves, the cherishing of an independent life, refusal to belong to any group inspite of encouragement and expectation, the inherent and continuing curiosity about the world around us.... these are what I am taking away from this book.
December 23, 2020
Stella Brentwood is such a loveable character, she has led an exciting life in exotic locations, living in mud huts and observing human life through her academic anthropological lens. She skipped marriage, mortgage and kids, filling her life with the simple richness of her global roaming.
Finally, in her later years, she makes the decision to settle herself in a Somerset hamlet. However, she soon finds village mentality hard to adjust to after her life abroad. Refusing to conform, she sticks to her moral compass and dances to her own tune so to speak, apologise for nothing seems to be the motto of this erudite little book.
Anyone who has ever wandered far and returned home will sympathise with the adjustments that are needed to be made to accommodate those closer horizons!
Finally, in her later years, she makes the decision to settle herself in a Somerset hamlet. However, she soon finds village mentality hard to adjust to after her life abroad. Refusing to conform, she sticks to her moral compass and dances to her own tune so to speak, apologise for nothing seems to be the motto of this erudite little book.
Anyone who has ever wandered far and returned home will sympathise with the adjustments that are needed to be made to accommodate those closer horizons!
March 12, 2018
Another winner from Penelope Lively. Similar themes and features with other beloved novels from her: Shifting time, memories, ourselves in the current time passing by our remembered self from decades ago.
In one scene, two friends are recalling the same incident. "It is moth-eaten, this fabric of the past. But Stella's moth holes do not coincide with Judith's moth holes, it would seem. Of course not. Unreliable witnesses, all of us. We select the evidence, or something does."
In one scene, two friends are recalling the same incident. "It is moth-eaten, this fabric of the past. But Stella's moth holes do not coincide with Judith's moth holes, it would seem. Of course not. Unreliable witnesses, all of us. We select the evidence, or something does."
November 28, 2019
Rating: 3.5
Stella is a very real character, living a very credible life. I enjoyed watching this story unfold and wondering where it was going.
Stella is a very real character, living a very credible life. I enjoyed watching this story unfold and wondering where it was going.
January 11, 2025
It is moth-eaten, this fabric of the past.
June 10, 2023
A re-read of a favourite author, from 1998. Not perhaps my favourite of her books, but an interesting view of country life from the perspective of a newcomer to a Somerset village. Quite dark in places. She leaves the village, but we do not know what she does next, can only guess she continues her travels.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 5, 2022
Conventionality – that seems to me the key word. Stella Brentwood has lived studiously beyond convention. There has been her career as a social anthropologist, working and travelling alone, studying and observing small isolated societies in the Nile delta, Malta and the Orkneys which seem to live very differently from modern, sophisticated Britain. There has always been her avoidance of romantic relationships. Even when there is a man she has clearly fallen in love with and who loves her passionately she insists to herself that she must turn aside.
And now, in her silver years, she has retirement, some money from investments and pensions, and so much time. She makes her decision to accept convention and retire to a small cottage in a rural English village with roses around the door, a Gertrude Jekyll flower garden in the front and a vegetable patch, herb garden and I'm sure some decking at the back. There is the Women's Institute and local history society to help fill the hours, a friend persuades her to buy a dog, and the widowed husband of her late best friend from university days is awkwardly pursuing her affections.
If this was Barbara Pym I would expect local village types to be satirised – gently but mockingly. If Wodehouse uproariously funny. It is neither. Yes there are characters who are stalwarts of British comic writing. Miss Clapp, the lady who runs the Animal Rescue Centre:
“a huge woman in overalls, herself faintly dog-like – some stolid dependable St Bernard perhaps.”
The audience of the local history society, to which Stella is persuaded to give a lecture:
“The silver-haired man in a blazer...was a retired teacher. That familiar face was the lady who ran the plant nursery in a nearby village. The young couple were potters from the craft centre ten miles away. The two teenagers so valiantly attending were doing A-level history. They would have to put this occasion down to experience, poor dears.”
The Quantock farming lady ready to divulge her great knowledge of pigs.
All very conventional. But harassing Stella from beyond conventionality there are people and memories from her earlier life. Nadine, her great friend from younger days who always wanted marriage and children – conventional and supremely happy to be so. Judith Cromer who lives in increasing unconventional unhappiness with her domineering partner Mary Binns. Judith longs for Stella, not sexually, but for the comfort of convention. And the bitter memory of the one man who could have changed Stella's life: the Orkney farmer – and Viking lookalike – Alan Scarth.
The novel could have slipped either into Barbara Pym territory or a sad memoir of thwarted dreams and a bleak future. What rescues it is the presence of the Hiscox family. In a village of conventionalities they shout out the unconventional. Nastily unconventional, I'll give you that. You wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of Mrs Hiscox, a woman with so many chips on her shoulder she can't stand up straight and will tell you exactly where you are wrong. And her two teenage sons are only waiting until they will be old enough to go to gaol. However, like so many unconventional people they are survivors and eventually Stella has to make her decision whether to accept the oncoming dementia of convention or, like the Hiscoxes, run free again.
And now, in her silver years, she has retirement, some money from investments and pensions, and so much time. She makes her decision to accept convention and retire to a small cottage in a rural English village with roses around the door, a Gertrude Jekyll flower garden in the front and a vegetable patch, herb garden and I'm sure some decking at the back. There is the Women's Institute and local history society to help fill the hours, a friend persuades her to buy a dog, and the widowed husband of her late best friend from university days is awkwardly pursuing her affections.
If this was Barbara Pym I would expect local village types to be satirised – gently but mockingly. If Wodehouse uproariously funny. It is neither. Yes there are characters who are stalwarts of British comic writing. Miss Clapp, the lady who runs the Animal Rescue Centre:
“a huge woman in overalls, herself faintly dog-like – some stolid dependable St Bernard perhaps.”
The audience of the local history society, to which Stella is persuaded to give a lecture:
“The silver-haired man in a blazer...was a retired teacher. That familiar face was the lady who ran the plant nursery in a nearby village. The young couple were potters from the craft centre ten miles away. The two teenagers so valiantly attending were doing A-level history. They would have to put this occasion down to experience, poor dears.”
The Quantock farming lady ready to divulge her great knowledge of pigs.
All very conventional. But harassing Stella from beyond conventionality there are people and memories from her earlier life. Nadine, her great friend from younger days who always wanted marriage and children – conventional and supremely happy to be so. Judith Cromer who lives in increasing unconventional unhappiness with her domineering partner Mary Binns. Judith longs for Stella, not sexually, but for the comfort of convention. And the bitter memory of the one man who could have changed Stella's life: the Orkney farmer – and Viking lookalike – Alan Scarth.
The novel could have slipped either into Barbara Pym territory or a sad memoir of thwarted dreams and a bleak future. What rescues it is the presence of the Hiscox family. In a village of conventionalities they shout out the unconventional. Nastily unconventional, I'll give you that. You wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of Mrs Hiscox, a woman with so many chips on her shoulder she can't stand up straight and will tell you exactly where you are wrong. And her two teenage sons are only waiting until they will be old enough to go to gaol. However, like so many unconventional people they are survivors and eventually Stella has to make her decision whether to accept the oncoming dementia of convention or, like the Hiscoxes, run free again.
April 30, 2020
Spiderweb is the very well done story of Stella, a newly-retired cultural anthropologist. She buys a small cottage in a small village in Somerset, England. Stella shows the reason for studying small communities and kinships all over the world. Possibly because she already knew she "never had much talent for belonging." What's it like for an educated, successful woman who now owns her own cottage after renting and living in others' communities her whole adult life? Can she be part of a community? Will she partner with one of two friends who ask her to live with them? She is very comfortable with solitude, but knows living with someone may be easier in the later years of her life.
"It's not that you set yourself apart from the human race...you walk alone. It's what you prefer."
Will Stella choose to work to belong, to change, and to adapt? Or will she continue in her life of non-belonging?
Spiderweb is a sweet little novel portraying an independent outlier upon her retirement, her self-reflection, and the webs we all weave around who we are or are not.
"It's not that you set yourself apart from the human race...you walk alone. It's what you prefer."
Will Stella choose to work to belong, to change, and to adapt? Or will she continue in her life of non-belonging?
Spiderweb is a sweet little novel portraying an independent outlier upon her retirement, her self-reflection, and the webs we all weave around who we are or are not.
November 16, 2023
Retired anthropologist goes to live in the Quantock hills in West Somerset. An interesting study in part of village life but also of her past experiences in more exotic places. Her personal life and that of her best friend are also examined which are fascinating examples of the time. They seamlessly weave together.
June 19, 2024
It is hard to truly review a book after a couple of books I had not enjoyed. I know Penelope Lively will deliver, especially after a slump. She draws characters who always falter behind their facade and puts them through their paces in many ways.
I had not read Spiderweb before and it provided what I needed. Essentially an intelligent ageing woman who has worked nomadically through her life largely shunning long term attachments. She now settles in a Somerset village and despite her efforts to root, is far from settled. It is an unpacking of the past. She accepts that she is ageing but her inherent spirit of ploughing her own furrow is undiminished.
I love how Lively uses memory and paths taken/not taken as a perennial jumping off point. I always enjoy her work.
I had not read Spiderweb before and it provided what I needed. Essentially an intelligent ageing woman who has worked nomadically through her life largely shunning long term attachments. She now settles in a Somerset village and despite her efforts to root, is far from settled. It is an unpacking of the past. She accepts that she is ageing but her inherent spirit of ploughing her own furrow is undiminished.
I love how Lively uses memory and paths taken/not taken as a perennial jumping off point. I always enjoy her work.
June 26, 2024
(4.5) An aptly named book, this is indeed a clever web of interwoven story lines and time lines. The story is that of a recently retired social anthropologist. The insights into her former role are interesting. Having bought a house and settled in a village for the first time, will she decide to ‘join the human race’ as it is described, or continue as throughout her career, as an observer?
Really well written as you would expect from Miss Lively. I shall certainly read some more of her works.
Really well written as you would expect from Miss Lively. I shall certainly read some more of her works.
November 9, 2025
2.5
This book pootled along pleasantly enough, before a fairly abrupt and seemingly arbitrary ending.
I was really hoping for redemption for those awful teenage boys, but I was disappointed.
I liked the main character, and the flashbacks to her fieldwork, and her friendships with Judith and Nadine.
I enjoyed the style for the most part, but sometimes it was a bit rambling.
I was never particularly excited about picking the book up, but enjoyed reading it well enough.
This book pootled along pleasantly enough, before a fairly abrupt and seemingly arbitrary ending.
I was really hoping for redemption for those awful teenage boys, but I was disappointed.
I liked the main character, and the flashbacks to her fieldwork, and her friendships with Judith and Nadine.
I enjoyed the style for the most part, but sometimes it was a bit rambling.
I was never particularly excited about picking the book up, but enjoyed reading it well enough.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 18, 2024
Beautifully written. I empathised with Stella despite being very much surrounded by family and possessions. I think this is Penelope Lively’s skill. She creates a remarkable character who is independent to the point of bewildering those around her, she has her move on at each point she is offered companionship but she remains sympathetic. The episode with the dog is different and reveals much about her which Stella has kept hidden. It’s fascinating that she has chosen a job which demands that she makes intimate connections. The terrifying Mrs Hiscox crops up too often as contrast with Stella but there is an awful link between them by the end. Very clever.
February 5, 2024
Beautifully written - I would say it was a joy to read but it was rather too realistic a view of village life for me. Certainly not Ambridge and no one would want Karen and her pyromaniac sons living within a hundred miles of them let alone along the lane. And now I’ve remembered the dog.
Definitely one to send you running for a large town…
Definitely one to send you running for a large town…
November 29, 2024
I quite enjoyed this book which is really two connected life stories. One is about a retired anthropologist. I found the information on anthropology so interesting that I have decided to join an Anthropology group! The other centres around the lives of 2 boys whose delinquent behaviour is explained by their bullying and neglectful parents.
November 2, 2018
I love Penelope Lively's stories. I realized, as I began to write this review, that she doesn't typically write about families. Many (Most?) of her books are about women who not involved in marriage or family life. This one is about a woman who knows the work she wants to pursue, is brilliant, and independent. At age 65 when she is "retired" (not really) she decides to settle down in a small town in England. What happens is fascinating...both the protagonist's back story and her present life. The life in her small neighborhood felt less convincing, more forced that I had expected. Still I love Lively's exploration of women's lives in all their variations.
My response to another reviewer of this book: Katrina, I felt the way you did, that this book didn't match Lively's earlier books. But I began to wonder is this the woman she was, or the woman she imagined she could be, or the woman she wanted to imagine she could be? Or is she writing a woman who could create her own life and understand the sacrifices it would mean, and embrace them? I, like many women, and perhaps men, as well, think that a fulfilled life includes a long term partner. For me, it also included children. Perhaps, this book asks us, is that necessary? I think I used to know more about Penelope Lively's background. So I don't want to assume this is her life. I think she may be imagining what this life would be like...the damaged neighbors bothered me at times...but these neighbors happen to many of us. Oh, I could tell you the story of my recent neighbors! And the neighbors before them. I actually loved the book this time, unlike the first time I read it. Odd, how aging helps me understand how many iterations there are to our unraveling.
My response to another reviewer of this book: Katrina, I felt the way you did, that this book didn't match Lively's earlier books. But I began to wonder is this the woman she was, or the woman she imagined she could be, or the woman she wanted to imagine she could be? Or is she writing a woman who could create her own life and understand the sacrifices it would mean, and embrace them? I, like many women, and perhaps men, as well, think that a fulfilled life includes a long term partner. For me, it also included children. Perhaps, this book asks us, is that necessary? I think I used to know more about Penelope Lively's background. So I don't want to assume this is her life. I think she may be imagining what this life would be like...the damaged neighbors bothered me at times...but these neighbors happen to many of us. Oh, I could tell you the story of my recent neighbors! And the neighbors before them. I actually loved the book this time, unlike the first time I read it. Odd, how aging helps me understand how many iterations there are to our unraveling.
July 18, 2016
A sixty five year old retired social anthropologist buys a cottage in the West Country where she begins to put down some roots for the first time in her peripatetic life. Ironically she singularly fails to read the runes and a horrifying act of cruelty arises. In this novel Lively once more contemplates the tricks that time plays on us all and wonders at how herself and her friend Nadine glad girls at Oxford became their older diminshed selves. Lively I think deals very well with this material and it does not become sentimental in her exposition.
September 3, 2012
I need to read more of her work. I almost put the book aside after the first seventy pages. But, just in time, came shooting stars of thought-provoking commentary on relationships and singleness, on work and women and culture. There are riches of vocabulary and English village sociology. Plot, well, not so much.
November 5, 2015
Penelope Lively creates worlds and characters that draw the reader into the most intimate circumstances. The irony with this novel is that it is about community and belonging in a disjointed world but a world where the main protagonist, like the reader, is on the outside looking in. I wish I knew the real ending.
February 18, 2009
Perfect novels, all of them. Just perfect. (This is one of my favorite book covers of all time.)
May 11, 2010
Somtimes I wonder why I read Penelope Lively. I enjoy her writing, but evil is always a presence. I'd rather not face evil in fiction--since there is plenty of evil to face in daily life!
July 4, 2015
Pretty terrible book (very little plot, just ramblings about anthropology which aren't particularly interesting and long descriptions of emotionally abusive parents), also fyi the dog dies.
January 27, 2022
Great story about a strong and intelligent career woman who struggles with retirement and the choices she has made.
November 12, 2024
Stella Brentwood has retired to Somerset after her career as a social anthropologist which took her all around the world - Cardiff’s Tiger Bay interviewing Lascar seamen, the Nile Delta, Malta, Orkney.
She had a lifetime friendship with her fellow Oxford graduate Nadine. They were at University in the fifties when women students were still rare and in a sense exotic. They always had different attitudes to marriage. Nadine was keen on the idea but at the time opined, “‘Marriage is for later. The thing right now is simply – men. Here we are, surrounded by them. Spoiled for choice. The point is to make the most of it - we’re never going to have it so good again.’” To which Stella as narrator adds, “She’s right about that, at least,” though she seems never to have been short of opportunities herself. Though she later reflects, “Extraordinary process, pair bonding. Quite as arbitrary, really, among humans as among animals.” It’s mostly a question of who’s there when the time is ripe. It certainly was for Nadine whose outlook on the subject is entirely practical, saying marriage isn’t about grand passion. Looking back, Stella writes - using the past continuous tense - that, “Divorce is entirely familiar to the children of the fifties, but marriage is still viewed with disconcerting sobriety. It is seen as a permanent arrangement,” adding, “Well, they will find out.”
But Nadine is now dead and her widower Richard has surprisingly got in contact and offers help with first the move to Somerset, recommending a property in Kingston Florey, and then with lawn mowing and such.
Down the road from Stella’s cottage are the premises of T G Hiscox, Agricultural Engineers, where live Mr and Mrs Hiscox and their two sons. Mrs Hiscox is fiercely protective and controlling of her family. The boys in turn feel suffocated by her strictures and take any opportunities for petty acts of vandalism out of her sight.
Over time Stella has realised that “Most people require a support base … the ‘us’ that supplies common cause and provides opportunity for altruism and reciprocal favours and also for prejudice, insularity, racialism, xenophobia and a great deal else.” She has never had that; by choice.
Nadine had described her as detached – which is perhaps a good thing for a novelist to be – and, except perhaps for the local shopkeeper, she is disconnected from the inhabitants of Kingston Florey. An incident involving her dog makes her appreciate she is quite as alienated as the rest of them, on the outside looking in. (Richard reminds her that that was what she was trained for.)
She reflects that emotion recollected in tranquillity is more like it is recollected in clarity, without the helter-skelter feelings which accompanied that emotion in the past and feels that “It is not true that people diminish with age – it is those earlier remembered selves who are in some way pared down, depleted, like those who look out all unaware from old photographs.”
In fact Stella has had a complex of different relationships, some ongoing others not, none of which defines her. Spiderweb is in effect the tale of someone who refuses to be trapped.
She had a lifetime friendship with her fellow Oxford graduate Nadine. They were at University in the fifties when women students were still rare and in a sense exotic. They always had different attitudes to marriage. Nadine was keen on the idea but at the time opined, “‘Marriage is for later. The thing right now is simply – men. Here we are, surrounded by them. Spoiled for choice. The point is to make the most of it - we’re never going to have it so good again.’” To which Stella as narrator adds, “She’s right about that, at least,” though she seems never to have been short of opportunities herself. Though she later reflects, “Extraordinary process, pair bonding. Quite as arbitrary, really, among humans as among animals.” It’s mostly a question of who’s there when the time is ripe. It certainly was for Nadine whose outlook on the subject is entirely practical, saying marriage isn’t about grand passion. Looking back, Stella writes - using the past continuous tense - that, “Divorce is entirely familiar to the children of the fifties, but marriage is still viewed with disconcerting sobriety. It is seen as a permanent arrangement,” adding, “Well, they will find out.”
But Nadine is now dead and her widower Richard has surprisingly got in contact and offers help with first the move to Somerset, recommending a property in Kingston Florey, and then with lawn mowing and such.
Down the road from Stella’s cottage are the premises of T G Hiscox, Agricultural Engineers, where live Mr and Mrs Hiscox and their two sons. Mrs Hiscox is fiercely protective and controlling of her family. The boys in turn feel suffocated by her strictures and take any opportunities for petty acts of vandalism out of her sight.
Over time Stella has realised that “Most people require a support base … the ‘us’ that supplies common cause and provides opportunity for altruism and reciprocal favours and also for prejudice, insularity, racialism, xenophobia and a great deal else.” She has never had that; by choice.
Nadine had described her as detached – which is perhaps a good thing for a novelist to be – and, except perhaps for the local shopkeeper, she is disconnected from the inhabitants of Kingston Florey. An incident involving her dog makes her appreciate she is quite as alienated as the rest of them, on the outside looking in. (Richard reminds her that that was what she was trained for.)
She reflects that emotion recollected in tranquillity is more like it is recollected in clarity, without the helter-skelter feelings which accompanied that emotion in the past and feels that “It is not true that people diminish with age – it is those earlier remembered selves who are in some way pared down, depleted, like those who look out all unaware from old photographs.”
In fact Stella has had a complex of different relationships, some ongoing others not, none of which defines her. Spiderweb is in effect the tale of someone who refuses to be trapped.
July 10, 2021
c 1998 Lively born 1933
In fact the author was 65 when the book was published, same age as the main character of this novel. Lovely lots of rumination this time of life, moving into retirement, loss of what an engaging career meant in her life, loneliness [or not], adjusting to life in an entirely new community [outside a village in W Somerset, where locally born are often at odds with recent [retired] arrivals and tourists].
Looking back on earlier life starting with university days [Oxford] and the main friendship of that time -- this fills at least one third of the book.
Another third is a largely unrelated portrayal of a family ruled by a vindictive violent and probably criminal woman. We sympathize with the two young teenage sons and are aghast at how these children are warped by their family situation. [Is the author showing how young criminals and misfits are formed?] 142: "If she [mother] knew they liked something, then they only got to do it when it suited her....[Destructive acts] gave them a feeling of being in control."
Yet there are glimmers of humor in the book as well, mainly provided by the stereotyped male.
Very enjoyable book and I could easily read it a second time; so much food for thought in it.
Speaking of the friend of long ago: "'What she had was what she always wanted'....'But that doesn't necessarily induce absolute satisfaction, does it?'" 89
On being 'in love' when young[ish]: 'This means that she is self-absorbed, unobservant and not herself at all.' 88 "People are wary of lovers, for good reason. They recognize an abnormal state of mind, and stay away. They see a temporary madness...." 112
Interesting comments on the main character's profession and the role of her gender in her career: social anthropologist who has studied several different small communities, including an Egyptian village. "Anthropologists are suspected of being disguised spies of authority, the world over." 114 "The priest [in Malta] could reconcile her role and her gender because she was not a Catholic and was thus outside his remit. She both did not count and had to be accounted for differently. A lifestyle that would not do at all for a local woman was acceptable because Stella became in his eyes a sort of honorary man, by virtue of her occupation...." 115
Many English idiomatic words [unfamiliar to me] which I hope to ask Jenny to explain.
In fact the author was 65 when the book was published, same age as the main character of this novel. Lovely lots of rumination this time of life, moving into retirement, loss of what an engaging career meant in her life, loneliness [or not], adjusting to life in an entirely new community [outside a village in W Somerset, where locally born are often at odds with recent [retired] arrivals and tourists].
Looking back on earlier life starting with university days [Oxford] and the main friendship of that time -- this fills at least one third of the book.
Another third is a largely unrelated portrayal of a family ruled by a vindictive violent and probably criminal woman. We sympathize with the two young teenage sons and are aghast at how these children are warped by their family situation. [Is the author showing how young criminals and misfits are formed?] 142: "If she [mother] knew they liked something, then they only got to do it when it suited her....[Destructive acts] gave them a feeling of being in control."
Yet there are glimmers of humor in the book as well, mainly provided by the stereotyped male.
Very enjoyable book and I could easily read it a second time; so much food for thought in it.
Speaking of the friend of long ago: "'What she had was what she always wanted'....'But that doesn't necessarily induce absolute satisfaction, does it?'" 89
On being 'in love' when young[ish]: 'This means that she is self-absorbed, unobservant and not herself at all.' 88 "People are wary of lovers, for good reason. They recognize an abnormal state of mind, and stay away. They see a temporary madness...." 112
Interesting comments on the main character's profession and the role of her gender in her career: social anthropologist who has studied several different small communities, including an Egyptian village. "Anthropologists are suspected of being disguised spies of authority, the world over." 114 "The priest [in Malta] could reconcile her role and her gender because she was not a Catholic and was thus outside his remit. She both did not count and had to be accounted for differently. A lifestyle that would not do at all for a local woman was acceptable because Stella became in his eyes a sort of honorary man, by virtue of her occupation...." 115
Many English idiomatic words [unfamiliar to me] which I hope to ask Jenny to explain.
November 10, 2021
There is no book I’ve yet read of Lively’s in which I didn’t enjoy the virtuosity of the language and the deft handling of the topics chosen. However, the pieces of this puzzle didn’t quite fit together for me.
I blame the Hiscox storyline. After reading the unappealing mulch that was Brother of the More Famous Jack, I am not remotely surprised that they were Barbara Trapido’s ‘special triumph’. I wouldn’t expect Trapido to understand or appreciate subtlety, but I am disappointed that Lively took such a broadside approach. Unlike the elements with Stella’s past and current relationships, the 'horrible Hiscoxes' are fundamentally unsuccessful. Stella also suffers from being a diet version of Claudia from Moon Tiger; to pull off her anthropologist background, I think the book would need to be twice as long, and contain zero Hiscoxes.
Lively is a master of restrained description:
“When Stella bent to pat [the dog] he pressed himself to the ground in a convulsion of humility, like an acolyte in the presence of some priestly figure.”
“The lawns were shaven carpets.”
“The big green-gold eyes and long lashes and that satisfied pussy-cat look to her. You expect whiskers and folded velvet paws, claws sheathed.” [I DIE for this.]
She’s also fond of dropping casual pieces of profundity like they’re nothing.
“Most of them spend much of their time in one place, contemplating the same view, locked in communion with those they see every day. For some, this is a stranglehold; others are more fortunate. It all depends on perspective.”
“[…] We’re the sort that would have been burned as witches, in other times and places.’
‘Or consulted as oracles,’ said Judith. ‘You have to pick your moment, if you’re inclined to non-conformity.”
“[…] but the way that the future is implicit within the present, did one but know. The signals are already there but we cannot read them.”
“ ‘She would have hated to live as I have. What she had was what she always wanted.’
‘Oh, undoubtedly,’ said Richard. ‘But that doesn’t necessarily induce absolute satisfaction, does it?’”
“Those passionately interested in their roots are usually either the historically oppressed or the oppressors, both needing to prove a point.”
“Children always seemed to me to have an intense and innate sense of personal possession. As a parent, you spent much energy trying to temper this.”
I blame the Hiscox storyline. After reading the unappealing mulch that was Brother of the More Famous Jack, I am not remotely surprised that they were Barbara Trapido’s ‘special triumph’. I wouldn’t expect Trapido to understand or appreciate subtlety, but I am disappointed that Lively took such a broadside approach. Unlike the elements with Stella’s past and current relationships, the 'horrible Hiscoxes' are fundamentally unsuccessful. Stella also suffers from being a diet version of Claudia from Moon Tiger; to pull off her anthropologist background, I think the book would need to be twice as long, and contain zero Hiscoxes.
Lively is a master of restrained description:
“When Stella bent to pat [the dog] he pressed himself to the ground in a convulsion of humility, like an acolyte in the presence of some priestly figure.”
“The lawns were shaven carpets.”
“The big green-gold eyes and long lashes and that satisfied pussy-cat look to her. You expect whiskers and folded velvet paws, claws sheathed.” [I DIE for this.]
She’s also fond of dropping casual pieces of profundity like they’re nothing.
“Most of them spend much of their time in one place, contemplating the same view, locked in communion with those they see every day. For some, this is a stranglehold; others are more fortunate. It all depends on perspective.”
“[…] We’re the sort that would have been burned as witches, in other times and places.’
‘Or consulted as oracles,’ said Judith. ‘You have to pick your moment, if you’re inclined to non-conformity.”
“[…] but the way that the future is implicit within the present, did one but know. The signals are already there but we cannot read them.”
“ ‘She would have hated to live as I have. What she had was what she always wanted.’
‘Oh, undoubtedly,’ said Richard. ‘But that doesn’t necessarily induce absolute satisfaction, does it?’”
“Those passionately interested in their roots are usually either the historically oppressed or the oppressors, both needing to prove a point.”
“Children always seemed to me to have an intense and innate sense of personal possession. As a parent, you spent much energy trying to temper this.”
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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