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Spiderweb
Spiderweb is the twelfth novel by Booker Prize winning author Penelope Lively.Stella Brentwood has led an exotic life for a woman of her time. Her frivolous best friend at Oxford, Nadine, knew early what she marriage and children. Stella, too, has had her share of passion, but her work as an anthropologist - always the outsider, the observer, was her priority.Now she has decided to root herself in Somerset landscape. But she finds that village society in England us far more chaotic, more unpredictable, and even more cruel, than she has known before. And that she cannot - or will not - conform to its rules.'She is a writer of great subtlety and understanding, and this is her best novel since Moon Tiger, which won the Booker Prize in 1987' The Scotsman'Evokes an escalating atmosphere of menace . . . Lively at her deceptively easy-to-read best' Daily Mail Penelope 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 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.
230 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1998
About the author
Penelope Lively
132 books969 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 151 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."
May 6, 2026
Retired social anthropologist Stella Brentwood has been a professional outsider, embedding herself in disparate communities, studying their webs of interrelations, jotting down family trees and social patterns, then moving on. Now, she is attempting to put down roots in a semi-rural community, a landscape of hereditary farmers, weekend vacationers, retirees, and other sundry human flotsam.
Lively explores the course of Stella's life, her steadfast refusal to be tied down, unlike her old friend Nadine, one of many absent presences in the book, plotting her marriage, suburban life, two children and all since their shared college days, and achieving everything.
There is an underlying tension in any modern community. The old, interlocked community life Stella studied is long-gone in this superficially idyllic west country expanse. Stella encounters echoes from her past, some of which point to possibilities for the future. Meanwhile, the teenage brothers down the lane, with their raging mother and shut-down father, run amuck.
A slow-burning study of one of life's solitary walkers. And much more. I loved it. But mourned poor B.
Lively explores the course of Stella's life, her steadfast refusal to be tied down, unlike her old friend Nadine, one of many absent presences in the book, plotting her marriage, suburban life, two children and all since their shared college days, and achieving everything.
There is an underlying tension in any modern community. The old, interlocked community life Stella studied is long-gone in this superficially idyllic west country expanse. Stella encounters echoes from her past, some of which point to possibilities for the future. Meanwhile, the teenage brothers down the lane, with their raging mother and shut-down father, run amuck.
A slow-burning study of one of life's solitary walkers. And much more. I loved it. But mourned poor B.
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.
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 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.
July 7, 2026
This was a very quiet novel. Much like a spider doing its job of spinning its web in silence and with patience. This is my 5th Lively-novel. Stella is a 65-year old retired anthropologist who has spent her life studying the other. She has travelled to Egypt, Malta and Greece to study kinship structures and lineage systems. In her sixties, she finds herself retiring to a small, nondescript English village. A cottage was found by her closest friend's husband who is a member of the history society and is a churchgoer. Her friend is dead so the widower and Stella sit and talk, sometimes remembering Nadine and other times thinking about Stella's so-called barren life. Stella did not go the way Nadine did. She did not marry, or have kids, or set up home. In fact, she was never at home. Not until now; in a strange place with a friend who is an archaeologist occasionally paying her a visit, Richard helping her settle and the presence of an unruly English household who do not care to return her smiles when Stella steps out for a walk. I was desperate to read this novel for years now. I am always on the hunt for books where an anthropologist is involved. Lively has a way to write about ageing academic. From a historian to this, she knows it well how to go about dissecting the heart and life of a woman who's lived a peculiar life and on her terms. I enjoyed the presence of Judith, the friend who keeps visiting her and complaining of her partner's quips and insecurities. Her presence marked a beautiful foil and a contrast to the otherwise heterosexual dynamics that are present in the novel. The lesbian and the straight; two kinship structures Stella could not be a part of it was subtly played with. She writes about the hurt as much as of the glory. She articulates the pain of such a lonely life as much as the peace of the everlasting freedom. She makes human a tale that could otherwise end in a botched up tale of freedom and ambition. She asks questions as she takes us down Stella's life as a young girl at college, her experiences in the field, her missed chances, and then makes us see Stella not for who she is but who she has become as a result of these long journeys of life. Such an intelligent writer, so clever, so discerning and with so much clarity; this is Lively. This is how she lives in my heart. And she will go on to. To more P.Lively.
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.
July 7, 2026
A detached woman spend the rest of her days in a village reminiscing about the times she used to live in faraway places studying human demeanor and the bonds she created with the people in those places. How she couldn’t be trapped in a relation and how she will come and go in her friends life, such a sad story but a refreshing where she got to pick and live in liberty.
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.
March 8, 2026
This book is not like any other. The narrative alternates with memories and reflections, paralleling the world of the mind and real life. Stella tries to enter real life at 65, an age when most people have settled down in a set routine. Can she fit into a community? Will she remain an outsider?
It gives the reader food for thought.
It gives the reader food for thought.
June 3, 2026
Penelope Lively never fails to please me. She makes me want to get up, out of my chair and go forward to... people, neighbours, life.
Stella is a wonderfully independent woman who has retired to the West Country after an active professional life travelling the world.
Stella is a wonderfully independent woman who has retired to the West Country after an active professional life travelling the world.
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.
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