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The Trouble-Makers
English domestic mystery
209 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1963
6 people are currently reading
701 people want to read
About the author
Celia Fremlin
78 books88 followersCelia was born in Kingsbury, now part of London, England. She was the daughter of Heaver Fremlin and Margaret Addiscott. Her older brother, John H. Fremlin, later became a nuclear physicist. Celia studied at Somerville College, Oxford University. From 1942 to 2000 she lived in Hampstead, London. In 1942 she married Elia Goller, with whom she had three children; he died in 1968. In 1985, Celia married Leslie Minchin, who died in 1999. Her many crime novels and stories helped modernize the sensation novel tradition by introducing criminal and (rarely) supernatural elements into domestic settings. Her 1958 novel The Hours Before Dawn won the Edgar Award in 1960.
With Jeffrey Barnard, she was co-presenter of a BBC2 documentary “Night and Day” describing diurnal and nocturnal London, broadcast 23 January 1987.
Fremlin was an advocate of assisted suicide and euthanasia. In a newspaper interview she admitted to assisting four people to die.[1] In 1983 civil proceedings were brought against her as one of the five members of the EXIT Executive committee which had published “A Guide to Self Deliverance” , but the court refused to declare the booklet unlawful.
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celia...]
With Jeffrey Barnard, she was co-presenter of a BBC2 documentary “Night and Day” describing diurnal and nocturnal London, broadcast 23 January 1987.
Fremlin was an advocate of assisted suicide and euthanasia. In a newspaper interview she admitted to assisting four people to die.[1] In 1983 civil proceedings were brought against her as one of the five members of the EXIT Executive committee which had published “A Guide to Self Deliverance” , but the court refused to declare the booklet unlawful.
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celia...]
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
September 4, 2022
4.5 stars
Celia Fremlin has been a wonderful discovery and this is probably her best book for me to date. As ever, Fremlin's material is the domestic lives of middle-class suburban women: the burden of 'women's work' that encompasses everything to do with the house, the children, and pandering to the needs of their husbands, even when they also work outside the home (not a career, as such - that's for the men, at least in their eyes). The frustrations of marriages where emotional needs are largely unspoken and where women are unappreciated and treated like recalcitrant children to be moaned at, shouted at or bullied either overtly or through passive aggression. It's hardly surprising, then, that so many of Fremlin's female characters suffer psychic breaks, falling into various levels of delusion and 'madness'.
But women are never innocent in Fremlin and this book especially takes issue with gossip as a female phenomenon of patriarchal complicity and how it can take on a life of its own, putting a different kind of pressure on its perpetrators. From the 'my husband is worse that yours' tittle-tattle to more scary iterations that take on a haunting life of their own, this book culminates in first an embedded treatise on the dangers of gossip - and then a dramatic enactment of where it can lead.
As ever, Fremlin is the queen of unease - no-one brings out the hidden terrors of dress-making scissors, lights blazing in a house at night, and knocks on front doors the way she does. Taut, gripping and subtly scary, this is Fremlin at her best.
For gossip, be it never so unkind, does at least serve to give one's troubles a social framework. It embraces them, takes them to itself, and returns them perhaps a little unrecognisable, but nevertheless cared for, labelled - given some sort of positive status in the drama of the neighbourhood.
Celia Fremlin has been a wonderful discovery and this is probably her best book for me to date. As ever, Fremlin's material is the domestic lives of middle-class suburban women: the burden of 'women's work' that encompasses everything to do with the house, the children, and pandering to the needs of their husbands, even when they also work outside the home (not a career, as such - that's for the men, at least in their eyes). The frustrations of marriages where emotional needs are largely unspoken and where women are unappreciated and treated like recalcitrant children to be moaned at, shouted at or bullied either overtly or through passive aggression. It's hardly surprising, then, that so many of Fremlin's female characters suffer psychic breaks, falling into various levels of delusion and 'madness'.
But women are never innocent in Fremlin and this book especially takes issue with gossip as a female phenomenon of patriarchal complicity and how it can take on a life of its own, putting a different kind of pressure on its perpetrators. From the 'my husband is worse that yours' tittle-tattle to more scary iterations that take on a haunting life of their own, this book culminates in first an embedded treatise on the dangers of gossip - and then a dramatic enactment of where it can lead.
As ever, Fremlin is the queen of unease - no-one brings out the hidden terrors of dress-making scissors, lights blazing in a house at night, and knocks on front doors the way she does. Taut, gripping and subtly scary, this is Fremlin at her best.
January 31, 2018
Celia Fremlin is an unjustly neglected writer, who does suspense novels so well. I was enthralled by The Trouble-Makers, and could hardly put it down. Throughout the novel, and as in many of her other books, Fremlin demonstrates human nature from different perspectives, and explores it accordingly. Taut and expertly crafted, The Trouble-Makers is rather chilling in places, and is a fantastic read which kept me guessing.
October 16, 2018
3.5 stars - another great read by Celia Fremlin - I can't get enough of her writing, her observations are so astute and often so funny!
March 15, 2013
This works as a thriller. I was kept guessing until just a few pages from the end what was really going on, whose version of the truth was the correct one. It’s very similar to A Hank of Hair: An Exquisite Danse Macabre by Charlotte Jay, . However, I wondered for about the second half of the book, and am still wondering, if Auntie Pen didn’t stage manage the whole thing. Mary is obviously not exactly reliable, but she says that Auntie Pen was extremely critical when Mary and Alan decided to adopt Angela, but Auntie Pen likes Angela now and arranges for her to come stay at her house for a while. Now it seems likely that Auntie Pen will probably get to keep Angela forever. It seems just possible that she has been playing Mary and Alan off of each other for years, pretending to be sympathetic to both of them, due to her own hidden motives.
I really didn’t like the character of Stella, who is very similar to Mrs. Hooper in The Hours Before Dawn. They both talk about nothing but psychological theories and how their child-rearing methods are the best ones. This gets old pretty quickly, and I’m glad Fremlin has used this type of character in only two of the five novels of hers I’ve read so far. I can’t imagine tolerating, let alone willing to be friends with, this type of woman in real life.
I really like Fremlin’s style. Her novels deserve to still be widely read and appreciated. These books are not just typical whodunit murder mysteries, but they all rely heavily on psychology and perception, and an ever elusive truth, where the heroine has to not only figure out the crime and the criminal, but whether she can even trust her own senses in the process.
I really didn’t like the character of Stella, who is very similar to Mrs. Hooper in The Hours Before Dawn. They both talk about nothing but psychological theories and how their child-rearing methods are the best ones. This gets old pretty quickly, and I’m glad Fremlin has used this type of character in only two of the five novels of hers I’ve read so far. I can’t imagine tolerating, let alone willing to be friends with, this type of woman in real life.
I really like Fremlin’s style. Her novels deserve to still be widely read and appreciated. These books are not just typical whodunit murder mysteries, but they all rely heavily on psychology and perception, and an ever elusive truth, where the heroine has to not only figure out the crime and the criminal, but whether she can even trust her own senses in the process.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 26, 2018
I enjoyed reading this book I won from goodreads.com!
Katherine & her neighbors like to get together & gossip & they love to gripe about their husbands. However, Mary confesses a secret to Katherine about Mary's husband. Her gossiping friends come to Mary's house at all hours for the latest scoop. Mary begins to see a man in a raincoat along with her daughter & her sister in law Auntie Pen. Katherine tries to be a friend to her but deep down she's curious about the man in the raincoat that has become Mary's biggest fear & obsession. This book has a very clever & suspenseful ending.
Katherine & her neighbors like to get together & gossip & they love to gripe about their husbands. However, Mary confesses a secret to Katherine about Mary's husband. Her gossiping friends come to Mary's house at all hours for the latest scoop. Mary begins to see a man in a raincoat along with her daughter & her sister in law Auntie Pen. Katherine tries to be a friend to her but deep down she's curious about the man in the raincoat that has become Mary's biggest fear & obsession. This book has a very clever & suspenseful ending.
April 25, 2018
Katharine is unhappy with her husband and his harsh ways. However, Katharine knows that Mary has it worse with her husband and she always feels better about her life after hearing about Mary's woes. But soon Katharine starts to think that Mary may be on the brink of a breakdown. I thought this was a good albeit slow drama with a surprise ending. I thank Netgalley for a copy of this book to read and review.
March 22, 2018
Much of this domestic thriller, first published in 1963, is a keenly observed portrait of women whose marriages are floundering in a small English neighborhood. One is almost lulled into forgetting that it is a thriller by the cattiness of the troublemakers of the title and finds oneself sidetracked from the effects of their pettiness and behavior on Mary, the youngest of the foursome, by the personalities and domestic dramas of Katherine's life in particular, along with Stella's need to feel superior, and Agnes' need for others to feel as badly toward their husbands as she does.
Katherine's life serves as the main focus of the narration, with the "action," as it were, happening a bit offstage. It is only through her visits to Mary's home, Mary's confidences in her, and the various interactions that Katherine has with her fellow natural-born gossips and Mary's solid and outspoken sister-in-law that we see the undercurrent that exists nearby. Husbands, while a frequent topic of conversation, are little seen beyond Katherine's own.
This is a short novel tightly plotted for maximum impact. I went in expecting to find a story that would have been considered domestic horror in the 1960's, but would be a bit more light suspense and a piece of slightly amusing mid-century genre fiction for today's reader. And perhaps this expectation was inadvertently doing a service to the novel because, oh, that ending! So abrupt and effective.
While I am undecided as to whether I will read more of this author's writing, I won't rule it out. Kudos to Dover for recognizing the talent that was Celia Fremlin and ensuring that it will come to the attention of modern readers.
This review refers to an e-galley read courtesy of the publisher through NetGalley. All opinion expressed are my own.
Katherine's life serves as the main focus of the narration, with the "action," as it were, happening a bit offstage. It is only through her visits to Mary's home, Mary's confidences in her, and the various interactions that Katherine has with her fellow natural-born gossips and Mary's solid and outspoken sister-in-law that we see the undercurrent that exists nearby. Husbands, while a frequent topic of conversation, are little seen beyond Katherine's own.
This is a short novel tightly plotted for maximum impact. I went in expecting to find a story that would have been considered domestic horror in the 1960's, but would be a bit more light suspense and a piece of slightly amusing mid-century genre fiction for today's reader. And perhaps this expectation was inadvertently doing a service to the novel because, oh, that ending! So abrupt and effective.
While I am undecided as to whether I will read more of this author's writing, I won't rule it out. Kudos to Dover for recognizing the talent that was Celia Fremlin and ensuring that it will come to the attention of modern readers.
This review refers to an e-galley read courtesy of the publisher through NetGalley. All opinion expressed are my own.
December 9, 2018
Brilliant psychological suspense, very much of its time (1963) but with a sharp feminist edge. A sympathetic narrator struggles to be the voice of reason among rising hysteria in her suburban enclave. Mysterious men in raincoats litter the streets, husbands terrorize their wives and bunnies unsettle entire households. Faber & Faber have reissued Fremlin's complete works and I couldn't be more excited.
August 23, 2022
Celia Fremlin is an author I am so delighted that I have found, due to her books becoming republished by Faber Finds. This novel, 'The Trouble-Makers,' was published in 1963 and was her fourth novel. These are difficult to define in modern terms. I suppose they are domestic thrillers, very much centred around the home and lives of women. Yes, they are a period of their time, but the themes are still fairly relevant today.
Katharine is married to Stephen and has three daughters, Clare, Flora and Jane. She spends her time juggling housework, children and a part-time job and, as is common, the little inconveniences of life get magnified. As is also common, she has a tendency to gossip with her neighbours. These range from Stella, whose children are at a progressive boarding school and who is quick to judge others. Mrs Forsyth, who constantly complains about her husband, while Katharine's immediate neighbour, Mary Prescott, who lives with her husband and adopted daughter, Angela, seems extremely unhappy. Her constant rows with husband Alan make Katharine feel better about her own, minor issues. However, when something happens next door, Katharine finds herself dragged into events.
This is a difficult novel to review without giving spoilers. It is about how women gossip, how they judge each other, how they cover up for each other, how they tend to close ranks but can often be their own worst enemies. Fremlin, said to be something of a gossip herself, is pitch perfect in the way she sharply observes women and their interactions, as well as the way rumours can grow and quickly become poisonous. If I had any criticism of Fremlin, it is that her endings can often feel a little weak. However, that aside, I love her characters, her dialogue, her sharp wit. She has become one of my favourite ever authors and I look forward to reading the rest of her work.
Katharine is married to Stephen and has three daughters, Clare, Flora and Jane. She spends her time juggling housework, children and a part-time job and, as is common, the little inconveniences of life get magnified. As is also common, she has a tendency to gossip with her neighbours. These range from Stella, whose children are at a progressive boarding school and who is quick to judge others. Mrs Forsyth, who constantly complains about her husband, while Katharine's immediate neighbour, Mary Prescott, who lives with her husband and adopted daughter, Angela, seems extremely unhappy. Her constant rows with husband Alan make Katharine feel better about her own, minor issues. However, when something happens next door, Katharine finds herself dragged into events.
This is a difficult novel to review without giving spoilers. It is about how women gossip, how they judge each other, how they cover up for each other, how they tend to close ranks but can often be their own worst enemies. Fremlin, said to be something of a gossip herself, is pitch perfect in the way she sharply observes women and their interactions, as well as the way rumours can grow and quickly become poisonous. If I had any criticism of Fremlin, it is that her endings can often feel a little weak. However, that aside, I love her characters, her dialogue, her sharp wit. She has become one of my favourite ever authors and I look forward to reading the rest of her work.
September 22, 2022
This was another entertaining domestic suspense novel. What I liked most in this novel was Fremlin’s portrait of the neighborhood gossip gang – her depictions of the neighborhood housewives who ‘enable’ each other are realistic, incisive, and entertaining, as they usually are. The main housewives involved are Mary, whose fear and inability to deal with her husband’s ways are at the heart of the story and our primary heroine, who provides the point of view, Katherine. Besides the neighborhood gossip gang, in Katherine’s family, Fremlin has again met her usual high standards in creating a fully realistic, warts and all, family of a couple trying to get along while they raise 3 young daughters. Fremlin portrays each daughter’s personality with such detail, care and insightfulness that they just feel real and each of their little interactions feel real.
What wasn’t up to par for me was the mystery at the core of this domestic thriller. It did not ring as true as Fremlin’s characterizations did, (I thought her portrait of Mary’s sister-in-law was an interesting and enjoyable one.) I can’t say I accepted all the psychological aspects involved in the revelation of what was really going on. It also seemed that Fremlin’s insights into the neighborhood denizens, while often nicely sharp and prickly, were less humorous in this book.
As the suspense aspects were not fully satisfying, I would rank this book as more middling Fremlin. I will still rate it as 4 stars though because of her especially sharp portrayals of the gossip gang and Katherine’s family. I can enjoy reading Fremlin just for her incredible portraits and insights into the homelife and interactions of 1960s era suburban families, She creates some great moments in her scenes of 1960s domestic life.
My ratings of Fremlins so far:
4.3 - The Long Shadow
4.3 – The Jealous One
4.3 – The Hours Before Dawn
4.0 – The Trouble Makers
3.7 – Uncle Paul
3.5 – Ghostly Stories
3.5 – Seven Lean Years
What wasn’t up to par for me was the mystery at the core of this domestic thriller. It did not ring as true as Fremlin’s characterizations did, (I thought her portrait of Mary’s sister-in-law was an interesting and enjoyable one.) I can’t say I accepted all the psychological aspects involved in the revelation of what was really going on. It also seemed that Fremlin’s insights into the neighborhood denizens, while often nicely sharp and prickly, were less humorous in this book.
As the suspense aspects were not fully satisfying, I would rank this book as more middling Fremlin. I will still rate it as 4 stars though because of her especially sharp portrayals of the gossip gang and Katherine’s family. I can enjoy reading Fremlin just for her incredible portraits and insights into the homelife and interactions of 1960s era suburban families, She creates some great moments in her scenes of 1960s domestic life.
My ratings of Fremlins so far:
4.3 - The Long Shadow
4.3 – The Jealous One
4.3 – The Hours Before Dawn
4.0 – The Trouble Makers
3.7 – Uncle Paul
3.5 – Ghostly Stories
3.5 – Seven Lean Years
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June 26, 2024There’s no need for anyone younger than a millennial to read this review of Celia Fremlin’s recently-republished The Trouble Makers. It is set in a foreign country (the difference between English and American ways used to be much greater) and an even more foreign era - 60 years ago might as well be 600 for most people born and bred in a world of microwave ovens and SUVs and babies named Brooklyn Apricot or MAGA. In particular, the bedrock customs and attitudes that shaped middle-class life in Fremlin’s books are such as to explain - and justify - modern feminism.
That all said, I loved Fremlin from the moment I discovered her. The Trouble Makers is filled with examples of her greatest skill - sharp observation, sardonically expressed.* Highly Recommended for readers who are not put off by its datedness.
Word to the wise: “guy” was not then (and probably still isn’t) used as we use it. Phrases like “chattering about the guy at Angela’s house last night” can mislead you if you don’t look it up.
* [she] would be a more amiable person if she had either fewer convictions or else less of the courage of them.
* Like all small-scale liars, she felt that there should be some special, super-convincing form of language that could be used when one really was speaking the truth: something that would automatically carry total conviction. It seemed more like a flaw in the language than a flaw in herself that this should not be so.
* ready for cooking on the [fire]. A few for cooking on the [fire], that is to say; the rest were destined to be actually eaten, and must be properly cooked indoors
That all said, I loved Fremlin from the moment I discovered her. The Trouble Makers is filled with examples of her greatest skill - sharp observation, sardonically expressed.* Highly Recommended for readers who are not put off by its datedness.
Word to the wise: “guy” was not then (and probably still isn’t) used as we use it. Phrases like “chattering about the guy at Angela’s house last night” can mislead you if you don’t look it up.
* [she] would be a more amiable person if she had either fewer convictions or else less of the courage of them.
* Like all small-scale liars, she felt that there should be some special, super-convincing form of language that could be used when one really was speaking the truth: something that would automatically carry total conviction. It seemed more like a flaw in the language than a flaw in herself that this should not be so.
* ready for cooking on the [fire]. A few for cooking on the [fire], that is to say; the rest were destined to be actually eaten, and must be properly cooked indoors
August 28, 2022
I did like this book, but not quite as much as I have liked others by this author. Katherine is a mother of three girls, and also has an afternoon job. She is having some trouble with her husband, as she feels he expects too much from a wife and mother. Being that he feels she is too lenient with their daughters, and they are taking too much of his wife's time. Katherine is also something of a gossip, and gossips with the neighbours, mainly about the neighbours husband. This she finds helps her with her own situation at home, making her feel that her marriage is not as bad as the others. Her next-door neighbour is particularly having a bad time with her husband, who is some years her senior. She also has an adopted daughter, who doesn't seem to like this woman much, but prefers the husband's sister.
For quite sometime I thought I knew where this story was heading. Fremlin builds the suspense excellently, and there is no doubt about that, but I felt the ending was somewhat over dramatized, but weak.
For quite sometime I thought I knew where this story was heading. Fremlin builds the suspense excellently, and there is no doubt about that, but I felt the ending was somewhat over dramatized, but weak.
March 12, 2018
Katharine is the mother of 3 who is a full-time housewife along with a part-time job. This makes her overworked with a husband who doesn't understand how come the house (and family) don't run smoothly despite not lending a bit of help. Mary is a stay at home mom to one who has left her husband in the past. They still fight. And Stella who has 2 perfect and stable children because they attend an alternative type school and find education a pleasure and nothing is ever wrong with them or her or her life. Then Mary stabs her husband. To cover for her he says a mystery dark man in a raincoat has broken into their home and done the deed. From there the story meanders. Did Mary stab him or was there really a man in a raincoat? It was a short story but I felt like Ms. Fremlin was less than committed to making it be as sharp and suspenseful as she could make it.
A copy of this book was provided by NetGalley and Dover Publications in exchange for an honest review.
A copy of this book was provided by NetGalley and Dover Publications in exchange for an honest review.
September 28, 2018
Petty and sultry but I will always remember it for that painfully slow crescendo and unbearable climax to an almost endless ending.
I keep failing to remember you should not guess or even trying every time you're reading a Celia Fremlin's novel. Just don't. You will feel better.
Forget the premise. Forget those tiny mini flows scattered here and there in the story, from a subpar psychological and domestic tale - not up to Celia's magnificent talent -to the un-believable and unrealistic gestures of some of the protagonists...keep calm and carry on to some of the most unendurable and distressing last chapters of my reading history.
You can't breathe, you can't stop reading the last chapters, you can't you can't you can't
I keep failing to remember you should not guess or even trying every time you're reading a Celia Fremlin's novel. Just don't. You will feel better.
Forget the premise. Forget those tiny mini flows scattered here and there in the story, from a subpar psychological and domestic tale - not up to Celia's magnificent talent -to the un-believable and unrealistic gestures of some of the protagonists...keep calm and carry on to some of the most unendurable and distressing last chapters of my reading history.
You can't breathe, you can't stop reading the last chapters, you can't you can't you can't
June 18, 2022
3.5 stars, I'd say. Fremlin's ease in bringing to life the claustrophobic self-doubt and underhanded cruelty of the housewife's lot is always startling and fresh. She may have never heard the modern term "frenemy" but her stories are full of them. She surprises me again and again and makes me laugh in that uncomfortable way I love.
This was my least favorite so far though, as I found the ending too hysterical and not very realistic. Still, any time I spend reading Fremlin's work is time well spent.
This was my least favorite so far though, as I found the ending too hysterical and not very realistic. Still, any time I spend reading Fremlin's work is time well spent.
June 18, 2018
Thanks to the Literary Estate of Celia Fremlin for the unabridged republication of the 1963 novel "The Trouble Makers" by Dove Publication, Inc. in 2018. I was unaware of this author and the upside down world of women in 1963 England .
PBS Masterpiece or an Alfred Hitchcock tv episodes would be a good fit for "The Trouble Makers."
I will be reading more of Celia Fremlin books.
PBS Masterpiece or an Alfred Hitchcock tv episodes would be a good fit for "The Trouble Makers."
I will be reading more of Celia Fremlin books.
March 30, 2018
Pulls you further and further into her characters' world until you know it's too late ---revealing perfectly every turn and shadow of the feminine mind --writing that comes alive on the page. Celia Fremlin was a master of domestic suspense. Pure reading pleasure
March 30, 2018
Pulls you further and further into her characters' world until you know it's too late ---revealing perfectly every turn and shadow of the feminine mind --writing that comes alive on the page. Celia Fremlin was a master of domestic suspense. Pure reading pleasure
March 18, 2023
Stressful.
March 22, 2021
In het Nederlands uitgegeven als de man in de regenjas, prisma detective, scherp portret van groep huisvrouwen en buurvrouwen vol psychologische spanning
April 22, 2024
I love the humour and astute observations of human nature that you stumble onto throughout the book.
When the father got upset with the youngest daughter of the family, the mother (the narrator) Katharine watched helplessly as her oldest daughter Clara tries to help with her usual ineptitude:
"and now here was Clara plunging recklessly, ineptly, to the rescue, like a non-swimmer whose courage in plunging into the stormy sea is only equalled by his nuisance-value in having to be rescued himself."
After a conflict between father and daughter over a pet rabbit, Katharine was thinking that
"not Eve, but Cassandra, should be counted the prototype of womankind. ... to know in advance... the exact course of every family row, and yet to be unable to deflect it one millimetre from its preordained course."
In trying to counsel her friend Mary over her relationship with her husband, Katharine advised Mary to honestly express her anger by screaming when she feels like it. Mary was unconvinced, asking Katharine instead to imagine anyone screaming at her husband. Katharine found that she could not.
"A man's character, she reflected with surprise, consists a good deal more of the way people feel and behave towards him than of the way he himself feels and behaves."
Another character accuses Katharine and her friends of being spiteful gossips and troublemakers, the response she makes is surprising yet has such a ring of truth:
"you don't understand...the sort of warmth there is about it. ... I don't mind [my friends gossiping about me]. ... it seems a trifle compared with the all-over warm feeling of knowing that people are interested. ... to have your troubles chewed over, picked to pieces, and put together again --- it gives you a feeling of support."
This is just one example of the author being very real and sincere and clear-eyed about how people think and feel.
In a moment of frustration with her husband over his disapproval of her way of parenting, Katherine bursts out with
"Everybody can only bring children up in the way they *can* bring them up. The books all make it sound as if you have some sort of choice, but you haven't. You have to bring them up according to the sort of person you *are*, and that's all there is to it."
After an uncharacteristic action of hers led to an unexpected joyful experience with her husband and children, Katherine was happy, and rather than doing the usual chores, she picked chrysanthemums and polished an oak table just for its reflection of the flowers. Then, a moment of pure happiness is described beautifully.
"The beautiful, the inessential, must be given priority if it was to exist at all. ... ... She gazed...with wonder, and a sort of trepidation at the...flowers, their muted colours touched into radiance by the still, wintry sunshine. ... ... Katharine was aware of a vast, precarious poignancy in which she seemed to be sharing for the very first time"
When the father got upset with the youngest daughter of the family, the mother (the narrator) Katharine watched helplessly as her oldest daughter Clara tries to help with her usual ineptitude:
"and now here was Clara plunging recklessly, ineptly, to the rescue, like a non-swimmer whose courage in plunging into the stormy sea is only equalled by his nuisance-value in having to be rescued himself."
After a conflict between father and daughter over a pet rabbit, Katharine was thinking that
"not Eve, but Cassandra, should be counted the prototype of womankind. ... to know in advance... the exact course of every family row, and yet to be unable to deflect it one millimetre from its preordained course."
In trying to counsel her friend Mary over her relationship with her husband, Katharine advised Mary to honestly express her anger by screaming when she feels like it. Mary was unconvinced, asking Katharine instead to imagine anyone screaming at her husband. Katharine found that she could not.
"A man's character, she reflected with surprise, consists a good deal more of the way people feel and behave towards him than of the way he himself feels and behaves."
Another character accuses Katharine and her friends of being spiteful gossips and troublemakers, the response she makes is surprising yet has such a ring of truth:
"you don't understand...the sort of warmth there is about it. ... I don't mind [my friends gossiping about me]. ... it seems a trifle compared with the all-over warm feeling of knowing that people are interested. ... to have your troubles chewed over, picked to pieces, and put together again --- it gives you a feeling of support."
This is just one example of the author being very real and sincere and clear-eyed about how people think and feel.
In a moment of frustration with her husband over his disapproval of her way of parenting, Katherine bursts out with
"Everybody can only bring children up in the way they *can* bring them up. The books all make it sound as if you have some sort of choice, but you haven't. You have to bring them up according to the sort of person you *are*, and that's all there is to it."
After an uncharacteristic action of hers led to an unexpected joyful experience with her husband and children, Katherine was happy, and rather than doing the usual chores, she picked chrysanthemums and polished an oak table just for its reflection of the flowers. Then, a moment of pure happiness is described beautifully.
"The beautiful, the inessential, must be given priority if it was to exist at all. ... ... She gazed...with wonder, and a sort of trepidation at the...flowers, their muted colours touched into radiance by the still, wintry sunshine. ... ... Katharine was aware of a vast, precarious poignancy in which she seemed to be sharing for the very first time"
July 26, 2023
Hard to know what to make of this. Not a conventional mystery with a tidy way of telling the story and a tidy solution to the whodunnit.
The author's writing is certainly engaging, even when delving into the minutiae of a housewife's daily life, managing the breakfast chaos, taking laundry to the laundromat, etc -- but especially when delving into the inner talk of a housewife trying to maintain peace at home.
SECOND READING -- I get a lot more out of this. It isn't just the housewife's minutiae that is the core of the book's themes, it's the endless beating-down that women get in the day-to-day interactions with their husbands. Katherine spends a lot of her time trying to 'keep the peace' as she calls it with her carping husband. Finally at the end she decides to draw him into the family circle more, by having him hold the rabbit that he carps about endlessly. And Mary, the neighbor who is the apparently meek and harmless rabbit of a wife, allows herself to be gaslighted into denying and distancing herself from what she knows darn well to be true because she was there when it happened! (I am trying to avoid spoilers here, so apologies if something seems unsaid, because it was!)
The author's writing is certainly engaging, even when delving into the minutiae of a housewife's daily life, managing the breakfast chaos, taking laundry to the laundromat, etc -- but especially when delving into the inner talk of a housewife trying to maintain peace at home.
SECOND READING -- I get a lot more out of this. It isn't just the housewife's minutiae that is the core of the book's themes, it's the endless beating-down that women get in the day-to-day interactions with their husbands. Katherine spends a lot of her time trying to 'keep the peace' as she calls it with her carping husband. Finally at the end she decides to draw him into the family circle more, by having him hold the rabbit that he carps about endlessly. And Mary, the neighbor who is the apparently meek and harmless rabbit of a wife, allows herself to be gaslighted into denying and distancing herself from what she knows darn well to be true because she was there when it happened! (I am trying to avoid spoilers here, so apologies if something seems unsaid, because it was!)
September 8, 2008
The plot was not quite up to Fremlin's usual complexity. But I enjoyed it anyway, for the very funny descriptions of English suburban life and manners in the 1960s. Also with humor, Fremlin paints a daunting picture of the arduous life of an English housewife at a period when domestic help had largely disappeared, and yet few laborsaving devices had appeared on the scene.
June 5, 2018
I gave it a try, almost gave up on it and just continued to carry on. It didn't seem to make sense and didn't seem like any kind of story line. It bounced all over the place.
I'm sorry Net Gallery I did give it a try, thank you for allowing me to review. maybe it will appeal to someone else.
Cherie'
#netgallery #celiafremlin #thetroublemakers
I'm sorry Net Gallery I did give it a try, thank you for allowing me to review. maybe it will appeal to someone else.
Cherie'
#netgallery #celiafremlin #thetroublemakers
March 4, 2018
A classic mystery a chilling unputdownable thriller.A neighborhood a group of married couples wives who get together gossip complain about theirhusbabds.Mary who seems the most troubled who insists she stabbed her husband one night,then changes her story tells people it was a strange an who entered her house.Katherine-who Mary confides in till the last scene a scene an unforgettable page turner.
March 16, 2018
This book is a little twisty, but I would have liked a more in depth look at the characters. I felt that it jumped all over the place and could have been a little more suspenseful. It was a good quick read, but I did feel like I wanted to know more. So from the get go you immediately realize that Mary has a controlling temperamental husband. I immediately disliked him, a confrontation occurs and he is stabbed. Did Mary do it? or a mysterious Stranger? You have to read to find out. It reminds me of people watching, which I do all the time at the mall. Not a bad book, but one I wish I had more background on the characters.
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