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Four Respectable Ladies Seek Part-time Husband
A charming and witty novel, set in a small country town in 1919.
'When Adelaide Nightingale, Louisa Worthington, Maggie O'Connell and Pearl McLeary threw caution to the winds in the most brazen way imaginable, disgrace was inevitable.'
It's September 1919. The war is over, and everyone who was going to die from the flu has done so. But there's a shortage of husbands and women in strife will flounder without a male to act on their behalf.
And in the southern NSW town of Prospect, four ladies bereft of men have problems that threaten to overwhelm them.
Beautiful Louisa Worthington, whose dashing husband died for King and Country, is being ruined by the debts he left behind.
Young Maggie O'Connell, who lost her mother in childbirth and her father to a redhead, is raising her two wayward brothers and fighting for land she can't prove is hers.
Adelaide Nightingale has a husband, but he's returned from the war in a rage and is refusing to tackle the thieving manager of their famous family store.
Pearl McLeary, Adelaide's new housekeeper, must find her missing fiancé before it's too late and someone dies.
Thank God these desperate ladies have a solution- a part-time husband who will rescue them all. To find him, they'll advertise. To afford him, they'll share . . .
'When Adelaide Nightingale, Louisa Worthington, Maggie O'Connell and Pearl McLeary threw caution to the winds in the most brazen way imaginable, disgrace was inevitable.'
It's September 1919. The war is over, and everyone who was going to die from the flu has done so. But there's a shortage of husbands and women in strife will flounder without a male to act on their behalf.
And in the southern NSW town of Prospect, four ladies bereft of men have problems that threaten to overwhelm them.
Beautiful Louisa Worthington, whose dashing husband died for King and Country, is being ruined by the debts he left behind.
Young Maggie O'Connell, who lost her mother in childbirth and her father to a redhead, is raising her two wayward brothers and fighting for land she can't prove is hers.
Adelaide Nightingale has a husband, but he's returned from the war in a rage and is refusing to tackle the thieving manager of their famous family store.
Pearl McLeary, Adelaide's new housekeeper, must find her missing fiancé before it's too late and someone dies.
Thank God these desperate ladies have a solution- a part-time husband who will rescue them all. To find him, they'll advertise. To afford him, they'll share . . .
384 pages, Paperback
First published January 29, 2018
20 people are currently reading
240 people want to read
About the author
Barbara Toner
14 books7 followersBarbara Toner is an acclaimed author and columnist who has written extensively about the lot of women in all its manifestations and with all its glorious intricacies, both in fiction and non fiction. Her first two books, Double Shift, and The Facts of Rape were written at a time when there was demonstrably little fair play for women in the work force, the law courts or society in general.
With the arrival of her third daughter, Barbara chose to attack the iniquities in a lighter tone via a long-running column in Woman magazine. Tales from Tessa Wood, stories from a fictional marriage, charted the frustrations of a receptionist with a boring working life and an even less interesting marriage. It spawned two Tessa Wood novels, Married Secrets and The Infernal Triangle which led to contracts for Brain Street (tensions and upward mobility in South London) and The Need To Be Famous (a family‘s unseemly quest for the limelight).
Barbara wrote three further novels All You Need to Know (beautiful girl gets her looks into perspective), An Organised Woman (sisters struggle for supremacy) and Cracking America (fate versus circumstance in Nashville) while writing a column on home life for YOU magazine in the Mail on Sunday. That column inspired A Mothers Guide To Life (updated and renamed Because I Love You in 2012) and A Mother’s Guide to Husbands, each of which ignored the universal truth that advice should only be offered if sought.
After a stint as a columnist for the Guardian, Barbara began to divide her time between London and a house on the far south coast of NSW. She has since written What To Do About Everything, a modern household manual, Four Respectable Ladies Seek Part-time Husband, (scandal and empowerment in rural NSW in 1919) and Four Respectable Ladies Seek The Meaning Of Wife. This will be published on April 2nd, 2019
Barbara is married, has three daughters, five grandchildren and continues to live between homes in the UK and Australia.
With the arrival of her third daughter, Barbara chose to attack the iniquities in a lighter tone via a long-running column in Woman magazine. Tales from Tessa Wood, stories from a fictional marriage, charted the frustrations of a receptionist with a boring working life and an even less interesting marriage. It spawned two Tessa Wood novels, Married Secrets and The Infernal Triangle which led to contracts for Brain Street (tensions and upward mobility in South London) and The Need To Be Famous (a family‘s unseemly quest for the limelight).
Barbara wrote three further novels All You Need to Know (beautiful girl gets her looks into perspective), An Organised Woman (sisters struggle for supremacy) and Cracking America (fate versus circumstance in Nashville) while writing a column on home life for YOU magazine in the Mail on Sunday. That column inspired A Mothers Guide To Life (updated and renamed Because I Love You in 2012) and A Mother’s Guide to Husbands, each of which ignored the universal truth that advice should only be offered if sought.
After a stint as a columnist for the Guardian, Barbara began to divide her time between London and a house on the far south coast of NSW. She has since written What To Do About Everything, a modern household manual, Four Respectable Ladies Seek Part-time Husband, (scandal and empowerment in rural NSW in 1919) and Four Respectable Ladies Seek The Meaning Of Wife. This will be published on April 2nd, 2019
Barbara is married, has three daughters, five grandchildren and continues to live between homes in the UK and Australia.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 53 reviews
September 29, 2018
This was quite a fun read, an almost farcical situation created when four respectable ladies, who need a man to help with their problems, advertise for a capable man but end up with an incompetent but likeable larrikin. He doesn't so much end up helping them as opening their eyes to the fact that they are capable of helping themselves, and if they band together, each other.
There is much going on in this book with a caricature mayor and his toffee nosed wife, blackmailing, fake bushrangers, a missing fiance and a crooked shop manager. It's also a little snapshot of history, set just after WWI when small Australian rural towns were struggling to get back on their feet with so many men who never returned and food and building supplies and services not yet returned to normal. I didn't really engage with any of the characters and the first half was a bit slow, but the second half picked up pace. 3.5★
There is much going on in this book with a caricature mayor and his toffee nosed wife, blackmailing, fake bushrangers, a missing fiance and a crooked shop manager. It's also a little snapshot of history, set just after WWI when small Australian rural towns were struggling to get back on their feet with so many men who never returned and food and building supplies and services not yet returned to normal. I didn't really engage with any of the characters and the first half was a bit slow, but the second half picked up pace. 3.5★
January 30, 2018
*https://mrsbbookreviews.wordpress.com
Australian author Barbara Toner has released a new historical fiction title that comes with an ultra catchy title, Four Respectable Ladies Seek Part-time Husband. This book, put simply, is just a wonderful ode to female friendship, gender and the social mores that existed in post World War I. With light and dark areas, the issues presented in Four Respectable Ladies Seek Part-time Husband are told with a delicate balance of both conviction and humour.
Barbara Toner grounds her latest novel in the year 1919, in a tiny rural township called Prospect, in New South Wales. Following the end of World War I and the subsequent onset of the Spanish Flu, many men have not returned home. The lucky few who have returned home find their minds ravaged by the things they have seen and done in the war. Prospect is no different to many other towns in Australia that have been touched by war at this point in history. One of the impacts of the war is the distinct lack of husbands. For many women, such as the characters in this novel, it was quite overwhelming to try to keep up with the demands of the roles which were previously occupied by men. Four women from Prospect recognise this problem and decide to act in a decisive manner. Together, this foursome will advertise for a part-time husband, which they will share between them, in the hope that he can rescue them from their individual woes. It is a ludicrous idea, attracting community scorn, but will it work?
The title of this novel is so eye catching and it immediately attracted me to this novel. However, for me personally, the era presented in this book, post World War I, is what initially encouraged me to select this novel to read. Barbara Toner has done a remarkable job with her setting. She offers the reader a wonderful evocation of 1919, small town Australia. Four Respectable Ladies Seek Part-time Husband is a novel that has so much to say about the female condition, the intricacies of friendship and the moral codes of Australia’s past.
Four Respectable Ladies Seek Part-time Husband offers a solid contribution to the Australian historical fiction genre, providing a superb study of post World War I Australian society. Toner’s prose is refined and accurately reflective of the era in which it is set, 1919. Toner also has a wonderful way with words. I enjoyed her mix of tongue in cheek humour at pertinent times in the novel, which offsets the more serious elements tackled within this book. These issues range from PTSD, to blackmail and sole parenting duties. Toner tackles each and every one of these delicate issues with great care.
The highlight of Four Respectable Ladies Seek Part-time Husband, was the historical representation of the era and locale in which the book is set. Toner paints a vivid picture of life just after the war. She makes us wholly aware of the losses experienced by many towns in Australia, through her focus on Prospect, a small town in rural New South Wales. On top of this excellent recreation of 1919, Toner also takes the time to show us the problematics of this time, especially in regards to gender. Toner explores the tensions that existed and fallout that occurred during a time where women were struggling to be seen and heard, while men were adjusting to normality after the horrors of the war. It certainly was a difficult time indeed, which understandably gives rise to the interesting main scenario presented in Four Respectable Ladies Seek Part-time Husband.
This novel is very much driven by the four characters or ‘respectable ladies’. Adelaide, Louisa, Maggie and Pearl are all fully fleshed out characters. I enjoyed exploring their individual back stories and uncovering their secrets. We witness their ups and downs, which comes complete with plenty of drama, frivolity and a touch of romance along the way. It really was a fascinating and resourceful community, full of moments of comradery. By the book’s close, thanks to Toner’s fine characterisation efforts, I felt I had a firm grasp on each woman’s individual tendencies. I came to admire different aspects of all the main characters that appear in this book. And, I definitely wasn’t keen to say goodbye to this fine group of ladies. Thank goodness Toner has plans for a follow up edition to this grand novel!
It is clear that Toner had fun writing this novel. The enthusiasm she applies to her plot and her characters was evident throughout my time with Four Respectable Ladies Seek Part-time Husband. I am pleased to hear we will get another turn with the ladies from Prospect. I look forward to this welcome sequel with anticipation.
*I wish to thank Penguin Books Australia for providing me with a free copy of this book for review purposes.
Four Respectable Ladies Seek Part-time Husband is book #8 of the Australian Women Writers Challenge
Australian author Barbara Toner has released a new historical fiction title that comes with an ultra catchy title, Four Respectable Ladies Seek Part-time Husband. This book, put simply, is just a wonderful ode to female friendship, gender and the social mores that existed in post World War I. With light and dark areas, the issues presented in Four Respectable Ladies Seek Part-time Husband are told with a delicate balance of both conviction and humour.
Barbara Toner grounds her latest novel in the year 1919, in a tiny rural township called Prospect, in New South Wales. Following the end of World War I and the subsequent onset of the Spanish Flu, many men have not returned home. The lucky few who have returned home find their minds ravaged by the things they have seen and done in the war. Prospect is no different to many other towns in Australia that have been touched by war at this point in history. One of the impacts of the war is the distinct lack of husbands. For many women, such as the characters in this novel, it was quite overwhelming to try to keep up with the demands of the roles which were previously occupied by men. Four women from Prospect recognise this problem and decide to act in a decisive manner. Together, this foursome will advertise for a part-time husband, which they will share between them, in the hope that he can rescue them from their individual woes. It is a ludicrous idea, attracting community scorn, but will it work?
The title of this novel is so eye catching and it immediately attracted me to this novel. However, for me personally, the era presented in this book, post World War I, is what initially encouraged me to select this novel to read. Barbara Toner has done a remarkable job with her setting. She offers the reader a wonderful evocation of 1919, small town Australia. Four Respectable Ladies Seek Part-time Husband is a novel that has so much to say about the female condition, the intricacies of friendship and the moral codes of Australia’s past.
Four Respectable Ladies Seek Part-time Husband offers a solid contribution to the Australian historical fiction genre, providing a superb study of post World War I Australian society. Toner’s prose is refined and accurately reflective of the era in which it is set, 1919. Toner also has a wonderful way with words. I enjoyed her mix of tongue in cheek humour at pertinent times in the novel, which offsets the more serious elements tackled within this book. These issues range from PTSD, to blackmail and sole parenting duties. Toner tackles each and every one of these delicate issues with great care.
The highlight of Four Respectable Ladies Seek Part-time Husband, was the historical representation of the era and locale in which the book is set. Toner paints a vivid picture of life just after the war. She makes us wholly aware of the losses experienced by many towns in Australia, through her focus on Prospect, a small town in rural New South Wales. On top of this excellent recreation of 1919, Toner also takes the time to show us the problematics of this time, especially in regards to gender. Toner explores the tensions that existed and fallout that occurred during a time where women were struggling to be seen and heard, while men were adjusting to normality after the horrors of the war. It certainly was a difficult time indeed, which understandably gives rise to the interesting main scenario presented in Four Respectable Ladies Seek Part-time Husband.
This novel is very much driven by the four characters or ‘respectable ladies’. Adelaide, Louisa, Maggie and Pearl are all fully fleshed out characters. I enjoyed exploring their individual back stories and uncovering their secrets. We witness their ups and downs, which comes complete with plenty of drama, frivolity and a touch of romance along the way. It really was a fascinating and resourceful community, full of moments of comradery. By the book’s close, thanks to Toner’s fine characterisation efforts, I felt I had a firm grasp on each woman’s individual tendencies. I came to admire different aspects of all the main characters that appear in this book. And, I definitely wasn’t keen to say goodbye to this fine group of ladies. Thank goodness Toner has plans for a follow up edition to this grand novel!
It is clear that Toner had fun writing this novel. The enthusiasm she applies to her plot and her characters was evident throughout my time with Four Respectable Ladies Seek Part-time Husband. I am pleased to hear we will get another turn with the ladies from Prospect. I look forward to this welcome sequel with anticipation.
*I wish to thank Penguin Books Australia for providing me with a free copy of this book for review purposes.
Four Respectable Ladies Seek Part-time Husband is book #8 of the Australian Women Writers Challenge
February 23, 2018
“Four respectable ladies in friendly country town seek part-time husband. Must have knowledge of the law, banking, horses and bush skills as well as a grasp of boxing, farming and retail. Salary by agreement. Contact PO Box 293, Sydney.”
Four Respectable Ladies Seek Part-time Husband is the eighth novel by Australian author, Barbara Toner. Part-time HUSBAND? Well, it’s true, the advertisement should not have been worded like that. They were four respectable ladies: a wife, a war widow, a fiancée and an orphan, and only one of them openly admitted to wanting a husband.
But it was September, 1919: the influenza pandemic, on top of a brutal war, had severely depleted the male population of Prospect, NSW, and there were still so many things a lady was not permitted to do. And they were, each of them, in dire straits of various descriptions, so they did need a man. It had been Pearl McCleary’s off-hand remark, but Louisa Worthington and Maggie O’Connell quickly agreed, and even Adelaide Nightingale came around to the idea eventually.
They managed to keep the whole thing under wraps, and had a respectable relationship (cousin) and lodgings all worked out ahead of time. The man they got was undoubtedly handsome, and he seemed willing, but could he actually do what was needed? And whose problem to tackle first?
Toner’s main characters are strong women who have weak moments and make an unwise decision, or two. In facing their challenges, each is mostly focussed on their own problems to the exclusion of those of the other three. And while there are spates of candidness between them, they are, sometimes to their detriment, not inclined to reveal everything, due to a lack of trust or petty grievances or grudges over past wrongs.
Toner portrays this early twentieth century country town wonderfully well. There are a lot of minor characters to keep track of, it’s true, but these are what make the town, and their pretentiousness, their gossiping, their shifting loyalties, all these convey the mood of the times with consummate ease. Toner wraps her delightful tale in some marvellous descriptive prose, and her ending is not Hollywood, but definitely perfect.
The title of this novel immediately intrigues, and Toner certainly delivers on that. Her plot is original, and far from predictable. This a story with plenty of humour, but also some heartache. There are hidden legal documents, horse-thieves, heroes and villains. It all builds towards an exciting climax with guns and a fire and bravery and quick thinking and several arrests. Excellent Australian historical fiction.
Four Respectable Ladies Seek Part-time Husband is the eighth novel by Australian author, Barbara Toner. Part-time HUSBAND? Well, it’s true, the advertisement should not have been worded like that. They were four respectable ladies: a wife, a war widow, a fiancée and an orphan, and only one of them openly admitted to wanting a husband.
But it was September, 1919: the influenza pandemic, on top of a brutal war, had severely depleted the male population of Prospect, NSW, and there were still so many things a lady was not permitted to do. And they were, each of them, in dire straits of various descriptions, so they did need a man. It had been Pearl McCleary’s off-hand remark, but Louisa Worthington and Maggie O’Connell quickly agreed, and even Adelaide Nightingale came around to the idea eventually.
They managed to keep the whole thing under wraps, and had a respectable relationship (cousin) and lodgings all worked out ahead of time. The man they got was undoubtedly handsome, and he seemed willing, but could he actually do what was needed? And whose problem to tackle first?
Toner’s main characters are strong women who have weak moments and make an unwise decision, or two. In facing their challenges, each is mostly focussed on their own problems to the exclusion of those of the other three. And while there are spates of candidness between them, they are, sometimes to their detriment, not inclined to reveal everything, due to a lack of trust or petty grievances or grudges over past wrongs.
Toner portrays this early twentieth century country town wonderfully well. There are a lot of minor characters to keep track of, it’s true, but these are what make the town, and their pretentiousness, their gossiping, their shifting loyalties, all these convey the mood of the times with consummate ease. Toner wraps her delightful tale in some marvellous descriptive prose, and her ending is not Hollywood, but definitely perfect.
The title of this novel immediately intrigues, and Toner certainly delivers on that. Her plot is original, and far from predictable. This a story with plenty of humour, but also some heartache. There are hidden legal documents, horse-thieves, heroes and villains. It all builds towards an exciting climax with guns and a fire and bravery and quick thinking and several arrests. Excellent Australian historical fiction.
January 1, 2018
In a plot worthy of Shakespeare or Wilde, this convoluted melodrama of four women in post-WW1 NSW is both comic and tragic. Thoroughly enjoyed it.
June 14, 2020
WHAT FUN!!! I seldom try books labelled 'funny', as I seldom do! This was not, but I just LOVED the LANGUAGE... eg summat like " The rich ladies were dressed to the nines, and the poor one, to the eights"... Long time since I was so delighted with a lighthearted read.
March 2, 2018
Despite having the vote, women in 1919 were still dependent on a man to handle certain aspects of their lives. If you didn't have one to turn to or the one you had dismissed your concerns, hiring a part-time husband seemed a very plausible solution. Of course, not all plans are foolproof and how this one goes awry is very entertaining. The outcome, with a few surprising revelations along the way, is the perfect end to a thoroughly delightful book.
In Four Respectable Ladies Seek Part-time Husband, four equally interesting characters who would normally not have had much to do with one another, are brought together by a common need. Each has a good reason for wanting a strong male character in her life. However, the man who answers the advertisement doesn’t quite fit the bill and initially they question his ability to help them, although they all welcome his good looks and charm. This, in turn, causes further problems within the group. Petty jealousies and disagreements arise as they vie for his attention. While Martin Duffy, the ‘part-time husband’, does the best he can, he knows he is totally out of his depth and ineffectual. But this is not strictly true for he shows what might be achieved if these four ladies could only learn to trust one another and have faith in themselves.
Not only does Barbara Toner delve into the problems facing women and the post war attitudes towards them, she also explores the relationships between the inhabitants of a small town. Prospect is full of colourful characters; the mayor's wife, Frances Mayberry, is certainly one of them. Determined as the four ladies are to prevent a scandal, they find it's not that easy to keep secrets in a place where your every move is noted, your family history is known and a stranger in town is certain to arouse interest and speculation.
I was instantly captivated by Barbara Toner's writing style. Humourous and serious in equal measures, it brought to life the characters, none of whom were perfect but all of them so believable in the context of this story.
Even though it has been a few weeks since I finished this novel, I'm still on a high and have marked it as one of my favourite reads of 2018. There is talk of a sequel; it can't come around soon enough for me.
Thank you to Penguin Random House Australia for a free copy to read and review.
In Four Respectable Ladies Seek Part-time Husband, four equally interesting characters who would normally not have had much to do with one another, are brought together by a common need. Each has a good reason for wanting a strong male character in her life. However, the man who answers the advertisement doesn’t quite fit the bill and initially they question his ability to help them, although they all welcome his good looks and charm. This, in turn, causes further problems within the group. Petty jealousies and disagreements arise as they vie for his attention. While Martin Duffy, the ‘part-time husband’, does the best he can, he knows he is totally out of his depth and ineffectual. But this is not strictly true for he shows what might be achieved if these four ladies could only learn to trust one another and have faith in themselves.
Not only does Barbara Toner delve into the problems facing women and the post war attitudes towards them, she also explores the relationships between the inhabitants of a small town. Prospect is full of colourful characters; the mayor's wife, Frances Mayberry, is certainly one of them. Determined as the four ladies are to prevent a scandal, they find it's not that easy to keep secrets in a place where your every move is noted, your family history is known and a stranger in town is certain to arouse interest and speculation.
I was instantly captivated by Barbara Toner's writing style. Humourous and serious in equal measures, it brought to life the characters, none of whom were perfect but all of them so believable in the context of this story.
Even though it has been a few weeks since I finished this novel, I'm still on a high and have marked it as one of my favourite reads of 2018. There is talk of a sequel; it can't come around soon enough for me.
Thank you to Penguin Random House Australia for a free copy to read and review.
February 16, 2018
This promised a lot but didn't quite reach the level I was hoping for. Lots of characters to keep track of and a few confusing situations.
February 11, 2018
Four Respectable Ladies Seek Part-time Husband is a book that honestly, didn’t work for me. On paper, it ticks many of the boxes I enjoy in fiction: central female characters, Australian, historical setting and a bit of a laugh. Unfortunately, I couldn’t quite get into this book enough to enjoy it. Looking at other reviews, I’m easily in the minority.
The premise of the book is interesting and unique. It’s set after World War I and Spanish influenza have decimated Australia’s men (and women). For four women in the small country town of Prospect, things are dire in different ways but the one thing they have in common is being restricted by their gender. Nobody is willing to believe them or take them seriously – and when I say nobody, that’s the men of Prospect. Pearl is looking for her fiancé who is missing, but the local priest refuses to tell her anything. Adelaide’s husband has PTSD from the war. She knows that the manager of the family business is stealing from them, but nobody will take her seriously. Louisa is in deep debt from her dead husband’s schemes, but the bank manager won’t help. Maggie is trying to raise her two brothers and fight for their land, but she’s dismissed as silly. Initially, these women aren’t really friends – sure, they know each other as they live in the small town – but they have a lot in common. Add the idea of one part-time husband to share and it brings them together…
I found the story to be a mix of drama with occasional touches of the tragi-comic, which didn’t always work for me. Sometimes I laughed and sometimes I felt guilty for doing so. Occasionally the women came through as a bit silly, perhaps reflecting the way they were seen through the eyes of men – dramatic, over the top but ultimately unimportant. I didn’t really feel comfortable with that. I also found each of the main characters hard to separately, particularly early on the book. Their backstories/reasons for needing help were clear, but on the page I couldn’t separate who was talking or who we were meant to follow. Louisa and Adelaide blended into one quite a lot. While linking the characters by them thinking/doing something similar is quite clever (and I imagine requires a lot of skill to do), I just got lost. Maybe this was because I mainly read at night after work, but I found myself rereading (and rereading) the paragraph before, wondering why Louisa has now morphed into Maggie. The part-time husband Martin also was a bit of a trip – I couldn’t warm to him.
I think I would have done better with this book if I’d been able to read it in large chunks and taken a lighter, more humorous approach to the book.
Thank you to Penguin Australia for the copy of this book.
http://samstillreading.wordpress.com
The premise of the book is interesting and unique. It’s set after World War I and Spanish influenza have decimated Australia’s men (and women). For four women in the small country town of Prospect, things are dire in different ways but the one thing they have in common is being restricted by their gender. Nobody is willing to believe them or take them seriously – and when I say nobody, that’s the men of Prospect. Pearl is looking for her fiancé who is missing, but the local priest refuses to tell her anything. Adelaide’s husband has PTSD from the war. She knows that the manager of the family business is stealing from them, but nobody will take her seriously. Louisa is in deep debt from her dead husband’s schemes, but the bank manager won’t help. Maggie is trying to raise her two brothers and fight for their land, but she’s dismissed as silly. Initially, these women aren’t really friends – sure, they know each other as they live in the small town – but they have a lot in common. Add the idea of one part-time husband to share and it brings them together…
I found the story to be a mix of drama with occasional touches of the tragi-comic, which didn’t always work for me. Sometimes I laughed and sometimes I felt guilty for doing so. Occasionally the women came through as a bit silly, perhaps reflecting the way they were seen through the eyes of men – dramatic, over the top but ultimately unimportant. I didn’t really feel comfortable with that. I also found each of the main characters hard to separately, particularly early on the book. Their backstories/reasons for needing help were clear, but on the page I couldn’t separate who was talking or who we were meant to follow. Louisa and Adelaide blended into one quite a lot. While linking the characters by them thinking/doing something similar is quite clever (and I imagine requires a lot of skill to do), I just got lost. Maybe this was because I mainly read at night after work, but I found myself rereading (and rereading) the paragraph before, wondering why Louisa has now morphed into Maggie. The part-time husband Martin also was a bit of a trip – I couldn’t warm to him.
I think I would have done better with this book if I’d been able to read it in large chunks and taken a lighter, more humorous approach to the book.
Thank you to Penguin Australia for the copy of this book.
http://samstillreading.wordpress.com
April 7, 2018
I could not wait to read this one. It's sounds fabulous, don't you agree?
But, oh, I was so disappointed :(
Instead of being light-hearted and fun (my preconceived idea), it was tedious and dull (gasp).
I began to get the main characters mixed up. I found it hard to work out which one I was reading about at the time.
So .. I ended up skimming.
But, oh, I was so disappointed :(
Instead of being light-hearted and fun (my preconceived idea), it was tedious and dull (gasp).
I began to get the main characters mixed up. I found it hard to work out which one I was reading about at the time.
So .. I ended up skimming.
April 26, 2018
Sorry I couldn't finish this book. I really wanted to like it - the title is very appealing.
The writing was heavy going and the characters unlikeable. Some reviewers stuck it out to the end to see what happens. I don't care enough for that.
The writing was heavy going and the characters unlikeable. Some reviewers stuck it out to the end to see what happens. I don't care enough for that.
February 4, 2018
http://jessjustreads.com
Four Respectable Ladies Seek Part-Time Husband by Barbara Toner is a historical fiction novel set in the small country town of Prospect in 1919.
The war and the Spanish flu are over, but four women in town are struggling. They each face different dilemmas and they need help. Louise needs to clear the debt left behind by her deceased husband, Maggie needs help fighting for land, Adelaide’s family store is being pilfered by their manager, and Pearl’s fiancé is missing and she needs help tracking him down.
These troubles mount on the women each and every day, and they don’t have support from the town. They advertise for an external party — a part-time husband to help solve each of their problems. Enter Martin Duffy.
“Martin Duffy, so much more to Maggie’s taste than the Mayor, was having a very early lunch in the sunny corner of Mrs Quirk’s pub, writing his mother an amusing letter about the ladies’ hopes for him, which he had every intention of fulfilling.”
This is a novel about female friendship and identity. At a time where women were laughed at or cast aside, these women team up to take charge. They refuse to roll over and let others force them to give up what they want. These woman are confident, decisive and ballsy.
At first, they don’t like each other. They have preconceived notions about each other, and so there are a lot of arguments and disagreements over the course of the novel. But, over time, they bond and put aside their differences because they both want and need the same thing.
Four Respectable Ladies is charming and witty, filled with all sorts of characters. However, the novel fell flat for me. I think there were too many characters, contributing to an overly complicated and convoluted plot. At times, it was hard to follow the storyline, and we didn’t spend enough time with each of the four women to really warm to them.
At certain points in the novel, the women started to blur together. Additionally, Martin Duffy was quite an underwhelming character, not really dominating the book like I thought he would. Instead, I felt like he didn’t make enough of an impact in the town and he was quite disappointing.
I was initially drawn to this book because of its gorgeous cover. It captures the flirty, fun nature of some of the characters, whilst also making it clear that it’s historical fiction.
The setting has been captured well, highlighting that period in history where the war is over and yet life is not perfect. People are still recovering from the war, and they’re learning how to move on with their lives.
“Maggie smiled quietly to herself. Martin Duffy wasn’t a man who expected modesty, she was pretty sure of that. He was a man who liked a bit of spirit and she intended to show him that she had plenty.”
The biggest strength of this book was actually the secondary characters, not the four women. I particularly liked Florence Mayberry — the Mayor’s wife — who provides quite a bit of humour for the reader and whose relationship with her husband is entertaining to read.
Additionally, Barbara Toner has done a fantastic job of capturing dialogue. This book is really dialogue heavy, but Barbara has illustrates all of the individual voices really well and so the conversations don’t get muddled. It was easy to follow who was speaking, even when there were multiple people in one scene.
I recommend this book to readers who love historical fiction, but know that this isn’t a typical historical fiction novel. Romance doesn’t drive the plot, and there are many many characters. It’s really a book about a town of people, not just four women and one part-time husband. This isn’t my favourite book, but I do think there is a market for this. Many readers will love the town of Prospect, and all the drama within it.
Thank you to the publisher for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review.
Four Respectable Ladies Seek Part-Time Husband by Barbara Toner is a historical fiction novel set in the small country town of Prospect in 1919.
The war and the Spanish flu are over, but four women in town are struggling. They each face different dilemmas and they need help. Louise needs to clear the debt left behind by her deceased husband, Maggie needs help fighting for land, Adelaide’s family store is being pilfered by their manager, and Pearl’s fiancé is missing and she needs help tracking him down.
These troubles mount on the women each and every day, and they don’t have support from the town. They advertise for an external party — a part-time husband to help solve each of their problems. Enter Martin Duffy.
“Martin Duffy, so much more to Maggie’s taste than the Mayor, was having a very early lunch in the sunny corner of Mrs Quirk’s pub, writing his mother an amusing letter about the ladies’ hopes for him, which he had every intention of fulfilling.”
This is a novel about female friendship and identity. At a time where women were laughed at or cast aside, these women team up to take charge. They refuse to roll over and let others force them to give up what they want. These woman are confident, decisive and ballsy.
At first, they don’t like each other. They have preconceived notions about each other, and so there are a lot of arguments and disagreements over the course of the novel. But, over time, they bond and put aside their differences because they both want and need the same thing.
Four Respectable Ladies is charming and witty, filled with all sorts of characters. However, the novel fell flat for me. I think there were too many characters, contributing to an overly complicated and convoluted plot. At times, it was hard to follow the storyline, and we didn’t spend enough time with each of the four women to really warm to them.
At certain points in the novel, the women started to blur together. Additionally, Martin Duffy was quite an underwhelming character, not really dominating the book like I thought he would. Instead, I felt like he didn’t make enough of an impact in the town and he was quite disappointing.
I was initially drawn to this book because of its gorgeous cover. It captures the flirty, fun nature of some of the characters, whilst also making it clear that it’s historical fiction.
The setting has been captured well, highlighting that period in history where the war is over and yet life is not perfect. People are still recovering from the war, and they’re learning how to move on with their lives.
“Maggie smiled quietly to herself. Martin Duffy wasn’t a man who expected modesty, she was pretty sure of that. He was a man who liked a bit of spirit and she intended to show him that she had plenty.”
The biggest strength of this book was actually the secondary characters, not the four women. I particularly liked Florence Mayberry — the Mayor’s wife — who provides quite a bit of humour for the reader and whose relationship with her husband is entertaining to read.
Additionally, Barbara Toner has done a fantastic job of capturing dialogue. This book is really dialogue heavy, but Barbara has illustrates all of the individual voices really well and so the conversations don’t get muddled. It was easy to follow who was speaking, even when there were multiple people in one scene.
I recommend this book to readers who love historical fiction, but know that this isn’t a typical historical fiction novel. Romance doesn’t drive the plot, and there are many many characters. It’s really a book about a town of people, not just four women and one part-time husband. This isn’t my favourite book, but I do think there is a market for this. Many readers will love the town of Prospect, and all the drama within it.
Thank you to the publisher for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review.
January 31, 2018
Jane Austen meets Rosalie Ham in this utterly delightful new novel from Barbara Toner. Even the title, Four Respectable Ladies Seek Part-time Husband, speaks for itself in terms of the story. Yes, these four women do pool their resources to hire a part-time husband to share, and yes, the results are as outrageous as you might expect. Particularly when you consider that at the outset, these four women aren’t even friends. In fact, with the exception of Pearl, they each harbour rather intense long term grudges against each other. It’s wonderful to see their understanding and consideration for each other grow over the course of the story.
Barbara Toner’s style is sharply honest and appeals to me greatly. There isn’t a single sentence within this novel that isn’t infused with her unique brand of insightful observation. It’s such a rare talent, and short of gushing on and on about her brilliance, I’m probably incapable of doing this novel justice within this review. You should just read it for yourself. As soon as possible. You’ll love every minute because her words are sprinkled with gold dust.
But what’s it really about? Yes, there’s plenty of humour and mayhem throughout, more than one mystery and more than one instance of the ridiculous, but Four Respectable Ladies Seek Part-time Husband is by no means a fluffy funny story about four women vying for the attention of one man. Far from it. At the heart of this story is the magnification of inequality; an era in society where women were encouraged to be helpless, admired for being helpless, and scorned for showing the slightest bit of initiative beyond the domestic realm. For women who were widows or unmarried – or even married but with a husband who had checked out to some degree – they were damned if they did and damned if they didn’t. Women were quite simply not taken seriously – unless of course there was a war on and no men available, but after the war, it was back to expected helplessness. So, what was a woman in this predicament to do? No husband, no father, no brother; well, you hired a part-time husband to handle all of the things you were barred from handling on account of your sex. The fact that he turned out to be a little bit useless was beside the point because as this very telling statement points out:
‘His purpose, as things panned out, had been not to do what the ladies couldn’t, but to show the ladies what they might achieve on their own.’
The characterisation within this novel is superb. There are all sorts, warts and all, within Prospect. And while our four ladies shine the brightest, there are plenty of others that steal the spotlight from time to time. Another winning aspect of this story is the way in which Barbara Toner brought a small post war Australian town to life with such realistic vigour. I was utterly convinced of the authenticity of Prospect. Far from stereotypical, this town and its inhabitants rang true to me for the era. Like I mentioned in the beginning, think Jane Austen – particularly Lady Susan and Pride and Prejudice – meeting Rosalie Ham, and you’ll begin to form an impression about what to expect with this novel. But please don’t be mislead, this comparison really is only for impressionistic purposes as Four Respectable Ladies Seek Part-time Husband stands on its own two feet steady and sure. I feel quite certain this one is destined for that elusive ‘it’s going to be a classic’ elevation.
Respectable LadiesI’d like to thank Penguin Random House Australia for providing me with a copy of Four Respectable Ladies Seek Part-time Husband. I enjoyed it immensely and won’t be able to stop recommending it for a very long time – if ever!
Barbara Toner’s style is sharply honest and appeals to me greatly. There isn’t a single sentence within this novel that isn’t infused with her unique brand of insightful observation. It’s such a rare talent, and short of gushing on and on about her brilliance, I’m probably incapable of doing this novel justice within this review. You should just read it for yourself. As soon as possible. You’ll love every minute because her words are sprinkled with gold dust.
But what’s it really about? Yes, there’s plenty of humour and mayhem throughout, more than one mystery and more than one instance of the ridiculous, but Four Respectable Ladies Seek Part-time Husband is by no means a fluffy funny story about four women vying for the attention of one man. Far from it. At the heart of this story is the magnification of inequality; an era in society where women were encouraged to be helpless, admired for being helpless, and scorned for showing the slightest bit of initiative beyond the domestic realm. For women who were widows or unmarried – or even married but with a husband who had checked out to some degree – they were damned if they did and damned if they didn’t. Women were quite simply not taken seriously – unless of course there was a war on and no men available, but after the war, it was back to expected helplessness. So, what was a woman in this predicament to do? No husband, no father, no brother; well, you hired a part-time husband to handle all of the things you were barred from handling on account of your sex. The fact that he turned out to be a little bit useless was beside the point because as this very telling statement points out:
‘His purpose, as things panned out, had been not to do what the ladies couldn’t, but to show the ladies what they might achieve on their own.’
The characterisation within this novel is superb. There are all sorts, warts and all, within Prospect. And while our four ladies shine the brightest, there are plenty of others that steal the spotlight from time to time. Another winning aspect of this story is the way in which Barbara Toner brought a small post war Australian town to life with such realistic vigour. I was utterly convinced of the authenticity of Prospect. Far from stereotypical, this town and its inhabitants rang true to me for the era. Like I mentioned in the beginning, think Jane Austen – particularly Lady Susan and Pride and Prejudice – meeting Rosalie Ham, and you’ll begin to form an impression about what to expect with this novel. But please don’t be mislead, this comparison really is only for impressionistic purposes as Four Respectable Ladies Seek Part-time Husband stands on its own two feet steady and sure. I feel quite certain this one is destined for that elusive ‘it’s going to be a classic’ elevation.
Respectable LadiesI’d like to thank Penguin Random House Australia for providing me with a copy of Four Respectable Ladies Seek Part-time Husband. I enjoyed it immensely and won’t be able to stop recommending it for a very long time – if ever!
October 28, 2018
This book was sent to me by the publisher for my honest review.
I love the way this book is written. Instead of the author sticking to one character per chapter, their storylines bleed into one another. This means you are not left waiting to see what's happening to your preferred character for very long, because let's be honest you always have one preferred character.
With four lead characters the author did a great job of making them so individual and distinct. They have their own personalities and nuisances making it easy to distinguish between each character. I sometimes struggle when there are multiple characters of the same sex early on in a book and end up getting them confused. This wasn't the case with this book and this is no small feat which is a credit to the author.
The story was intriguing and the ending extremely satisfying. I think this is a stellar book that shows a very unique perspective on how difficult it would have been to adjust to life post WWI.
I love the way this book is written. Instead of the author sticking to one character per chapter, their storylines bleed into one another. This means you are not left waiting to see what's happening to your preferred character for very long, because let's be honest you always have one preferred character.
With four lead characters the author did a great job of making them so individual and distinct. They have their own personalities and nuisances making it easy to distinguish between each character. I sometimes struggle when there are multiple characters of the same sex early on in a book and end up getting them confused. This wasn't the case with this book and this is no small feat which is a credit to the author.
The story was intriguing and the ending extremely satisfying. I think this is a stellar book that shows a very unique perspective on how difficult it would have been to adjust to life post WWI.
March 2, 2024
The premise was interesting enough. But the writing style, pacing, and length just did not work for me. Each paragraph is told from a different character’s perspective, although written in third person, which made it incredibly difficult to keep track of who was who but also to actually connect to any of the characters.
February 12, 2018
I loved the idea of this book. Post-WWI Australia is not a setting I encounter a lot and I was very intrigued with it. It was a very strange time – whilst men were away at war women had to take on roles they would previously not have done. There were men who had not gone to war (Australia did not have conscription for WWI and therefore all that signed up were volunteers) found their jobs given to returning soldiers or that those soldiers had returned to reclaim the jobs they’d had before they left. There had been the Spanish flu epidemic on the tail end of WWI and many areas had been drastically affected by both. Whereas flu generally killed the elderly or the very young, this one killed those in the prime of their lives.
All four of the women are struggling, in different ways. Louisa is now a widow and is also being targeted about her husband’s debts. Although Adelaide’s husband returned, he’s struggling and isn’t interested in her claims that the family general store is being ripped off by the manager. Maggie is very young, left to raise her hellion little brothers and Pearl is new in town. She’s taken a job as a housekeeper but her real reasons for being in Prospect, NSW are to try and find her wayward fiancé, who returned from the war and disappeared.
As women in 1919, they are restricted by social expectations and also aren’t particularly taken seriously. Adelaide can��t get anyone to listen to her about the general store manager, the men that Pearl must talk to in seeking her fiancé won’t give her any answers. Louisa has her own problems and Maggie needs a firm hand to help her pull the boys into line. And perhaps get back the land that is rightfully belonging to her family. The idea of hiring a man to ‘share’ between them is a great one, albeit scandalous, should anyone ever find out the man’s true reason for being in town. A man will be able to do the things that they as ladies cannot do, conduct conversations that they cannot indulge in. Unfortunately, the choice is entrusted to someone else and they send them…..Martin Duffy.
From first glance it’s appallingly obvious that Martin Duffy is not the man that any of the ladies need. He doesn’t have the confident and assured manner to deal with many different types of people but that doesn’t matter to several of them, who rather fancy that Martin Duffy could become less of a figurative husband and more of an actual husband. Although Martin does do his best to investigate the various problems the four ladies are happen, he’s rather inadequate for the task. I think some of the story does fall a bit flat because it relies a lot on the premise that these four women have faith in him to help them out. Their attitudes towards him are quite interesting – and there’s a lot of bickering over who has the greater problem and needs him to sort it out for them first. The women are not what you’d call friends – they’re from different walks of life, different social classes, they have various feuds and foibles between them and at times their relationships really do reflect this is a forced situation. Four women who need a man to sort something for them in a world where they cannot reliably do it for themselves. Of them all, Pearl is the most capable. She really only needs a man to accompany her to the railway construction sites in order to try and get some information from the men working there to find if her fiancé has been through this area. She is able to keep Adelaide’s house, mind her child and be the voice of reason at almost every turn. Maggie is young and panicked, saddled with a stressful situation and judged by quite a few of the locals. Adelaide came across as high strung but she had the right idea and I did find the journey for her and her husband very interesting – I wish a bit more could have been spent on it. Louisa was the character I had the most trouble connecting with and there were a lot of…..unresolved issues with her story although with a sequel in the works, that should hopefully help. My favourite part of the story was Pearl and her love interest.
**A copy of this book was provided by the publisher for the purposes of an honest review
All four of the women are struggling, in different ways. Louisa is now a widow and is also being targeted about her husband’s debts. Although Adelaide’s husband returned, he’s struggling and isn’t interested in her claims that the family general store is being ripped off by the manager. Maggie is very young, left to raise her hellion little brothers and Pearl is new in town. She’s taken a job as a housekeeper but her real reasons for being in Prospect, NSW are to try and find her wayward fiancé, who returned from the war and disappeared.
As women in 1919, they are restricted by social expectations and also aren’t particularly taken seriously. Adelaide can��t get anyone to listen to her about the general store manager, the men that Pearl must talk to in seeking her fiancé won’t give her any answers. Louisa has her own problems and Maggie needs a firm hand to help her pull the boys into line. And perhaps get back the land that is rightfully belonging to her family. The idea of hiring a man to ‘share’ between them is a great one, albeit scandalous, should anyone ever find out the man’s true reason for being in town. A man will be able to do the things that they as ladies cannot do, conduct conversations that they cannot indulge in. Unfortunately, the choice is entrusted to someone else and they send them…..Martin Duffy.
From first glance it’s appallingly obvious that Martin Duffy is not the man that any of the ladies need. He doesn’t have the confident and assured manner to deal with many different types of people but that doesn’t matter to several of them, who rather fancy that Martin Duffy could become less of a figurative husband and more of an actual husband. Although Martin does do his best to investigate the various problems the four ladies are happen, he’s rather inadequate for the task. I think some of the story does fall a bit flat because it relies a lot on the premise that these four women have faith in him to help them out. Their attitudes towards him are quite interesting – and there’s a lot of bickering over who has the greater problem and needs him to sort it out for them first. The women are not what you’d call friends – they’re from different walks of life, different social classes, they have various feuds and foibles between them and at times their relationships really do reflect this is a forced situation. Four women who need a man to sort something for them in a world where they cannot reliably do it for themselves. Of them all, Pearl is the most capable. She really only needs a man to accompany her to the railway construction sites in order to try and get some information from the men working there to find if her fiancé has been through this area. She is able to keep Adelaide’s house, mind her child and be the voice of reason at almost every turn. Maggie is young and panicked, saddled with a stressful situation and judged by quite a few of the locals. Adelaide came across as high strung but she had the right idea and I did find the journey for her and her husband very interesting – I wish a bit more could have been spent on it. Louisa was the character I had the most trouble connecting with and there were a lot of…..unresolved issues with her story although with a sequel in the works, that should hopefully help. My favourite part of the story was Pearl and her love interest.
**A copy of this book was provided by the publisher for the purposes of an honest review
May 10, 2019
Another recommend from my magazine so I was disappointed. It's a very silly book and only really became entertaining for the last quarter. As another reviewer commented I did not affiliate with any of the central characters. Not a tale I would recommend.
October 31, 2018
This was a struggle to finish. It wasn't at all the tale I expected of women empowering themselves and realizing that the man they'd hired was just an obstacle to overcome. The historical context didn't interest me, too much assumption that communities had relied on men for essential work, when in reality the opposite is true.
I prefer my feminist fiction to have more bite to it. This novel feels very mumsy and safe. Oh and the male character is just a dumb caricature. There is nothing in his personality to make you feel human towards him.
I prefer my feminist fiction to have more bite to it. This novel feels very mumsy and safe. Oh and the male character is just a dumb caricature. There is nothing in his personality to make you feel human towards him.
May 19, 2024
Perfect holiday read as we drive around Australia. Light-hearted and mildly predictable .
April 15, 2018
The premise sounds fun and quirky, and I suppose I was yearning for something along the lines of the dressmaker. And there are similar elements, but Ham does it with a lightness of touch and a deceptive simplicity missing here. Four women, feeling powerless at the hands of post war issues resulting from male generated disasters, stumble upon a solution that is nonetheless destined for disaster - find a competent man to advocate on their behalf. Not easily done in community who has lost the best part of a generation of men to conflict or influenza. The amiable, well-meaning but incompetent fellow they select becomes the unwilling object of their affections without substantially resolving their problems. Ultimately they do that themselves - with the assistance of some military investigators. And that is, I expect, the point. Three of them are more than capable of dealing with life, exposing corruption and deceit, and seeking justice. If only they assert their rights, and their society deals fairly with them. The other, Louisa, has certainly been poorly treated, by her dead husband and his corrupt sister, but she is less admirable and more adrift. But she does relieve Pearl of her now unwanted fiancée. So it all works out in the end. The four ladies are not close friends, and their alliance in such a project seems unlikely. There is much travelling back and forth, and, I think, altogether too much action for a sleepy Australian country town. You can find a degree of sympathy for each of the women, but the male characters are less carefully drawn. The plot is too absorbed in working out the convoluted tale with some degree of verisimilitude, rather than providing striking evocative situations that capture a character or a setting perfectly and unforgettably. There is too much, in a way, in this one. Too much waffle and not enough stark imagery. You can imagine the silly, overly conceited contrivances of the Mayberrys, or the oily nastiness of Stokes, the bewildering confusion of more horses mysteriously appearing in Louisa’s barren paddocks. But it isn’t sufficiently coherent for my liking.
April 30, 2018
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**rated 2.5 stars, rounded up to 3.
Four Respectable Ladies Seek Part-time Husband by Barbara Toner. (2018).
It is September 1919. In a small town in New South Wales lives four ladies: Louisa, whose husband died in the war and she is left with debts; Maggie, who is alone with her two handful brothers and fighting for land she can't prove is hers; Adelaide, whose husband has returned from the war different and won't help her deal with their thieving store manager; and Pearl, who is Adelaide's new housekeeper and is trying to find her missing fiancé before someone gets killed.
The ladies struggle with their troubles and decide to advertise for a part-time husband to share and help them with their issues.
I didn't really like this story which was a shame because it sounded really interesting. However I do seem to be in the minority on that given the amount of overwhelmingly positive reviews on Good Reads. What I did like about the novel was that it took the reader into the reality of life after WW1 where women were expected to stop doing everything they had been doing to survive while the men were away fighting the war, and then men did not come back from the war or were often mentally and/or physically damaged from their experiences. What I primarily didn't like was that I just personally found the story non-engaging with too many detailed characters; at times the plot was constantly jumping between the four women, to the point where one sentence was thoughts from Pearl and the following sentence was thoughts from Maggie about something completely different and it was quite difficult to follow. It's not a story I would re-read, or bother with the sequel that is to come, but given the large number of positive reviews out there it may just not have been my cup of tea whereas others will greatly enjoy.
**rated 2.5 stars, rounded up to 3.
Four Respectable Ladies Seek Part-time Husband by Barbara Toner. (2018).
It is September 1919. In a small town in New South Wales lives four ladies: Louisa, whose husband died in the war and she is left with debts; Maggie, who is alone with her two handful brothers and fighting for land she can't prove is hers; Adelaide, whose husband has returned from the war different and won't help her deal with their thieving store manager; and Pearl, who is Adelaide's new housekeeper and is trying to find her missing fiancé before someone gets killed.
The ladies struggle with their troubles and decide to advertise for a part-time husband to share and help them with their issues.
I didn't really like this story which was a shame because it sounded really interesting. However I do seem to be in the minority on that given the amount of overwhelmingly positive reviews on Good Reads. What I did like about the novel was that it took the reader into the reality of life after WW1 where women were expected to stop doing everything they had been doing to survive while the men were away fighting the war, and then men did not come back from the war or were often mentally and/or physically damaged from their experiences. What I primarily didn't like was that I just personally found the story non-engaging with too many detailed characters; at times the plot was constantly jumping between the four women, to the point where one sentence was thoughts from Pearl and the following sentence was thoughts from Maggie about something completely different and it was quite difficult to follow. It's not a story I would re-read, or bother with the sequel that is to come, but given the large number of positive reviews out there it may just not have been my cup of tea whereas others will greatly enjoy.
June 22, 2020
Meryl bookclub 2019
If you judged this book by its cover, you would consign the frothy confection on the front to chick lit, while not being judgemental per se, perhaps a little sniffy about putting this book where it belongs.
Well don't. Four Respectable Ladies is most definitely not chick lit.
What it is, is tragi-comedy, written through the prism of satire.
You have been warned.
It's 1919. The war is over and some husbands came home (sort of) and some didn't.
Those that were going to die of the Spanish Flu have done so, and the residents of Prospect, like so many respectable citizens in so many small-minded towns in Australia are just getting on with it.
Except four of them aren't. Four of them are stuck. Stuck with a husband who came home but left the decent bit of himself in France, stuck as a war widow with an alarming blackmail situation arising that is getting dangerous, stuck with a missing fiancee on a wild goose chase and stuck with two wild brothers and nary a pot to piss in.
So our four characters observe their plight. Adelaide, Louise, Pearl and Maggie look around at the brittle bitterness of their fellow neighbours and decide that they are going to do something about the hand they have been dealt. They are going to hire a husband to get them all out of their mess.
This could have been a much funnier, light-hearted book, but Barbara Toner was having none of it. Prospect is ripe for a-skewering, and she is the woman to do it.
It is a better novel for it, acutely observed but dryly compassionate for the limitations that hamper these women in 1919.
We have come a long way baby.
5 *****
April 5, 2018
I was hoping for Jane Austen (original or at least 'The ... Book Club' variety) with a modern sister's doing it for themselves kind of vibe. What I got was ... I don't really know. Not very much romance. A bit of humour. Characters that were always running places and swinging from loathing to liking one another. Men who appeared only briefly before becoming soul mates. Read it over a couple of days on the easter weekend. What I really wanted was that giddy good feeling. I was instead rather perplexed and occasionally bored.
March 26, 2018
2.5*
I was really looking forward to this book; historical fiction, female-centric, post-WWI, rural Australian setting... Unfortunately I felt it just didn’t ever quite take off. The characters were all a bit flat and the ladies ‘problems’ and subsequent plot development were a little bit scrambled together. I did read the whole book to find out what happened, but I wasn’t gripped by the story.
I was really looking forward to this book; historical fiction, female-centric, post-WWI, rural Australian setting... Unfortunately I felt it just didn’t ever quite take off. The characters were all a bit flat and the ladies ‘problems’ and subsequent plot development were a little bit scrambled together. I did read the whole book to find out what happened, but I wasn’t gripped by the story.
June 12, 2019
I really couldn't get into this book. I found the women to be a trifle whiny and just downright depressing. I wound up skimming the rest after about fifty pages, and read the end and as the writer said, they didn't really need a man, they have enough where-withal to save themselves, which is great for women's lib but it sounds like there was no mystery or great revelation to their situations. So sorry, wasn't enthused.
August 27, 2019
I really wanted to dive into this book and have fun with the period setting and farcical premise, but although the ideas were good, the writing really held this book back. The prose was often quite confused, with a lot of jumping from the perspectives of characters within single paragraphs, and the language often let down by being clumsy or overly obvious. I wanted to like each of the characters but they too were quite confused.
June 12, 2018
I borrowed this from the library as the title grabbed me from the shelf. It was an ok read, however the pacing felt a bit stilted and the characters weren't very sympathetic and lacked depth, so overall I didn't feel interested enough to really enjoy it.
July 19, 2018
I should have finished this very quickly but it just didn’t ‘grab’ me. Determined to finish it I kept coming back to it thinking it MUST get better. Unfortunately, it didn’t - except perhaps by the last chapter, or two.
Very disappointing.
Very disappointing.
December 11, 2018
I didn't manage to finish this one, I found it had too many characters to follow, and I didn't warm to the 'feel' of the writing. Others may enjoy, however I ended up not really caring about the characters, or persevering to find out.
May 24, 2020
Got through the first couple chapters. Way too many characters introduced very fast. Had to keep flipping back to determine who was who. Stopped reading.
March 23, 2018
Set in 1919, in the country town of Prospect,NSW, this is the tale of four women who find themselves unable to resolve their desperate problems due the lack of functional men in their lives. The war is over, the flu has been survived and women are being sent back to the kitchen in the belief that they are provided for, and protected by, the returning heroes.
Of course, the men in their lives have caused their problems and they find that they cannot undertake the solutions as no one will listen to them or stand for them. In desperation they advertise for a man to assist, and so is born the position of the part time husband.
One reviewer has commented that this is Jane Austen meets Rosalie Ham and I think that is very astute observation. Ms Ham for the excellent depiction of an Australian country town of the time and Ms Austen for the satirical view of the humanness, stereotypes and mores that continue to trip up society. Plus there is an element of farce to leaven it all.
My favourite part of this book is that although the four women are in it together, this is by no means a chick lit 'all BFFs' together book. There is great conflict among the women due to their differing goals, histories, classes, views, and personalities. Group hugs do not abound and it will not all be resolved in the last two pages.
I enjoyed it and would happily read more.
Of course, the men in their lives have caused their problems and they find that they cannot undertake the solutions as no one will listen to them or stand for them. In desperation they advertise for a man to assist, and so is born the position of the part time husband.
One reviewer has commented that this is Jane Austen meets Rosalie Ham and I think that is very astute observation. Ms Ham for the excellent depiction of an Australian country town of the time and Ms Austen for the satirical view of the humanness, stereotypes and mores that continue to trip up society. Plus there is an element of farce to leaven it all.
My favourite part of this book is that although the four women are in it together, this is by no means a chick lit 'all BFFs' together book. There is great conflict among the women due to their differing goals, histories, classes, views, and personalities. Group hugs do not abound and it will not all be resolved in the last two pages.
I enjoyed it and would happily read more.
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