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روزگار سپری شده خانم گادنی
پل بیلی، نویسنده انگلیسی در "روزگار سپری شده خانم گادنی" به رفتارهایی میپردازد که موجب میشوند حس فردیت و هویت فردی در دوران بیماری و کهنسالی نابود شود؛ نویسنده با زبانی طنزگونه، لحن اربابمنشانه پرستارها، اقوام و دیدارکنندگان "فیث گادنی" (شخصیت اصلی رمان) را به سخره میگیرد و ذهن خواننده را درگیر شکنندگی و آسیبپذیری انسان، ویژگیهای جسمانی و زوالپذیریاش میکند.
248 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1967
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106 people want to read
About the author
Paul Bailey
171 books28 followersPeter Harry "Paul" Bailey was a British novelist and critic, as well as a biographer of Cynthia Payne and Quentin Crisp.
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January 20, 2016Paul Bailey wrote the introduction to the last book I read, Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont, with the claim that he is peculiarly qualified to do so. Mrs Palfrey makes friends with a young writer who spends his days in the banking hall at Harrods, assiduously observing older ladies for his book set in a home for the old, titled They Weren't Allowed To Die There. Like Ludovic in Taylor's novel, Paul Bailey was working at Harrods, and like him he was an ex-actor who had done his stint in a tatty repertory company at the time he wrote this, his first novel At The Jerusalem, set in a home for old women. It was published in 1967 when he was just thirty. A year later he met Elizabeth Taylor at at party.
So I did rather feel I was reading a book by a fictional character. Strangely disorienting in its way. I had to check the internet to see if Paul Bailey really existed, and what else he wrote. (He does. A lot).
The book too is disorienting as most of it is written in dialogue, so much in fact that it feels like a play, but without the helpful indication of whose line this is. Thus it is not always immediately clear who is speaking and on top of that the dialogue is interspersed with the inner voice of Faith Gadny (at least there are no quotation marks there). But that's fine, requires a little concentration is true, but if you're not prepared to concentrate a bit then you shouldn't be reading at all in my view.
In this piece in The Guardian Paul Bailey describes At The Jerusalem as 'essentially comic'. Some of that dialogue between feisty, sarcastic older ladies is comic. But their situation, holed up in a 'home' (what irony) that used to be a Victorian workhouse with nine sleeping in one room and screens to put round if you want to 'empty' at night is gruesome. Bailey has a deal of sympathy for those who cannot put up too well with feisty sarcastic dialogue permanently turned up to max. No wonder Faith goes quietly out of her mind.
L'enfer, c'est les autres.
She told me how intrigued she had been that a man in his late twenties should have chosen a home for old women as a setting for a novel, and she had gone to Harrods to see what such a curious creature looked like. She went on to say that she had watched me at work for about an hour, from the vantage of a chair in the adjoining lounge. She smiled as she made this revelation. She had not expected to see someone with a youthful appearance: she had expected me to be just a trifle wizened...... I am flattered to think that I gave Elizabeth Taylor a little bit of inspiration for what is undoubtedly one of her finest books.
So I did rather feel I was reading a book by a fictional character. Strangely disorienting in its way. I had to check the internet to see if Paul Bailey really existed, and what else he wrote. (He does. A lot).
The book too is disorienting as most of it is written in dialogue, so much in fact that it feels like a play, but without the helpful indication of whose line this is. Thus it is not always immediately clear who is speaking and on top of that the dialogue is interspersed with the inner voice of Faith Gadny (at least there are no quotation marks there). But that's fine, requires a little concentration is true, but if you're not prepared to concentrate a bit then you shouldn't be reading at all in my view.
In this piece in The Guardian Paul Bailey describes At The Jerusalem as 'essentially comic'. Some of that dialogue between feisty, sarcastic older ladies is comic. But their situation, holed up in a 'home' (what irony) that used to be a Victorian workhouse with nine sleeping in one room and screens to put round if you want to 'empty' at night is gruesome. Bailey has a deal of sympathy for those who cannot put up too well with feisty sarcastic dialogue permanently turned up to max. No wonder Faith goes quietly out of her mind.
L'enfer, c'est les autres.
March 7, 2016
Description: At The Jerusalem (1967) is set in an old people's home, and won a Somerset Maugham Award and an Arts Council Writers' Award
·Karen· piqued my interest and her insightful review (that I wish I could of written) is right here.Then there was a dazzle of green and white, white and green. Then the colours separated, became clear: the white was above, the green below. Tile, she saw, followed tile. Once, she blinked she realized she stood in a corridor."
I don't need the inside flap to tell me that Bailey writes authentically through the eyes of a woman of a certain age, the result in the pages is witness to that fact. It is a masterful piece.
February 28, 2021
Okay so
I don't even know how I found this book, but it somehow found its way onto my reading list on Borrowbox.
I say this a lot about short books I wasn't gone on: if it was any longer I would've liked it a lot less, the fact that it was a short book stopped me from not finishing it.
Basically, this is a book that follows Faith, an elderly woman, as her stepson dumps her in a nursing home "like trash".
I felt extreme empathy for Faith all along and was almost protective of her. This is why what I'll discuss in the spoilers part↓ made me so emotional, it just ruined the entire book for me.
The writing was interesting, but very confusing. The majority of the book is written in dialogue that often doesn't come with who's speaking it. As Faith's mind deteriorates, she also slips back and forth between memories and reality. I often found myself reading a page of the book and having to go back to the beginning after I realise it's a glimpse from the past, or random characters speaking.
*Spoilers*
I've never seen old women be so horrible, so disgusting. The majority of women living in this home are racist, judgemental old busybodies. Over the course of this novel, Faith is slowly losing her mind as her age catches up with her. And what do the f*ckers living in her home do? Gossip about her state like she isn't there, say she's ruining their day, request that someone kick her so she'll shut up? This one main scene was done in such a casual way, it made me want to smash my phone and yet wasn't a big deal in the book at all (which I'm not happy with).
Maybe I've taken this story too personal but when a book makes me feel this angry without it being rightfully targeted at the antagonist it heavily taints the entire story for me.
Whoever says this book is comical concerns me.
Rant over (for now)
I don't even know how I found this book, but it somehow found its way onto my reading list on Borrowbox.
I say this a lot about short books I wasn't gone on: if it was any longer I would've liked it a lot less, the fact that it was a short book stopped me from not finishing it.
Basically, this is a book that follows Faith, an elderly woman, as her stepson dumps her in a nursing home "like trash".
I felt extreme empathy for Faith all along and was almost protective of her. This is why what I'll discuss in the spoilers part↓ made me so emotional, it just ruined the entire book for me.
The writing was interesting, but very confusing. The majority of the book is written in dialogue that often doesn't come with who's speaking it. As Faith's mind deteriorates, she also slips back and forth between memories and reality. I often found myself reading a page of the book and having to go back to the beginning after I realise it's a glimpse from the past, or random characters speaking.
*Spoilers*
I've never seen old women be so horrible, so disgusting. The majority of women living in this home are racist, judgemental old busybodies. Over the course of this novel, Faith is slowly losing her mind as her age catches up with her. And what do the f*ckers living in her home do? Gossip about her state like she isn't there, say she's ruining their day, request that someone kick her so she'll shut up? This one main scene was done in such a casual way, it made me want to smash my phone and yet wasn't a big deal in the book at all (which I'm not happy with).
Maybe I've taken this story too personal but when a book makes me feel this angry without it being rightfully targeted at the antagonist it heavily taints the entire story for me.
Whoever says this book is comical concerns me.
Rant over (for now)
July 10, 2024
That title almost feels blasphemous, because it’s such a shitty book.
December 19, 2015
این کتاب در ایران توسط خانوم شعله آذر و به نام "روزگار سپری شده ی خانوم گادنی" ترجمه شده
خانوم گادنی زن 71 ساله ای هست که همسر و دخترش رو از دست داده و توسط پسرخوانده اش به یه خانه سالمندان سپرده میشه
داستان از نظر روایت ها واقع بینانه بود و به آدم کمک میکنه همذات پنداری خوبی با شخصیت ها داشته باشه
در آخر باید بگم کتاب تلخ اما خوبی بود
http://www.tebyan.net/newmobile.aspx/...
خانوم گادنی زن 71 ساله ای هست که همسر و دخترش رو از دست داده و توسط پسرخوانده اش به یه خانه سالمندان سپرده میشه
داستان از نظر روایت ها واقع بینانه بود و به آدم کمک میکنه همذات پنداری خوبی با شخصیت ها داشته باشه
در آخر باید بگم کتاب تلخ اما خوبی بود
http://www.tebyan.net/newmobile.aspx/...
October 15, 2018
A bit grim.
November 12, 2024
A compassionate portrait of old age, written almost entirely in dialogue. It won a Somerset Maugham Award in 1968. Its author went on to be shortlisted for the Booker Prize in both 1977 and 1986.
Old Mrs Gadny, still grieving the death of her daughter, goes to live with her stepson and his wife and children. Tensions multiply and she is placed, still depressed, in an old people’s home.
It's a well-paced story with some interestingly nuanced characters. It is written mostly in dialogue. Actions are also recorded but there is virtually no description. In this it reminded me of the work of Ivy Compton-Burnett. However, the dialogue in this novel is much more vernacular than the formal and grammatically correct dialogue that ICB employs. Furthermore, there is a substantial amount of interior monologue from the principal character, Mrs Gadny, interspersed with the dialogue. Here is a typical extract:
"Nurse Barrow watched her eat.
‘Have they missed me?’
‘The ladies?’
- Ladies!
‘Ladies! Have they missed me?’"
Note the extreme brevity of the paragraphs which are often a single sentence long, the preponderance of dialogue, the simplicity of the described action and the inclusion of a single line, in this case a single word, representing Mrs Gadny's thoughts.
This gives the novel a bare-bones, minimalist feel. It makes it distinctive.
It is very much of its time. There are only ten ladies in the home and several nurses, a matron and a cook, but they all sleep together in the ward. Some of the ladies used to be ‘in service’. One of them never, learned to read, this is also true of some of Mrs Gadny's relatives. Some of the patients object, in bluntly racist terms, to being cared for by a black nurse. The phrase ‘Jew-boy’ is used and the word ‘cripples’.
Of course it is sad, since it charts Mrs Gadny's decline. She herself feels that she has been thrown away like "trash". Nevertheless, there are a number of moments of wryly observational humour to lighten the mood.
Old Mrs Gadny, still grieving the death of her daughter, goes to live with her stepson and his wife and children. Tensions multiply and she is placed, still depressed, in an old people’s home.
It's a well-paced story with some interestingly nuanced characters. It is written mostly in dialogue. Actions are also recorded but there is virtually no description. In this it reminded me of the work of Ivy Compton-Burnett. However, the dialogue in this novel is much more vernacular than the formal and grammatically correct dialogue that ICB employs. Furthermore, there is a substantial amount of interior monologue from the principal character, Mrs Gadny, interspersed with the dialogue. Here is a typical extract:
"Nurse Barrow watched her eat.
‘Have they missed me?’
‘The ladies?’
- Ladies!
‘Ladies! Have they missed me?’"
Note the extreme brevity of the paragraphs which are often a single sentence long, the preponderance of dialogue, the simplicity of the described action and the inclusion of a single line, in this case a single word, representing Mrs Gadny's thoughts.
This gives the novel a bare-bones, minimalist feel. It makes it distinctive.
It is very much of its time. There are only ten ladies in the home and several nurses, a matron and a cook, but they all sleep together in the ward. Some of the ladies used to be ‘in service’. One of them never, learned to read, this is also true of some of Mrs Gadny's relatives. Some of the patients object, in bluntly racist terms, to being cared for by a black nurse. The phrase ‘Jew-boy’ is used and the word ‘cripples’.
Of course it is sad, since it charts Mrs Gadny's decline. She herself feels that she has been thrown away like "trash". Nevertheless, there are a number of moments of wryly observational humour to lighten the mood.
September 18, 2022
We are all equal in the eyes of death. As for the eyes of old ladies, there's a clear class divide at work in those dewy orbs. There's spite and cruelty too, brone of years of mistreatment. Reminds me of Larkin...
🗨️
'Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
And don’t have any kids yourself.'
🗨️
So it goes for this curious book. A lot of reviews tell you it is 'a bit grim'... I think most people have lost their guts, when it comes to reading.
Of course it is grim, but there's a black humour at work throughout that finds you chuckling at the worst of misfortunes. Maybe that's just me?
They're unkind to one another. They bicker. They accuse people of throwing them away when they put them in the home. Even when it becomes clear that it was for their own good as well as for the family's.
But what use is good to us? Really? All it ever does is hold us in line. Better to be candid? To speak your mind? That's all these old dears are doing really. They're unfiltered. Fear does that to you.
I don't recommend this one to anyone under 30. I think times have moved on and different styles of writing would convey the message to you better. I think us oldies were fed on quite bitter milk. Our dark comedy was bleak... young people tend to use the term 'dark' simply to mean 'edgy'.
I would argue that it isn't enough to speak of dark things, the threat has to be real. I rather feel it has been lost and that's because it is in their hands now and that's the way of things. We must hand things over.
Which is very much the point of life... a constant sharing of ourselves, our books, our resentments...
My only issue with this one? The parts were the wrong lengths. They should have overlapped rather than been separated. It would have been more successful.
September 18, 2022
SUMMARY - Darkly humorous and ultimately unsettling as an unflinching gaze on decrepitude - my sort of book.
----------------
Old women, internalised asides, humour and the flawed tradition of British manners tested until it breaks? Check for all, so this was always going to be up my street.
'At the Jerusalem' proved a critical success and won both the Somerset Maugham Award (for authors aged under 35; Bailey was c.30) and the Author's Club Best First Novel Award. It might be considered unusual for a young author to start with a book on geriatric life, but from an LGBTQ+ perspective it very relatable - it's taking themes on ostracism into a safe third space. This is not to say Bailey doesn't care about the characters, but only to observe the affinity between many gay men and old ladies (... or perhaps I am speaking just for myself!)
The book bears comparison to Bernice Rubens's 'The Elected Member' and perhaps more so still to Elizabeth Taylor's 'Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont', both published slightly after Bailey's book. Each take us into the hidden realms of institutional life, showing how far the characters confirm for the sake of propriety, but ultimately have lives, memories, and roots to a wider and largely now historical life outside. All look at different institutional settings, but focus with a warm heart and mordant humour on the personal.
I did laugh at some scenes even if the false teeth gurning wasn't testing the boundaries very far. As the cover sleeve of my copy says, it keeps the gaze far longer than is comfortable as Mrs Gadney's dignity is threatened with being torn away. We are clearly meant to sympathise with Gadney, but the book does allow us to imagine things from different sides (Gadney's stepson's family and home staff included).
----------------
Old women, internalised asides, humour and the flawed tradition of British manners tested until it breaks? Check for all, so this was always going to be up my street.
'At the Jerusalem' proved a critical success and won both the Somerset Maugham Award (for authors aged under 35; Bailey was c.30) and the Author's Club Best First Novel Award. It might be considered unusual for a young author to start with a book on geriatric life, but from an LGBTQ+ perspective it very relatable - it's taking themes on ostracism into a safe third space. This is not to say Bailey doesn't care about the characters, but only to observe the affinity between many gay men and old ladies (... or perhaps I am speaking just for myself!)
The book bears comparison to Bernice Rubens's 'The Elected Member' and perhaps more so still to Elizabeth Taylor's 'Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont', both published slightly after Bailey's book. Each take us into the hidden realms of institutional life, showing how far the characters confirm for the sake of propriety, but ultimately have lives, memories, and roots to a wider and largely now historical life outside. All look at different institutional settings, but focus with a warm heart and mordant humour on the personal.
I did laugh at some scenes even if the false teeth gurning wasn't testing the boundaries very far. As the cover sleeve of my copy says, it keeps the gaze far longer than is comfortable as Mrs Gadney's dignity is threatened with being torn away. We are clearly meant to sympathise with Gadney, but the book does allow us to imagine things from different sides (Gadney's stepson's family and home staff included).
May 17, 2022
I really found this book a struggle. By the end it felt like finishing homework I didn't want to do. It took me awhile to realise that I had read it already, probably around thirty years ago. Perhaps I am headed in the same direction as Mrs Gadney...
One issue for me was that so much of the novel was dialogue. Not very interesting dialogue. Why the author chose this style I don't know and I was surprised how exhausting that felt for such a brief novel.
Then there is something quite unsatisfying about the central character . I certainly don't want to fall into the trap of wanting characters to be likeable. But there is something incomplete about her which I assume is due to her dementia.
I wanted to like this book. It was quite a pioneer. It deals well with homophobia and racism. There are too few novels about the last chapter of life and they are rarely set in care homes. Her predicament is a significant one and ought to attract sympathy. So this should be an important book, But one for me that doesn't work.
One issue for me was that so much of the novel was dialogue. Not very interesting dialogue. Why the author chose this style I don't know and I was surprised how exhausting that felt for such a brief novel.
Then there is something quite unsatisfying about the central character . I certainly don't want to fall into the trap of wanting characters to be likeable. But there is something incomplete about her which I assume is due to her dementia.
I wanted to like this book. It was quite a pioneer. It deals well with homophobia and racism. There are too few novels about the last chapter of life and they are rarely set in care homes. Her predicament is a significant one and ought to attract sympathy. So this should be an important book, But one for me that doesn't work.
March 16, 2025
An interesting book, mainly told in dialogue which explores the decline of a widow whose stepson first invites her to live in his home, and then (at the heeding of his ghastly wife) moves her to the Jerusalem, a heavily institutionalised care home peopled by a various mixture of the not very nice and cared for by Matron and some generally well meaning but ultimately patronising nurses. The dialogue is mostly spare and banal, reflecting the lives and attitudes of the place. Faith Gadney retreats into her memories and her crumbling psyche, failed by almost everyone, pushed away to a succession of 'more suitable' places, out of sight, out of mind. I hope that we are better than this now.
August 4, 2021
Mrs Gadny’s unravelling mind is nicely revealed through her letters to a former neighbour but otherwise I didn’t find this short novel entertaining enough. Perhaps I’m being harsh – I am being harsh, given women of her generation’s lack of agency – but she lost my sympathy when I learnt how she’d made no attempt to curtail her husband’s brutality to his son.
https://annegoodwin.weebly.com/annecd...
https://annegoodwin.weebly.com/annecd...
May 6, 2018
This novel provided me with an easy read, but although it wasn't hard to tackle, it was poignant all the way through. Moreover, it was as if I actually were present as a spectator to the events in the home. Definitely realistic.
June 30, 2019
A little weird, but kept my interest enough to finish it.
September 1, 2021
Grim and depressing. Whooee I hope it doesn't get this bad.
February 9, 2024
Unusual book that is good with dealing with mental decay. Had to reread some bits but overall a really interesting book
April 4, 2024
یه غم بزرگی رو دلم همیشه در مورد خانه سالمندان وجود داره.
ولی همیشه فکر میکنم کاش وقتی من به این سن رسیدم خودم با پای خودم برم خانه سالمندان.
ولی همیشه فکر میکنم کاش وقتی من به این سن رسیدم خودم با پای خودم برم خانه سالمندان.
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