Lapsing

by Jill Paton Walsh

Lapsing

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction

254 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Jill Paton Walsh was born Gillian Bliss in London on April 29th, 1937. She was educated at St. Michael's Convent, North Finchley, and at St. Anne's College, Oxford. From 1959 to 1962 she taught English at Enfield Girls' Grammar School.

Jill Paton Walsh has won the Book World Festival Award, 1970, for Fireweed; the Whitbread Prize, 1974 (for a Children's novel) for The Emperor's Winding Sheet; The Boston Globe-Horn Book Award 1976 for Unleaving; The Universe Prize, 1984 for A Parcel of Patterns; and the Smarties Grand Prix, 1984, for Gaffer Samson's Luck.

Series:
* Imogen Quy
* Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane

Reviews

[Hugh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another book borrowed from my parents - in fact I think I gave them this one the year I read her later book Knowledge of Angels. It is a rites of passage story with autobiographical elements, whose main protagonist is Tessa, an English Catholic studying literature at Oxford University. At the start of the book Tessa is heavily involved with a theological cell led by Theodore, a charismatic young Catholic priest who is studying for a postgraduate degree. She is also tentatively involved with two other men - Ben, a slightly older junior academic and Richard, a rich Anglican fellow student whose role in the story seems to be the tempter.

The plot follows Tessa's relationship with Theodore from his first declaration of his illicit love for her, through her engagement and marriage to Ben, who wants her to support Theodore and helps her rescue him when his involvement with CND has led to problems with the church authorities. Her refusal to end her friendship with Theodore eventually causes her to leave the church and lose her faith.

As one would expect, the setting provides plenty of atmosphere and period detail, and the religious dilemmas at its centre reminded me very much of another book I read recently, Thomas Keneally's The Office Of Innocence. An enjoyable book.

[Colin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve enjoyed Jill Paton Walsh’s books for children and adults for many years, and more recently I’ve relished discovering her output for adults. Lapsing is an old-fashioned book in the best sense of the word: serious-minded, leisurely paced, written with style and elegance, and with some big themes at its heart. Set in 1950s Oxford it follows Tessa, a young woman with a strongly rooted attachment to the Catholic Church, through a turbulent time in her life, where her deeply held beliefs are challenged from the most unexpected quarters. What sounds like a dull novel of ideas and theological hair-splitting turns out to be something considerably more rich and strange, and ultimately, extremely moving. Although set a few years earlier, it reminded me of David Lodge’s How Far Can You Go? and the there would be a lot to be gained from reading both books as informal companion pieces.

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jill Paton Walsh died last fall. I had been a fan of her Imogene Quy and Lord Peter mysteries and been engrossed by her "Knowledge of Angels." Somewhere I found mention of this earlier book which has, it seems to me, some autobiogrpahical details. Bright young woman is the first in her family to go to Oxford--strong Roman Catholic whose beliefs are beginning to be explored and opened to questioning in the 1950s, particularly beliefs about relationships, intimate (marriage and love) and societal (church and world). The setting and its times are well portrayed, with flashbacks of being sent to Cornwall during the war as a child, and forward at the end to time on the East Coast of the US.

Tessa is going through some of the usual emotional growth challenges of university students, but things are magnified by her Catholicism, and there are spots where she appears to be reflecting back on her naivete. It is helpful to remember that Catholicism is different in England than in the US, much more of an outsider religion (as was Methodism and anything that was not the state church in the 1950s). Fascinating study of faith in a particular time, lived out from particular intentions for a holy and meaingful life, muddled by being human.

[Susan Kavanagh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't think I often give a 4 to a book that started to upset me by the second half, but this book was awfully well written with a gripping narrative. Since I came of age in the 1960s, I was really interested in reading the experiences of a very religious young Catholic woman attending Oxford in the 1950s. The author did an excellent job in evoking the atmosphere of Oxford as well as creating characters that felt realistic.

[Cassandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a beautiful novel, from first to last. The form is a little odd, I think, but I am not sure yet; I must let it sit a little before I say more about it. I think perhaps her touchstones -- the shell in particular -- were not quite strong enough to bear the weight she put upon them.

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprise ending, I didn't know the quilting was there.

[Ruth This one]

Picked this up from my local charity shop. I read quite a few Jill Paton Walsh 20 -30 years ago so was pleased to find this. So far I have been struck by some careful, beautiful writing, which unfortunately tips over into self-indulgent introspection in the first person narrative. My daughter at 10 years old was instructed by her excellent year 6 teacher to "show the reader, don't tell the reader". A bit too much telling going on here so far, but I'm going to persist.