Passing On

by Penelope Lively

Still dominated by the memories of her late mother, Helen looks back on their lives together, and wonders why only her younger sister, Louise, found the courage to leave and live an independent life

Genres: Fiction, British Literature, Literary Fiction, Family, Death, Novels, Literature

210 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Penelope Lively is the author of many prize-winning novels and short-story collections for both adults and children. She has twice been shortlisted for the Booker Prize: once in 1977 for her first novel, The Road to Lichfield, and again in 1984 for According to Mark. She later won the 1987 Booker Prize for her highly acclaimed novel Moon Tiger.

Her other books include Going Back; Judgement Day; Next to Nature, Art; Perfect Happiness; Passing On; City of the Mind; Cleopatra’s Sister; Heat Wave; Beyond the Blue Mountains, a collection of short stories; Oleander, Jacaranda, a memoir of her childhood days in Egypt; Spiderweb; her autobiographical work, A House Unlocked; The Photograph; Making It Up; Consequences; Family Album, which was shortlisted for the 2009 Costa Novel Award, and How It All Began.

She is a popular writer for children and has won both the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Award. She was appointed CBE in the 2001 New Year’s Honours List, and DBE in 2012.

Penelope Lively lives in London. She was married to Jack Lively, who died in 1998.

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel is about a brother and sister, Helen and Edward Glover living in a South English village in the late 1980s. They are around fifty and have never married. We start at the funeral of their mother; she has dominated their lives and been a controlling and malign influence. Their younger sister Louise was the only one who escaped. Edward appears to be quite a neutral character, obsessed with nature and conservation. Helen, who is the main narrator has more of an edge, illustrated by her thoughts about her mother at the funeral:
"Eternal life is an appalling idea, especially in mother’s case."
There follows an interesting study of loss, especially of a dominating character:
“During the ensuing days Helen felt as though her mother were continuously present in the house as a large black hole. There was a hole in Dorothy's bedroom, in the bed where she was not, on which, now, the blankets were neatly folded and the cover spread. There were various other holes, where she stood at the kitchen table preparing one of those unappetizing stews, or shouting instructions from the landing or inspecting a caller at the front door. There were perambulant holes in which she creaked down the stairs or came in through the front door. Almost, Helen stood aside to let her pass or maneuvered around her large black airy bulk as she occupied the scullery or the narrow passage by the back stairs. It was weeks before Helen could walk straight through her, or open her bedroom door without bracing herself for the confrontation.”
The old and roomy house they live in is attached to a small patch of woodland called The Britches which is where Edward spends much of his time documenting the wildlife. There is a local builder who wishes to purchase the land and who had been frustrated by the siblings mother Dorothy.
As time goes on both Edward and Helen begin to change as their mother’s influence fades. This is where the novel is interesting. Lively is showing that even for those in later middle age can develop and experience life. The drawback is some of the choices she makes for her characters, counter to that it does show mistakes are possible at all ages. Helen falls in love with her late mother’s solicitor, Giles, who is silver haired and smooth talking. Lively portrays the obsession with another human being that can take over your life very well. She also sets the Glovers in sharp contrast with the acquisitive society around them; they simply aren’t interested in possessions. The woodland could be sold for building purposes and make their lives more financially comfortable, but neither Helen nor Edward are interested.
There is a spoiler ahead; Edward’s latent homosexuality and his acknowledgement of his feelings are, I think, meant to illustrate the ongoing problem of homophobia at the time. Edward was brought up at a time when such activities were illegal. Edward’s character is a good examination of repression, however the working out at the end left me angry. Not everyone who has repressed their true nature because of the society around them is going to make their first reaching out to another a fourteen year old! This just suggests that those who are gay are actually a danger to children if feelings are repressed. It was clumsily handled and for me let down what was actually a good analysis of loss and growth.

[JimZ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read ‘Judgment Day’ by the same author about a week ago, and read this novel after reading 'Judgment Day'. I was veering to 2 stars for this one, but the ending was good...it was not sappy or unrealistic, and so that informed my rating. My only critique is that it moved rather slow...however it was not a terribly long novel clocking in at 210 pages.

The book involves primarily a middle-aged sister and brother, Helen and Edward, who are both unmarried and used to live with their mother. She has recently died. Probably would not win Mother of the Year award from any of the readers of this novel. Throw in another younger sister who lives in London with her husband and two teenaged children, and a potential love interest for Helen, and there you have the main characters in the novel. I believed in these characters...they were real to me, and I liked that.

Edward is gay although that is not immediately clear in the book. He is 49 — he groped a 14-year-old boy who was working in Edward and Helen’s garden.... That’s sexual abuse.... The reaction from his two sisters were “oh you shouldn’t have done that, but now that you’ve done it, it’s water underneath the bridge. He should have just told you to sod off anyway, and left it at that.” 🤨 If that happened in 2022, I think he would have been arrested and thrown in jail. Interesting how an event can be seen one way in 1989 and seen in another way in a different time period.

Reviews
• https://vulpeslibris.wordpress.com/20...
• https://www.booktopia.com.au/passing-...

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book I found about two years ago when I was staying outside Limassol. I had tracked down a small second-hand shop - it's at the back of a concrete block of apartments, not too far from the main esplanade. Anyway after scanning the shelves inside and noting that the prices were high I rummaged in the sales baskets outside. I found Passing On and Lively's well-know Booker winner - Moon Tiger. The books were covered in dust.
I suppose I'm relating this because - she's such a GOOD WRITER. I tried Moon Tiger first - and did not like it - I got stuck with the pompous character of the old, know-it-all woman.

'Passing On' on the other hand - has made me think - Where the hell is my copy of Moon Tiger? I want it back Now! Yesterday, in my regular second-hand, I spotted a Penelope Lively - a very thin children's book. I didn't get it, but she is the kind of writer - where I think - Whoopee! and my eyes light up.

The Road to Lichfield - one of her other titles, listed at the back made me realise this is not my first Lively. There is something so familiar for me in Lively's style - in her sense of what makes a character tick; in her observations; in the details of a room or garden. She is so quintessentially English and one of her most admirable qualities, is her sense of moral or perhaps social justice.

The persistent and scheming Ron Paget - who wants to buy the Britches - a plot of 'wasteland' belonging to Helen and Edward Glover, brother and sister, is firmly thwarted in his money-making schemes. In Lively's world - the quiet people 'win'.

A second scheming character is the lawyer Giles Carnaby - (the carnal Giles) who plays on Helen's sympathies. Helen our main character at 52 and her brother Edward, 49 are released into the adult world after the death of their mother. The novel opens with the funeral of Dorothy Glover who has ruled her family with an iron-fist and intervened on numerous occasions to control the lives of her children.

I just love that Lively explores all those unattractive qualities often found in people in our modern society - people who manipulate, whose goals in life are status and acquisition of material wealth. Here, in an extract from the beginning (p.10), is where our author defines which side she is on:

Within the village wealth was unequally distributed. Of course; it always is. There were the Hadleys at the Old Rectory who were so much richer than everyone else that they were beyond competition, outside the fray. Their sleek cars, Mrs Hadley's even sleeker hunters . . .
Right at the bottom were those poor enough to be immune from competition, concerned only with survival. There were not many of these. . .
The Glovers were a problem, where wealth status was concerned. The house, one of the largest in the village, put them in one category. So did their accents and their education; old Dorothy's self-confidence was generations deep. But patently there was no loose cash swilling around at Greystones. You had only to look at their cars, at the furnishings within (nothing new within sight, no central heating, no dishwasher, only the most decrepit old twin-tub washing-machine); none of them was known to go abroad at all. As for their clothes . . .

The last ellipsis is in the text. I can see similarities in her style and tone with Penelope Fitzgerald - there is something similar in their observations of how people measure each other according to money, background and class. My kind of writers!!

[Annelies · Rating 4 out of 5]

What happens if a mother with a strong hold upon her two middle-aged, unmarried children, dies? In this book Penelope Lively gives us an ironical and in the meantime a bit sad view of them. As always, she uses a strong psychological approach. Both figures are a bit sad, there doesn't happen much in their lives, they still live as one did 'In the old times'. But it is only On the first view that there seems to happen not a lot. Step for step, the autor builds the psychological tense to an unexpected climax.

I just loved the personages. All personages seems to be a little awkward, none seems to be quite normal. But it is done with so much subtility that it doesn't prohibit you to to feel a bit sorry for them.

[Story · Rating 4 out of 5]

A deeply satisfying and moving story.

[Carolyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lively is one of my ‘go to’ novelists. I often feel a smile on my face when I’m reading her books as she has a fine sense of irony as well as great sympathy for her characters who are people you feel you could easily meet in life. She is now 88 years old with her most recent publication being a memoir that I’m still to read. In the meantime, I’m stepping into her backlist. Last month I read Treasures of Time (1980) and this month I’ve enjoyed Passing On (1989).

The novel opens with ‘the coffin stuck fast at the angle of the garden path’. it’s the funeral for Dorothy, the unlovable and largely unloved mother of Helen, Edward and Louise. Helen thinks ‘Mother was not a nice woman. I have always known that, and I can say it, because I am her daughter and so in the nature of things came nearer to loving her than anyone else ever did.’

Dorothy’s malignant spirit seems to haunt Greystones, the family home where the unmarried Helen and Edward still live. They seem comfortable with the run down house and Edward particularly is deeply attached to the Britches, the area of woodland that lies behind it. But change is afoot. Both of the unmarried siblings will face crises and so, to a lesser extent, will the married Louise. Through her characters, the author asks what is the point of it all? This is indeed ‘the oldest and most central concern of literature’. Elsewhere in the novel Helen, a librarian, realises that we consider ourselves and others ‘through the lens of that well constructed lie that is the good novel.’

I became more impressed with this novel as it went on. Lively moves effortlessly from an affectionate ironic tone to deep seriousness as the issues that each of the siblings face play out. Unique human experiences are placed within the natural cycle that the Britches represent - a cycle that is both implacable and restorative. For me, Passing On is a ‘well constructed lie’ that tells deep truths.

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh wow I loved this. Searingly well-observed, so painful and so beautiful. A truly crafted novel.

[Jeremy Silverman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Penelope Lively’s Moon Tiger was one of my favorite books in recent years. Passing On didn’t hit that same level, but it was still a treat—at least for the first three-quarters.

Helen Daimler, middle-aged, smart, generally sensible, but lonely, is a character you can’t help but root for. Her brother Edward, with whom she shares their family house—charming but crumbling—is even more eccentric, yet just as easy to sympathize with. The two lead fairly constrained and rather sad lives, but Lively writes about them with a light touch and plenty of gentle humor. Their younger sister Louise plays a smaller role. Once a rebel who escaped their small-town life, she’s now settled into something much more conventional—an upper-middle-class life in London, complete with a husband and difficult teenage kids. Hanging over all of them, even in death, is their recently deceased mother, a convincingly drawn but utterly awful woman—tyrannical and malevolent to the core. We mostly experience her through Helen’s consciousness, where the mother’s presence feels both oppressive and inescapable.

For most of the way, I was eager to return to this world and not at all looking forward to leaving it. But things got more complicated toward the end. While the book does a nice job trying to show some much-needed empathy for a closeted man, it ends up downplaying something that’s serious and harmful. You could argue that the characters’ attitudes are true to their time and place—small-town England in the 1980s—but it’s also hard to shake the feeling that Lively herself didn’t fully get the seriousness of it.

That was disappointing, but there’s still a lot to love about this book. The characters, the humor, and Lively’s thoughtful writing make it well worth reading.

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was really an interesting novel, and I enjoyed Lively's style very much. It's the first of her books that I've read and I'm very impressed.

As a psychological study of two siblings whose mother has recently died the novel succeeds wonderfully. The sister, Helen, tries to hold things together, but ends up becoming nearly obsessed with a married man. The brother, Edward, reels toward a breakdown as he attempts to cope with the realization that his life is out of whack with reality and that he's denied his true nature throughout his life. These are two middle-aged people who seemingly have drifted through life, without having made conscious choices of the directions of those lives.

In a way this novel read in a similar way to one of Anita Bookner's; I'm very fond of her novels as well. For more about Brookner, see:

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/...

In any case, I plan on reading more of Penelope Lively's books. She's one of Britain's best novelists from everything I've heard from friends and have read about her books.

[Roger Pettit · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Passing On", by Penelope Lively, is a very good novel. It is perceptive and intelligent and is beautifully written. At first glance, it seems to be a very slight book. But, in fact, it packs a much greater punch than many more seemingly weighty novels. It is very English in nature: its themes are the effect of the death of a close family member on those still living; emotional and sexual repression; and the impact of wealth and of class divisions. The characterisation is excellent (apart from a slightly unconvincing portrayal of a young male punk), as is the plot. All in all, a very enjoyable and thought-provoking read. I am now keen to read this author's other novels. 9/10.

[Mickey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my third reading of the lovely, slow-moving story of a middle-aged brother and sister living their lives following the death of their rude, brusque, unloving mother. The mother scoffed at them over every little thing, never praised them, bossed them and organized their lives. They are somewhat lessened by her actions, but have managed to come through with their own quiet personalities intact. They live in a Cotswold village, own their house and a piece of wilderness land attached to the house. Through directions in her will, their mother seems to manage their lives even from the grave.

They each have jobs and occasional bits of excitement in their lives, but really, they come to be pretty well satisfied with their quiet, slow, dull lives.

I love Penelope Lively's books, and enjoyed this one through each reading.

[Priscilla · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is novel writing at the height of its powers: the ability to examine the human condition and make some sense of it. Here is how families become dysfunctional, a mentally abusive parent, leaving in her wake children unable to communicate and to understand their feelings. Here is how lives of quiet desperation extend into their sunset years. They quietly confront the elephant in the room, when forced to do so, and quietly soldier on. This is a book both uplifting and sad, and it will be contemplated long after it is put aside. Like I said, novel writing at the height of its powers.

[Nicola Pierce · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this up for one euro in a local charity shop. I'd never read Penelope Lively before and wondered whether the book join the dusty pile of books I'll probably never read. Fortunately, I decided to give it a whirl and was pretty much hooked within a couple of paragraphs. Well, all I can say is that I am going to get everything this woman has ever written because this book was fab!

[Tam May · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars
***Some spoilers***

I really wanted to like this book because I've heard so much about Penelope Lively as a contemporary psychological fiction writer and the blurb for this book intrigued me. It's exactly the kind of story I like, full of possibilities. Unfortunately, this book feel very short, in my eyes, on delivery.

First off, there was a lot of telling. a LOT. I realize this is partly Lively's style but I would say the majority of the book was telling. And when there was finally a rather long passage of more showing (a conversation between brother and sister getting out in the open something about their feelings about their mother), a lot of it was just random thoughts with no direction. This is another problem with the book - it has no real story to hang on to. It has a situation (narcissistic mother who keeps middle-aged children under her thumb dies, what do they do now?) but no actual storyline. As a writer of psychological fiction, I don't buy into the idea that you don't have to have a plot because you're dealing with inner worlds. There still needs to be a story, a direction, something for readers to follow. Otherwise, like this book, it becomes a rambling bit of interesting incidents and thoughts with nothing to tie them together.

Finally, I had a HUGE problem with the whole homosexuality thing. Not only was Edward portrayed in an insultingly stereotyped way (homosexual as inherently unhappy, weird, unlikable and sexually deviant) but the issue of sexual molestation of a minor was treated as trivial. No one in the book (not Edward or his sister or the boy's parents) seemed to realize that it wasn't that Edward was attracted to another male but that he tried to molest a teenager. It was treated like it was no big deal. I get that the book was written in the mid-1980's when there was less awareness of the psychological consequences of sexual molestation on children and teens but it still seems to me unlikely that everyone would be so dismissive about it even for that time.

Overall, the book was an interesting premise and there were some great character explorations but some major issues with it for me.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Penelope Lively often writes about "small lives" -- or, to be more accurate, she reveals what profound emotions and ideas inhabit the lives of even the most seemingly modest people.

Thus it is in Passing On, which tells the story of two middle-aged children dealing with the death of their imperious mother and what happens to them in the months afterward.

The mother, Dorothy, is a vivid character, even though most of her life is described in flashbacks. She is full of opinions, almost all of them negative, and has a particular gift for cruelly debasing her children.

The two older children, sensible Helen and dreamy Edward, had lived in the same household with Dorothy until her death and were molded in ways large and small by her domineering, abusive personality.

The youngest, Louise, fought back against Dorothy verbally, and then escaped to life in London, but is now going through her own family problems with husband and children.

The plot developments are deceptively undramatic. Helen is smitten by the smooth talking charms of a family solicitor. Edward, a middling teacher at a private school, is unmoored by his mother's death, even though he spent most of his life simply trying to avoid her. He also becomes aware of a growing sexuality., which results in an incident that will bring a crisis into his life.

Juxtaposed to Helen and Edward is the intrusive, conniving neighbor Ron, a developer who most of all wants to get his hands on the overgrown acreage behind their home known as The Britches.

What happens next is not unexpected -- but it's also not patly predictable, because Lively doesn't write about archetypes, but about real human beings, who can be childish and impulsive at one moment, and coldly rational or bleakly cynical at another.

I can't tell you anymore without spoiler alerts, but I feel as though Helen and Edward will live on in my mental neighborhood for quite a long time, planted there by a master of language and psychology.

[Dave Parry · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the 1987 Booker Prize winning ‘Moon Tiger’ by Penelope Lively, which I read last year, & so when I saw this, which I think was her next novel, at a 2nd hand bookshop in Hay-on-Wye, I didn’t hesitate to pick it up...

From the start this is gently excruciating; it’s about the response of some siblings my age (early 50s) to the death of their mother & they’re appallingly stuck in their mundane lives, unadventurous, undiscerning, unconcerned... it’s making me contemplate ways to escape to something more unconventional & rewarding...

Well maybe they are concerned... assessing their lives so far, shocking revelations about the behaviour over the years of their late mother, who’s presence remains tangible in the house & their psyches; new developments seem doomed to failure, like old ones, through misunderstanding & crippling caution...

& then age-old neighbourhood rivalries re-surface & mingle with repressed sexuality, adolescent rebellion, envy, greed, unfulfilled hopes of love & companionship, exploitation & betrayal, blackmail, prejudice & revenge... it’s all going on in countryside villages in the 80s! My 21st century eyes winced at the moral realities of the age which nevertheless I recognise because, after all, I was there...

I really enjoyed this; it really is understated, the observations of where we end up after long, unquestioning lives are quite subtle & poignant & there’s a gentle realisation that however enlightened we think we are we’re actually as stuck in our ruts as everyone else; at the same time we see that life can still be brutal, people unforgiving & pain ubiquitous...

I’ve bought some earlier Penelope Lively on the strength of this & can’t wait to read it... I’m guessing I’ll end up reading everything she’s written, which is quite a lot!

[Alan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I greatly enjoyed reading this very British book that explores the lives of two intelligent but introverted people, a brother and sister, who find themselves in a position to re-invent themselves after the death of their elderly, oppressive mother. This book is much more about the understated British style of writing, sort of like a 20th century Jane Austen, than the story. The characters are ordinary people facing ordinary problems of aging, lack of money, difficult family members, and trying to understand and meet the expectations of others. Yet, through the author's eyes, they are observant and reflective, helping the reader experience and appreciate the challenges of social life of people in an English village in the 1980's.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Penelope Lively is so good. I’d say this book is strong with dialogue and characters, but give it low marks for plot/slow pacing at points. I really sympathized with Helen and so wanted more for her in life.
I was conflicted about some events toward the end, with Edward - you don’t want him to suffer, yet his actions really should have been reported to authorities. Penelope Lively seemed to have little sympathy for a youngster that should not have been treated as he was, and that bothered me. the way it was portrayed seemed to make light of something quite serious. Take it from the imposed-upon youngsters of the world. I wonder if it was partly a sign of the attitudes at time it was written.

[Patricia]

I've been meaning to read Penelope Lively for years. So glad I finally did. She is an absolutely exquisite author of character development. While the plot of this book is not exactly well defined, the characters and themes are finely wrought and actually serve to define a plot, if you will. The two primary characters, a brother and sister, are intriguing, and Lively brings them alive on the page in such a manner that you can see every gesture, feel every emotion, struggle with every dilemma. Even lesser characters, including an unappealing dog, a punk nephew, and especially the dead mother, are beings you can see and understand. I'm sure I'll read more of Lively.

[Helen Temple · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is about relationships. All kinds.
About feelings following the death of an elderly, difficult mother; guilt, anger, hate and others.
How each adult sibling feels and is affected by it.
I liked the descriptions of countryside and the home. I liked the way the three siblings supported each other in their own way and I liked Phil.
For me a thoughtful read.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn’t like this novel quite as much as The Photograph, but I find Lively’s novels very appealing. She often makes me laugh and I always sympathize with her characters and their travails. She knows her families.

[Abby · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m always in the mood for a short Penelope Lively novel. She’s Woolfian, in a sense, Woolf with half as much floridity and experimentation, but so delightfully English and introspective. Her particular affection for middle-aged people is compelling, too.

[Laila · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very British. Family dynamics. Appealingly flawed but relatable characters. Kept picturing Helen Mirren in the lead if a movie were made of this book. I like this author.

[Gabrielle Jarrett · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title Passing On has several layers of meaning. The matriarch passes on, dies. What she has psychologically wreaked passes onto her adult children. Their various emerging awarenesses of her mean spirit and how deeply it affected their lives form a good story told by a great writer. How they see themselves at the beginning, middle, and end of the story is yet one more model for adults willing to make changes by exercising awareness. A Lothario, a black mailer, and a free-spirited nephew join the cast for conflict and strong readability.

[Marianne Janack · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a wonderful book! Suzanne Berne recommended it to me (herself a wonderful novelist, in my opinion). I'm a big Penelope Lively fan, and this book--about an unmarried woman and her brother, dealing with the aftermath of their dead mother's control of their lives--was, as all Lively books are, a very satisfying read. It is both thought provoking eminently readable: I looked forward to going into my bedroom to read it at the end of the day.

[Rita Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

This English novel about a middle-aged brother and sister who recently lost their mother was completely engrossing much to my surprise. I just loved the subtlety and undercurrent of emotions swirling throughout the story. Creating characters that were so frozen in the past helped to bring out the
personalities and the plot ambled quietly after.

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a way it seems perverse to say one 'really liked' a book that dealt so vividly with acknowledgement of passing time and small, felt-to-be wasted lives. But the gentle skill with which the tale is told, the depiction of the means and ways they arrived here, and the people around them, is very well-evoked.

[Jean Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

A story that starts with the burial of a mother who left legacy behind of two now adult children who never left their childhood home and one who was able to. Quite moving in the portrayal of choices taken and not taken in life.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

A jewel box filled with riches of observation: of nature, of human nature, hope and sadness. The detail of the English flora and fauna are a delight. While the topics are weighty, the way the novel skips along through time makes the telling light as a feather.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a beautifully written novel. The adult children were abused by their mother. The book begins with the mother’s funeral. We gradually move on from there as the two children who were trapped at home with her begin to recover some semblance of a life. Very quiet, but also very moving.