Familiar Passions

by Nina Bawden

After an expensive dinner on their thirteenth wedding anniversary, James calmly announces that he wishes to leave Bridie. A cherished adopted child, she stepped into marriage- and a pet name- at the age of nineteen and has nurtured two step-children and a daughter. The habit of protecting others is strong is Bridie but now, redundant and with her happiness turned into a charade, she is uncertain of her identity. Unless she reclaims a portion of her past, Bridie fears she will have no future. The mysteries and consequences of Bridie's adoption form the bedrock of this enticing and skilfully woven novel. Here, with her characteristic wit and acuity, Nina Bawden peers into the familiar passions of family life, remembered insults, ancient scars and old deceptions.

Genres: Classics, British Literature, Fiction

162 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1979

About the author

Nina Bawden was a popular British novelist and children's writer. Her mother was a teacher and her father a marine.

When World War II broke out she spent the school holidays at a farm in Shropshire along with her mother and her brothers, but lived in Aberdare, Wales, during term time.
Bawden attended Somerville College, Oxford, where she gained a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics.

Her novels include Carrie's War, Peppermint Pig, and The Witch's Daughter.

A number of her works have been dramatised by BBC Children's television, and many have been translated into various languages. In 2002 she was badly injured in the Potters Bar rail crash, and her husband Austen Kark was killed.

Bawden passed away at her home in London on 22 August 2012.

Reviews

[Mary Durrant · Rating 5 out of 5]

This focuses on familiar passions of family life.
Bridie marries a much older man who has two children.
All seems well until the evening of their thirteenth wedding anniversary where James tells Bridie he is leaving.
Now Bridie is facing life on her own and questions her identity.
It's amazing how life goes on much the same as she remembers insults, ancient scars and deception!
Loved this!

[Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very enjoyable. James must be one of the most pompous male characters, I have come across!

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this novel Nina Bawden considers how those familiar passions of the title – which are found within all families – are apt to be repeated in successive generations.

Bridie Starr is a mere thirty-two – and perhaps the one thing that dates this really very good novel is that Bridie is viewed by almost everyone around her as being more matronly than any thirty-two-year-old is seen these days. At nineteen Bridie married James, swapping the warmth and security of her parents’ home – where she was their most cherished adopted child (they lost a child in infancy) – for marriage, motherhood and a new name.

“Bridie, love,’ he said. ‘Bridie Starr. A pretty name. At least I gave you that, if nothing else. If it wasn’t for me, you’d still be Mary Mudd.”

Before her marriage she was Mary, but her insufferable, new husband’s mother bestowed the name Bridie upon her and it stuck. Step-mother to James’s two children, of whom she was very fond, Bridie later had her own daughter Pansy – now eleven and at boarding school.

After an expensive dinner on their thirteenth wedding anniversary – James drives Bridie home in silence – where he calmly announces that he wishes their marriage to end. James explains that he is being transferred to Paris, that he doesn’t want Bridie to accompany him, but in fact remain behind as a sort of housekeeper to take care of the house and perhaps cater for any future guests. Nice! We are left in no doubt about what kind of a man Bridie has been married to, an unpleasantly selfish man – who congratulates his wife on having produced a pretty daughter – what with her being adopted he could never be sure what genes she might be passing on. Bridie leaves the family home in the very early morning, going straight to her parents’ home in London – with not too much regret for the marriage that is behind her. Hilary and Martin Mudd envelope her immediately in their unconditional parental love and support – outraged at the treatment of their daughter by her thoughtless husband.

Full review: https://heavenali.wordpress.com/2017/...

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bridie Starr was created by marriage to a much older man. When that marriage ends abruptly she questions her very existence. In this quite brief novel Bawden seems to explore the role of women and marriage in post war times with Bridie uncovering her own beginnings and questioning heritage and relationships. The rather abrupt ending left me full of thoughts. Overall an enjoyable read but I only rated it 3 stars as I wanted more than it delivered!

[Sarah Thornton · Rating 3 out of 5]

I always wonder which of Bawden's adult fiction or YA/children's fiction is the most brutal and this is another brutal entry for the adult section.

Hermione is stunning, and each of the other characters has been crafted so skillfully, even the disinterested Pansy and smarmy son-in-law that you can see these family feuds continuing exponentially.

[Laila · Rating 4 out of 5]

A 32 year-old woman is dumped by her much older husband in 1970’s England and is trying to figure out both her future and her past. I really enjoyed this! Bridie is a wonderful character. I’d like to read more of Bawden’s novels.

[Kerry · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love Nina Bawden's writing style, but found the plot of this novel very dull.

[Tim Leggatt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book strangely compelling - a sign of a great writer

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am on a roll with Nina Bawden. Probably not for everyone, but I love her books.

[Luann Ritsema · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slurped it down. Nina Bawden comes through again -- but lost a point because of the sappy (too many coincidences) ending.

[Colin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Classic Nina Bawden: closely observed, short and intense, Familiar Passions follows what happens to Bridie Starr after her husband tells her he is leaving her on the evening of their thirteenth wedding anniversary. Bridie, having married young is only thirty-two, with a life before her, but family secrets to unlock in her past as well. Bawden is particularly good at family relationships and the secrets and lies that underpin so many of them. First published in 1979, Familiar Passions clinically examines some very seventies attitudes to women and family life, finding them very wanting indeed.