January 8

Quartet in Autumn
By Barbara Pym

Four lonely people, Edwin, Norman, Letty, and Marcia, are in the "autumn" of their lives, working together in a government office in London.  Although they are polite to one another, none seems to develop any real warmth or relationship for the others - either within or outside of the office. They remain reserved and emotionally distant, cocooned in their idiosyncrasies. Their lives change, however, when the two women retire.  [This is 1970's England, where retirement was mandatory for women at age 60 - they were "made redundant"].  Will any of the individuals climb outside their boxes and reach out to another human being?  Not likely, but Barbara Pym writes tenderly and with restraint of each one.

If you are not familiar with Barbara Pym (1913-1980), it may be because her novels deal with such gentle (and gentile) characters: vicars, church ladies holding jumble sales, and other spinsters and single gentlemen.   Most were written in the 1940's to 1970's.  She is a shrewd observer of human nature and she writes with wry, gentle humor.  There is even a literary society devoted to her writings.

Is there a lonely person out there who needs a friend?