In my last post I wrote about the value Clare Chambers grants suburban life in her 2020 novel Small Pleasures. Her protagonist, Jean Swinney, unmarried, in her early 40s and living in the suburbs of South East London with her widowed mother, leads a life of routine and duty, punctuated by ‘[s]mall pleasures – the first cigarette of the day; a glass of sherry before Sunday lunch; a bar of chocolate parcelled out to last a week; a newly published library book still pristine and untouched by other hands; the first hyacinths of spring; a neatly folded pile of ironing..’ Continue reading “A miracle in suburbia”
Category: 21st century fiction
Suburban life
A few years ago, when telling a friend of my forthcoming move to Muswell Hill (an area in North London) he said, pityingly, ‘It’s a bit suburban there…’ Geographically speaking he was right: Muswell Hill is a London suburb – it’s more than 5 miles from Central London, in Zone 3 of the London travel network and the landline phone numbers begin with 0208 (rather than 0207, the mark of inner London). But his pitying tone conveyed the fact that the word ‘suburban’ is often used pejoratively to describe a particular lifestyle and mindset: conservative, small-minded and safe, in contrast to both the excitement of city life and the freedom and beauty of country living. Continue reading “Suburban life”
Food for a queen
In my last post I wrote about the use of food for diplomatic purposes in The Mirror and the Light, the final volume in Hilary Mantel’s Thomas Cromwell trilogy. Continue reading “Food for a queen”
Food and politics
Throughout this blog I’ve written about the way that food in literature is always about more than just the food. Amongst its many narrative functions, food may reveal character, act as a metaphor for feelings and relationships or reflect key themes and issues in the text. Continue reading “Food and politics”