The Empty House

The Empty House....meh..

Coming Home and The Shell Seekers set a very high bar for Rosamunde Pilcher novels.  While I didn't expect any of her other work might reach the epic length or sweeping writing style, this book was a disappointment. Honestly, I made myself finish it then scratched my head thinking, WTF.

Virginia Keile is a 27 year old widow.  She is boring, self absorbed and a poor mother.  Not an intentionally cruel mother to her two young children, rather negligent to their needs. Virginia has lost her husband but her young children also experienced loss as they are now without their father.  So what does she do?  She leaves Scotland and heads to Cornwall to stay with a friend of her mother's while pining over "the man who got away" just prior to her marriage.

No please, don't comfort your children.  Keep your head in the clouds and day dream about a rude man who you wished you had married instead.  The ending seemed rushed and unrealistic, as if a deadline had come up and Pilcher thought - better wrap this up and get it to print!

I am a huge fan of Rosamunde Pilcher so it would be disingenuous of me to say how much I loved this book, just passing it off as her off her game.  Loved the setting but not the story. 2 stars

⭐⭐

Coming Home

Do you like big fat books, the sort that tell a family saga and have you so immersed you are sorry to see it all end?  This is the book for you.  It's set in the time period before, during and then after World War II.

 You'll read about Judith Dunbar who, at age 14, is left behind at a girl's school in Cornwall while Molly and Jess -her mother and little sister - depart for Singapore to join her father. With military familes there are often separations but I can not imagine not seeing one of my children for years while they finished school in another country.

This story takes you through Judith's younger years in England and her great friendship with the wealthy Carey-Lewis family.  The hardships of war, the only son of this affluent family leaving for his military service and the traumas of this time period.  There are happy times, revelations and tragedy - you are invested in each situation and get to know these people well.

The span of the book is 1938 through 1945.  

If you're an Anglophile, you will love this book.

Sharing with Joy's Book Blog for British Isles Friday.

The Shell Seekers

Note:  This review was posted in June 2020 on my old Wordpress book/food blog.  Starting anew with the Pilcher Project.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher remains one of my favorite books.  It's rare that I will reread a book unless I need a comfort read so to speak.  I needed that recently and desired to immerse myself into this story and return, through print, to Cornwall, London, Devon and Ibiza. 

There was much I had forgotten so there were happy surprises.  This book was written in 1987 and therefore a bit dated.  We open with our central character Penelope Keeling who is 64 years old.  She has discharged herself from the hospital after a heart attack and once you get to know her, you will get a sharp mental image of this strong, kind and likeable woman. She was brought up by an artist father, Lawrence Stern, and her French mother Sophie. There are many references and scenes that are pivitol regarding Lawrence Stern's paintings, the Shell Seekers among those whose importance deserves to be listed as a character in it's own. 

You will travel back in time to when Penelope was a young woman durng WW II, her enlistment in the WRENS and how she met her husband. The times during the war are well written and you are immersed in the scenes of people rationing, happy and grateful for any extra that comes their way, deprivation yet hope and love surround Penelope. Her children are Nancy, Olivia and Noel. With the exception of Nancy's introduction at birth, we get to know her children mainly as adults.  Each one is very different. Olivia is genuine and I know you will love her when she is introduced but Nancy and Noel are greedy and fairly unlikable.  You need characters such as this to cause tension and do you ever get it. 

I never realized how much food was mentioned in this book until I read a digital copy and used the digital bookmarks. 

When Nancy requested a meeting with Olivia to discuss Penelope's living situation, Olivia took her sister to a fancy restaurant she uses for business lunches. Omelette and salad for Olivia and consommé, escalope of veal with mushrooms for Nancy. 

Olivia plans to have a gentleman over dinner. Crusty brown bread, butter, a pot of pate de foie gras; chicken Kiev and salad. Olive oil, fresh peaches, cheeses, a bottle of Scotch, a couple bottles of wine. She bought an armful if daffodils and loaded all this into the boot for her car.

In Ibiza there were many  picnics by the pool.  One day Cosmo took Olivia out on a boat and their picnic that day consisted of bread and tomatoes, slices of salami, fruit and cheese and wine that was sweet and cool from him hanging the bottles in the Mediteranean. 

When they hosted a party there were boiled hams, roasted birds, concocted paellas, whipped eggs, stirred sauces, cheeses, breads and tomatoes. 

Chelsea buns when Noel was in Knightsbridge. 

In the kitchen the air was filled with the scent of roasting sirloin, baking onions and crisping potatoes. Penelope made a pastry, peeled apples, sliced beans and carrots. Later she would arrange cheeses on a board, grind coffee and decant the thick cream she’d fetched from the village dairy. 

Yorkshire puddings, beef, crisp and nutty vegetables, horse radish sauce and rich brown gravy.

A memory of Penelope's French mother Sophie as we travel back in time during the war.  Sophie made a chicken cassoulet in their Cornwall kitchen. 

Lunches shared with Danus: a pot of homemade vegetable soup, half a cold chicken and a crusty loaf of brown bread. Stewed apples and a jug of cream. Cold baked ham, baked potatoes and cauliflower cheese. For pudding there were jam tarts and baked egg custard. Fresh fruit salad, Shepherds pie, biscuits and cheese.

 

The fresh fruit available in England might have been different than what I had on hand, but it's a refreshing accompaniment to any meal.



Baked trout with almonds, new potatoes, raspberries and cream was the meal served for Noel after cleaning out the attic.

This meal of roast lamb and potatoes, peas and broccoli was just finished before a big blowout between Noel and Nancy.  They certainly showed their true colors and argued over money. I love the way Penelope put them in their place.

Overall I can say I enjoyed this book very much and it was worth rereading.  Family tensions and historical perspective, love and despair....it's all here.