I've been trying to read this book since December, it's moving, funny, insightful, absorbing, and compelling. It's also a bit to big to put in my bag and cart around. I could really do with a mild illness that would keep me off work for long enough to read it (I could bare another attack of shingles) because as it is I'm only reading it in fits and starts and it's a book that deserves rather more.
With the 1938 club in mind, and as encouragement to work out a reading strategy (which would probably be to stop knitting) for Jean I thought I'd read my way through the 1938 entries, and as these only cover a few pages I started in 1935 and read on (which made me want to read back, get into Jean's world and it's hard to leave).
These are eventful years, Jean is in her mid 20's, keeps developing crushes on inappropriate men, decides to move out of home due to friction with her step mother, loses her father, finishes a book, lives in Malta for 10 months, sees a therapist, hopes that war is not coming, has an article accepted by the Architectural Review. There is also the small matter of King Edward's abdication, and a visit to Germany and Austria in 1936.
Jean had private means, about £200 a year if I remember correctly, and which if the inflation calculator I found is accurate equates to about £12600 in today's money. That's not going to fund a lavish lifestyle but it gives her the luxury of time to follow her writing ambitions in these years. Thanks to these journals we also get a window into her life, and through it all sorts of insights into the past (amongst other things).
I can't recommend 'A Notable Woman' highly enough. It's a wonderful book and one day I'll report back properly about it.
This is intriguing, I hope you do write more about Jean Lucey Pratt in the future.
ReplyDeleteI will make the time to read her all the way through. I'm just rubbish with very long books at the moment, it makes me miss the luxury of all the time and energy I had as a teenager (there's not much I miss about those years). It also makes me appreciate how much my mother did for us in the way of cooking and cleaning.
DeleteI have ordered a ridiculous number of books in the past two weeks, but I am putting this on the list to find when I'm feeling a bit flush again. I do love reading diaries, and hers sound very interesting.
ReplyDeleteThey're great, she's an interesting woman who makes all the silly mistakes about men that most of us do. Her fathers death had me in tears simply because all she says is how much she loved him and how she wished she'd made that clearer to him. I'm not sure how much Simon Garfield edited - I'm guessing he cut out a lot of repetition and dull bits - it would be interesting to know, but certainly the Jean he presents us with is delightful company.
DeleteWas she one of the contributors to the writing project (the name of which I've just completely forgotten! - oh, the Mass Observation Project) of people recording their personal views of the war? It definitely sounds very intriguing, I shall look out for it.
ReplyDeleteShe was, and I think quite a lot of her material has been used already by Garfield in books based on the mass observation project. I've put the book on the arm of my favourite chair to encourage me to start at the beginning and keep going.
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