I am very much enjoying my year of reading Barbara Pym. This novel completely charmed me through the antics of the characters.
Paula Bryne in her book The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym says, “Barbara Pym's male characters are more often than not shifty, feckless, selfish and self-dramatising, relying on excellent women to solve their difficulties.” The man in question in No Fond Return of Love, Alywin Forbes, absolutely embodies this description. His wife has left him and though they aren't yet divorced, he keeps drifting from woman to woman (when he's not sneaking around in order to avoid them).
Alywin's brother, Neville, may be a supposedly celibate priest, but he also has abandoned his duties at Easter because of an unfortunate young woman (Miss Spicer) who has apparently fallen for the handsome clergyman. Like his brother, he chooses avoidance rather than dealing with his problems. Another non-excellent man.
Dulcie Mainwaring has recently been jilted by her fiance and has attended a publishing conference to distract herself. The attractive Alywin faints during his presentation, attracting her attention. She also meets Viola Dace, the purported reason that Alywin's wife left him. Dulcie and Viola become friendly and share a morbid interest in all things Alywin.
I think all women can recognize Dulcie and Viola in ourselves and our women friends. We cringe a bit when Barbara Pym lays it out before us, but who hasn't figured out the schedule of someone we're interested in and lurked in a likely spot to “casually bump into" them? If you haven't, you're a better person than I am!
A thoroughly entertaining comedy of manners.
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