Less Than Angels

Reading Paula Byrne's biography gave me the urge to read all of Barbara Pym's books. I'd only read the first three, so I started this binge with her fourth published novel, and enjoyed it very much. It's set among a circle of anthropologists and anthropology students, a slyly humorous way of getting us to stand back from our mating rituals and social customs and regard them for the oddities they are. Though she's frequently compared to Jane Austen, JA (for all her wit and humor) has a kind of high moral earnestness that I find Pym sidesteps quite deftly. She sees us as “less than angels,” indeed, and yet still conveys the warm appreciation of humanity that shines through all the best comic writing. I'm definitely glad I followed my impulse and will be reading more Pym soon.

Re-read on October 16, 2016. Tempted to upgrade it to 5 stars.

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‰ЫПAnd so it came about that, like many other well-meaning people, they worried not so much about the dreadful things themselves as about their own inability to worry about them.‰Ыќ

‰ЫПShe had imagined that the presence of what she thought of as clever people would bring about some subtle change in the usual small talk. The sentences would be like bright jugglers‰ЫЄ balls, spinning through the air and being deftly caught and thrown up again. But she saw now that conversation could also be compared to a series of incongruous objects, scrubbing-brushes, dish-cloths, knives, being flung or hurtling rather than spinning, which were sometimes not caught at all but fell to the ground with resounding thuds.‰Ыќ