Recently while casting around for something to read, having started a few new release novels and then given up on them, I found an old copy of Miss Read's At Home in Thrush Green. I've never known much about "Miss Read" - either the writer or her work - and so had to do a bit of googling to discover the human behind the pseudonym (Dora Jessie Saint, as it turns out, who lived from 1913 to 2012, almost a hundred years.)
The novel is set in an English village called Thrush Green. A whole host of characters walk its pages - a doctor, a clergyman, an ex-actress, a cafe owner, school teachers and a platoon of wives. (Indeed, there are so many people in Thrush Green that I often forgot who was who, but would eventually piece together all the different connections.) The basic plot revolves around a row of new homes that have been built to accommodate the village's elderly citizens. A committee must choose who are the most worthy candidates.
For the most part, At Home in Thrush Green is comprised of a series of mini-stories revolving around minor dramas to do with various sets of characters. The charm of Miss Read's writing is its human quality, her ability to write about everyday, garden variety difficulties - the cross word regretted, the selfish but tolerable relative. Many have compared Miss Read's narrow focus of village life with the novels of Barbara Pym, and this is true to a point, although the former doesn't have the latter's wit and delicious sense of irony. In fact, Miss Read is much closer to Alexander McCall Smith, with his focus on domestic, middle-class life.
I'm glad I read this, and would probably read more by Miss Read, but not in a hurry.
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