Two Terrible 60s Marriages

The Garrick Year / Margaret Drabble  
London: Penguin, 1986, c1964
172 p.

Emma, snobbish upperish class Englishwoman, and David, Welsh actor with violent tendencies, are married and have two very small children. Emma is just getting a look at a new broadcasting job with the BBC when David tells her he's been invited to perform in two plays in Hereford -- they don't consider splitting up for the season, rather Emma gives up her opportunity and arranges their entire family life as they move to the rural theatre town where she knows she'll be terribly bored. And she is. 

Fortunately they have a French nanny so Emma has lots of time to wander about feeling abandoned and unhappy, and to fall into a desultory affair with the celebrity director who has brought David to these plays. And David meanwhile throws himself into his roles and entertains himself with his fellow actors and lots of drink. 

It's only in the end when their little daughter nearly drowns that Emma comes to her senses. And by that time they are almost ready to move on again. Despite Emma's continual harping on her uselessness as only a mother and her unhappiness that is her constant companion, she girds her loins as they begin to talk of moving to the far east where David has another opportunity...

As you can tell, I wasn't overly impressed with this book or its selfish, whiny characters. There were insights about small towns and being the new person there; there were discussions of motherhood and of marriage, but as a whole I found this quite depressing. 

The expectations that women seemed to have in England in the 60s are very, very low. David has affairs, he gets angry and hits Emma or the walls, he is selfish and often unkind, but Emma seems to need this, she seems to enjoy it in a martyrish way. Their marriage is unpleasant to visit within this story, but Emma does say at one point that even in marriages that look messed up from the outside the participants are getting something out of it. I just can't see that there would be a lot to get from this one! Maybe I'll have to try another Drabble to see if I like another title a little better. 

A Bouquet of Barbed Wire / Andrea Newman
London: Penguin, 1976, c1969
288 p.

And another twisted tale of love and obsession... I found this book at a used bookshop and thought I'd give it a try. Have to remember that England, the 60s, and bad relationships are not my cup of tea.

It wasn't completely terrible, but all you really need to know is that it was made in a tv mini-series in the 70s and scandalized the nation with its approach to sex and hangups within a family unit.

 Young middle-class Pru gets pregnant and marries Gavin, her sexy lower-class lover/teacher who has a fondness for hitting her. Her father, Peter Manson, is driven to distraction by his dislike of Gavin and his unacknowledged desire to keep Pru for himself, in all ways. His soft and fluffy wife, Cassie, is all very understanding, and yet prefers her twin boys to her eldest daughter, herself. 

In his annoyance, Manson starts an affair with his young secretary - cliché alert! And then as part of all these prickly relationships, Pru does something that Gavin doesn't like at a family dinner, and on their way home he beats her so badly that she is hospitalized. And yet, STILL, he's not all bad. Even her own mother, angry at first, allows him to see Pru since after all he's her husband... and then forgives him completely once he turns his sexual charms on Cassie herself. Ew. 

This book also had some interesting bits, but in the main it felt voyeuristic, silly, and risqué for the sake of shocking readers. Really not a successful read for me. 

So, time to move on from bad marriages to something a little lighter, I think!