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| Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day / Winifred Watson Bath: Persephone, 2008, c1938. 234 p. |
Heading back to the past this week with a bunch of reviews of books from my own shelves, all classics that I've been meaning to read for ages. This one has been on my TBR for a long time -- and we made it into an event, I read the book and then we watched the movie! (and yes, the book was better)
Miss Pettigrew is a middle aged child minder, down on her luck, when her temp agency sends her to a potential job -- but the messages cross and she ends up at the apartment of Delysia DeFosse, a kind of glamour girl in diaphanous clothing with multiple men friends and a party lifestyle. Miss Pettigrew stays, however, dispensing down to earth advice from her clergyman daughter's persepective, and inadvertently fixing many elements of Delysia's life. All in one day!
This is a romp of a book, from the 30s, and it packs in quite a lot of event into one pivotal day of Miss Pettigrew's life. It's a fairy tale; Miss Pettigrew is desperate and destitute in the beginning, thrown into the orbit of a Bright Young Thing, gets all shined up thanks to Delysia's makeup and costume friends, goes to her first nightclub, and meets a nice rich man by the end. Her life has been completely unpended. It is a favourite of many, and it is a delight in many ways. The humour which comes out of the contrast of Miss Pettigrew's upbringing and experience with Delysia's lifestyle and social whirl is very amusing, and the book includes funny line drawing to illustrate the storyline also. I really did enjoy a lot of this.
However, as a book from the late 30s, the casual antisemitism in it is quite jarring. It does colour this book for me. And there are light, tossed off comments about men beating women, as if it is natural and expected, haha. I tried to overlook these but unfortunately it does bring down the enjoyment of this story -- while you can think, oh it's of its time, that doesn't mean you will also dismiss it now. A mixed bag for me for all these reasons.
I agree that the book is much better, though I also agree with you about the issues. I love the cast of the film though. I wish that more of Winifred Watson's books were available now, I didn't have any luck even with interlibrary loan.
ReplyDeleteThe casting was great in the film but I didn't like the American addition as much as the original book.
DeleteIt is so hard to find her books, I haven't had much luck beyond this one either.