Cold Comfort Farm
When a well-educated young socialite in 1930s England is left orphaned and unable to support herself at age twenty-two, she moves in with her eccentric relatives on their farm.
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Community Reviews
Flora is a young single woman of nineteen years who has found herself orphaned after losing her parents during a flu outbreak. Now alone with only a modest annual allotment to sustain her, and no desire to marry or work in order to support herself, she has to decide who she will choose to take her on and see to her well being.
She chooses to go live with distant relatives in Sussex, who seem to feel some sort of obligation toward her, due to a mysterious wrong that was done to her father Robert Poste.
My final word: I loved the description of the house in Sussex and its history, and the names of the dairy cows: Graceless, Pointless, Feckless and Aimless. This story was very symbolic. I didn't catch the symbolism at first, but by the end of the story I was picking up on it. There were odd character names, like Mrs. Smiling (who was actually a bit of a downer) and Mr. Mybug. And then there’s landmarks like Ticklepenny’s Field. Quirky and outrageous, and a bit farcical, this story had its moments, but overall it fell flat. I think it would make a much better play or BBC series than book, giving the story a little life that is currently missing.
3 1/2 stars
She chooses to go live with distant relatives in Sussex, who seem to feel some sort of obligation toward her, due to a mysterious wrong that was done to her father Robert Poste.
My final word: I loved the description of the house in Sussex and its history, and the names of the dairy cows: Graceless, Pointless, Feckless and Aimless. This story was very symbolic. I didn't catch the symbolism at first, but by the end of the story I was picking up on it. There were odd character names, like Mrs. Smiling (who was actually a bit of a downer) and Mr. Mybug. And then there’s landmarks like Ticklepenny’s Field. Quirky and outrageous, and a bit farcical, this story had its moments, but overall it fell flat. I think it would make a much better play or BBC series than book, giving the story a little life that is currently missing.
3 1/2 stars
Well, I did not read the Roz Chast version, unfortunately. Would've made it more entertaining. It started out as unreadable dreck, and not the laugh riot I was expecting, but I gradually got into it and could appreciate the parody and the slightly chuckly humor of it all. If I ever get a tattoo, it will be of the dread sukebind!
And, alas, it must be said: "I saw something nasty in the woodshed!"
And, alas, it must be said: "I saw something nasty in the woodshed!"
This is one of those light novels brimming with zany characters that makes you laugh out loud at some points. If you need a break after a darker book, and want to read a modern classic in a few hours, you can't go wrong with this one. I haven't read much fiction written in the 1930s, but I found it to be delightfully frank about sex and devoid of sentimentality about either sex or love.
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