The People on Privilege Hill and Other Stories

by Jane Gardam

Book Overview

"Engrossing stories of hilarity and heartbreak" from the Whitbread Award-winning author of the Old Filth trilogy (The Seattle Times).

A collection of stories from a writer at the height of her powers--a celebrated stylist admired for her caustic humor, freewheeling imagination, love of humanity, and wicked powers of observation. This is a delightful grouping of stories, witty and wise, that includes the return of Sir Edward...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1933372567
• ISBN13: 9781933372563
• Release Date: July 2008
• Publisher: Europa Editions
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.3" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

The People on Privilege Hill

This was a gift. The recipient had it on her wishlist, and was happy with it. I've no details about the plot.

November Variations

Do not be put off by the title story in Jane Gardam's entrancing collection. For those who have read her magnificent novel OLD FILTH, it might seem a trivial recycling of characters from that book; those coming upon them for the first time may feel they have arrived half-way through the last act of a play. But last acts are what Gardam writes so well. Most of the characters in these stories are middle-aged or older, but they are people whom we feel we know within a page of their being introduced, and whose lives Gardam portrays with sympathy and grace. Through them, she confronts the specter of aging, conjuring it with the magic of her writing. Most of these stories move towards moments of gentle recognition, but they are by no means all of a kind. Their denouements range from reaching an understanding with a six-year-old grandchild to narrowly missing death in the London Blitz. A couple have surprise endings reminiscent of O'Henry; others barely end at all, but simply move on. There is a charming ghost story here, and a flamboyant nightmare with the simplest of Christmas conclusions. We meet a harmless old bachelor wrongly accused of pedophilia, an elderly lady in love with a gorilla, an almost-forgotten novelist trying to dispose of her memories. Two different stories involve country people sending a son off to college, and the beautiful but slightly diffuse final story shows four sixtyish woman friends attending a reunion at the college where they met. With two exceptions in South Africa and Belgium, all the stories have British settings; they will have a special appeal to those who can appreciate Gardam's ability to conjure up a place, a class, or a period. "Waiting for a Stranger," for example, depends upon its location in the Yorkshire Dales; "The Hair of the Dog" explores a corner of London with an affection that is surely a homage to Virginia Woolf in MRS. DALLOWAY. Gardam tips her hat to Woolf in two other stories also, but the author who comes most to mind is William Trevor, in a collection such as AFTER RAIN. Gardam's characters belong more frequently to the English middle-classes than Trevor's do, but both authors have the same respect for older people and the same gift of grace; with the simplest of materials, both work miracles.

"Memory is a miracle. My memory is the best thing I have."

Memories, and in many cases, the memories of the aged, infuse this collection of fourteen stories with surprises. Author Jane Gardam, two-time winner of the Whitbread Prize, creates ironies and absurdities for her readers, at the same time that she creates poignant and often moving scenes. Filled with wry humor and clever turns of phrase, this collection, like Gardam's novels, asks questions about whether we are the people we think we are, whether we are the people other people think we are, and whether we are the people we want to be. The secret lives and not so secret lives, the realities and the fantasies, and the faces we keep firmly fixed for the outside world--all become fertile soil for Gardam's exploration of her characters. In many cases, Gardam's characters are lonely souls, coping the best way they can. The unnamed narrator of "Pangbourne" married a bounder but then dedicates her life to visiting a gorilla in the local zoo. Mr. Jones, in "The Latter Day of Mr. Jones," is "the last of his tribe, last of his kind," an old man whose dogs have died and whose life revolves around sitting on a bench in the park and watching the local children play--until his motives raise suspicions. And in the title story, former judges Feathers and Veneering, whose story forms the basis of Gardam's novel, Old Filth, attend a party where the guest of honor never arrives, leaving the hostess distraught about her loss of face. Other characters illustrate the accidents of survival and the inability of each of us to control our lives. In "Babette," the story of a writer, a bathtub stored in the attic runs amok and creates disaster. In "The Flight Path," which takes place in 1941, a young man makes a life or death choice, barely thinking about it at the time. "The Virgin of Bruges" is a nun who goes to church one night, only to discover that it is being used for a wild, drug-filled orgy. In "The Last Reunion" four elderly women, one of whom is senile, gather at the school they attended to talk, argue, and complain. Gardam is a master at observing human nature, and as she incorporates her thoughtful observations into these clever and compulsively readable stories, the irreverent attitudes toward life, which many of her characters take too seriously, and the awareness of life's absurdities, which most of her characters do not notice at all, create a collection which is great fun to read. Her humor, dark as it is, keeps even the most poignant scenes from devolving into bathos, and her sense of play allows the reader to laugh along with her, even while identifying with many of her sad characters. A wonderful introduction to the wry delights of Gardam for anyone who has not already discovered her fascinating novels. n Mary Whipple Old Filth The Queen of the Tambourine Faith Fox: A Novel The Flight of the Maidens: A Novel