Small Pleasures

Small Pleasures, long-listed for the Women’s Prize and highly acclaimed across the board, did not disappoint. The tale is told from the perspective of Jean in 1950’s London, a newspaper reporter investigating the story of a supposed virgin birth. Trapped in a life of dullness and duty to an infirm, shut-in mother and chained to the respectable hobbies of an unmarried, almost-forty year old woman; Jean is desperately bored and terribly lonely. The investigation springs surprising friendship and whispers of romance that had long been forgotten, but at what cost?

Clare Chambers has a way of keeping pace and plot tied up neatly together, despite a lack of major events or even serious narrative peaks and troughs. It was a genuine pleasure to be threaded along through fifties south London (especially as a contemporary resident of the same areas!). The chapters are divided by household tips that Chambers got directly out of magazines and newspapers from the period, and she also throws in the occasional article - fictional, but entirely in tone, which brings the book to life in a multi-layered kind of way. She is an excellent writer, and this novel definitely made me want to read more of her work.

Chambers really digs into female friendships in post-war Britain, with a shortage of men and a newly found freedom (trousers and all), as well as mother-daughter relationships. There is also a secondary narrative centring around the flipside of ‘respectable society’, featuring homosexuality and sex/ conception outside of marriage, which she really does justice. My only complaint is the ending, which I agree with other reviewers could be understood in a myriad of ways - but I definitely won’t be spoiling it here! All round a great, steady novel.

CW: Abortion, mention of rape.