Just finished reading one of the books from Virago Modern Classics, The Brimming Cup by Dorothy Canfield, written just after the end of the first World War. It takes place in rural Vermont and focuses on the year in the life of a wife and mother named Marise, who goes through early midlife existential angst precipitated by her youngest child going off to school and the arrival of an attractive new neighbor who has designs on her.
It took me over a month to get through it because I kept putting it down and reading other things. On the one hand, the writing... is — very — oh so... dramatic, and overwrought at times. So! many! exclamation points... and ... ellipses!
Yet underneath that is a well-written and enjoyable melodrama, and underneath that are some interesting reflections on human nature, mortality and immortality, what helps people get through the day, and how to find something to believe in when your old beliefs are no longer enough. It also sounds like Marise and her husband Neale have a really healthy marriage, and I like to think that when their kids are grown, they'll get to leave their house in rural Vermont from time to time for some extended vacations in Europe. (Though due to the timing of the book's events, that would place their retirement during World War II... )
