The Pumpkin Eater is a surreal black comedy about the wages of adulthood and the pitfalls of parenthood. A nameless woman speaks, at first from the precarious perch of a therapist’s couch, and her smart, wry, confiding, immensely sympathetic voice immediately captures and holds our attention. She is the mother of a vast, swelling brood of children, also nameless, and the wife of a successful screenwriter, Jake Armitage. The Armitages live in the city, but they are building a great glass tower in the country in which to settle down and live happily ever after. But could that dream be nothing more than a sentimental delusion? At the edges of vision the spectral children come and go, while our heroine, alert to the countless gradations of depression and the innumerable forms of betrayal, tries to make sense of it all: doctors, husbands, movie stars, bodies, grocery lists, nursery rhymes, messes, aging parents, memories, dreams, and breakdowns. How to pull it all together? Perhaps you start by falling apart.
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“A subtle, fascinating, unhackneyed novel . . . in touch with human realities and frailties, unsentimental and amused. . . .So moving, so funny, so desperate, so alive. . . . [A] fine book, and one to be greatly enjoyed.” -Elizabeth Janeway, The New York Times
“A strange, fresh, gripping book. One of the the many achievements of The Pumpkin Eater is that it somehow manages to find universal truths in what was hardly an archetypal situation: Mortimer peels several layers of skin off the subjects of motherhood, marriage, and monogamy, so that what we’re asked to look at is frequently red-raw and painful without being remotely self-dramatizing. In fact, there’s a dreaminess to some of the prose that is particularly impressive, considering the tumult that the book describes.” —Nick Hornby, The Believer
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: Fair. A readable copy of the book which may include some defects such as highlighting and notes. Cover and pages may be creased and show discolouration. Seller Inventory # GOR000694440
Book Description Mass Market Paperback. Condition: VERY GOOD. Pages slightly tanned. 158 pages. -- Please feel free to ask for additional information, or detailed photos. US orders ship USPS from Niagara Falls, NY. Canadian orders ship from Ontario. Seller Inventory # 12366
Book Description Paperback. Condition: Very Good. The Pumpkin Eater This book is in very good condition and will be shipped within 24 hours of ordering. The cover may have some limited signs of wear but the pages are clean, intact and the spine remains undamaged. This book has clearly been well maintained and looked after thus far. Money back guarantee if you are not satisfied. See all our books here, order more than 1 book and get discounted shipping. Seller Inventory # 7719-9780140021660
Book Description Paperback. Condition: Very Good. This book is in very good condition and will be shipped within 24 hours of ordering. The cover may have some limited signs of wear but the pages are clean, intact and the spine remains undamaged. This book has clearly been well maintained and looked after thus far. Money back guarantee if you are not satisfied. See all our books here, order more than 1 book and get discounted shipping. Seller Inventory # 6545-9780140021660
Book Description Soft cover. Condition: Very Good. Reprint. Paperback. Slight browning to pages through age. Slight foxing to end pages. May's second marriage to Colonel Herbert Brown-Lacey is turning out to be a terrible mistake. 158 pp. ( We carry a wide selection of titles in The Arts, Theology, History, Politics, Social and Physical Sciences. academic and scholarly books and Modern First Editions etc.). Seller Inventory # 079217
Book Description Soft cover. Condition: Good. Tanning of pages. Bumping of cover edges. Faint scratches due to shelf wear. Inscribed fly leaf. Humour, poetry and heartbreak run hand in hand in Penelope Mortimer's story of a mother's emotional breakdown and her husband's estrangement. The Pumpkin Eater, with its vision of the strength and frailty of every woman, is among the most moving novels. Seller Inventory # 000234
Book Description Condition: Used: Acceptable. book has significant signs of wear and usage, such as spine creases etc. May have former owner's marks or be ex-library. However still fine as a reading/reference copy. Sold by a UK seller. Seller Inventory # 6900--04020-03-04-2021
Book Description Couverture souple. Condition: bon. RO60149005: 1970. In-12. Broché. Etat passable, Coins frottés, Dos fané, Papier jauni. 157 pages. Texte en anglais. Quelques rousseurs. . . . Classification Dewey : 420-Langue anglaise. Anglo-saxon. Seller Inventory # RO60149005