The Queen of the Tambourine - Softcover

Gardam, Jane

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1933372362 ISBN 13: 9781933372365

Publisher: Europa Editions, 2007

Synopsis

"Funny and moving."-The New York Times

In prose vibrant and witty, The Queen of the Tambourine traces the emotional breakdown-and eventual restoration-of Eliza Peabody, a smart and wildly imaginative woman who has become unbearably isolated in her prosperous London neighborhood. Eliza must reach the depths of her downward spiral before she can once again find health and serenity. This story of a woman's confrontation with the realities of sanity will delight readers who enjoy the works of Anita Brookner, Sybille Bedford, Muriel Spark, and Sylvia Plath. Winner of the Whitbread Prize for Best Novel of the Year.

About this title

About the Author

Jane Gardam is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Her novels include God on the Rocks, shortlisted for the Booker Prize, The Flight of the Maidens and Old Filth, which was shortlisted for the Orange Prize and named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. She lives in England.

From Publishers Weekly

This splendidly engaging, quirky epistolary novel is told from the point of view of Eliza Peabody, a middle-aged woman living in present-day South London. Eliza is an exceptionally unreliable narrator who begins a fervid letter-writing campaign to her neighbor, Joan, after Joan abandons her husband and children to go see the world. Early on, Eliza writes: "After all, any woman must be sick who can leave that wonderful house, those two energetic children, all Charles's money and dear, uncomplaining Charles himself.... Turkey, Afghanistan, Nepal, China?all this was done by Victorian women, Joan. There is no need for us to follow the intrepid trail again." Soon it becomes clear that Eliza's letters are attempts by one woman to keep another woman down and, by doing so, to justify her own listless life. But Eliza's effort slides into temporary madness. It is revealed that Eliza receives no responses to the scores of letters she writes Joan; that Eliza hardly knows Joan and that, in fact, she doesn't even mail all the letters. This last bit of knowledge becomes increasingly important as, ironically, Eliza's letters allow her to tell her own story. A series of bizarre twists follow one another (for instance, Joan's husband and Eliza's husband move in together) as Gardam knits together antic humor, a complex narrator and a sophisticated narrative form, all the while showing an admirable trust in the reader's ability to perceive the intricate pattern she has woven.
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About this edition

• Publisher: Europa Editions
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 1933372362
• ISBN 13: 9781933372365
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 226