Book Review - Small Pleasures - Clare Chambers

Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

1957, south-east suburbs of London.
Jean Swinney is a feature writer on a local paper, disappointed in love and - on the brink of forty - living a limited existence with her truculent mother: a small life from which there is no likelihood of escape.

When a young Swiss woman, Gretchen Tilbury, contacts the paper to claim that her daughter is the result of a virgin birth, it is down to Jean to discover whether she is a miracle or a fraud. But the more Jean investigates, the more her life becomes strangely (and not unpleasantly) intertwined with that of the Tilburys: Gretchen is now a friend, and her quirky and charming daughter Margaret a sort of surrogate child. And Jean doesn't mean to fall in love with Gretchen's husband, Howard, but Howard surprises her with his dry wit, his intelligence and his kindness - and when she does fall, she falls hard.

But he is married, and to her friend - who is also the subject of the story she is researching for the newspaper, a story that increasingly seems to be causing dark ripples across all their lives. And yet Jean cannot bring herself to discard the chance of finally having a taste of happiness...

But there will be a price to pay, and it will be unbearable.

Warning: spoilers ahead.





Initially I was enjoying this book. Set in the late 1950's it follows Jean, a nearly 40 year old reporter on a local paper as she follows a story about a woman, Gretchen, who claims to have had a virgin birth. At the time of conception Gretchen was an inpatient at a hospital due to her painful rheumatism. The hospital run by Nuns only had female patients. Her daughter Margaret is now 10 and Gretchen has since married Howard, an older man.

As the story unfolds Jean tries to uncover information about Gretchen's past and Gretchen and Margaret are subjected to tests to see if parthenogenesis (a natural form of asexual reproduction in which growth and development of embryos occur without fertilization by sperm) has actually occurred. During all this Jean becomes closer to the family and, when Gretchen subsequently leaves Howard, they begin an affair.

I enjoyed the way it was written and although there is some homophobia represented in the story when Gretchen is shown to be a lesbian and leaves Howard to seek out Martha, who had been in the same hospital as Gretchen when Margaret was supposedly conceived, I didn't find this offensive but a sign of those times. Similarly some reviewers have complained about misogyny in the book and again I think this would have been common then and less likely to be challenged.

Sadly there is no happy ending. Gretchen attempts a reconciliation with Howard but he refuses leaving him free to continue his new relationship with Jean.

The truth of the circumstances around Margaret's conception are discovered and this is rather glossed over despite it being serious and alarming (rape). Another cause for complaints from reviewers. This, or Gretchen simply lying about being a virgin, was always likely to be the case but in some ways, given how the story ends it wasn't actually necessary to unveil what had actually happened.

Of course this is a work of fiction but there was a real competition run by a newspaper to find women who might have exhibited parthenogenesis and a medical study did take place. So some factual basis. There is also another event that was factual and was referenced both at the start and the end of the book. But why I have no idea. It did not add anything to this particular story and it actually gave it a very abrupt and unsatisfactory ending.


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