I'm giving warning upfront that my gut reaction to A Small Slice of Summer is "Gah" (pronounced with a glottal stop and a slight gagging sound). A Small Slice of Summer is a real Curate's Egg.
Letitia Marsden (almost exclusively referred to as "Tishy", yuk.) is a recovery room nurse. Perhaps the only recovery room nurse in Neeldom. She has had "an unfortunate experience" with a Medical Registrar. Which sounds waaaay worse than it was. He invited her to go to Brighton for a weekend and she turned him down. He got back at her by shocking her with the news that she is "old-fashioned" and not even very pretty. Ouch. Yeah, that's pretty much the whole "unfortunate experience". Because of this, Tishy doesn't trust any man under the age of 50 years of age. That's quite the sweeping indictment of an entire sex, based on one weasel. Right off the bat I don't have much sympathy for her.
As a recently certified nurse, Tishy is not exactly rolling in the dough. She spends a
fair amount of time calculating how much money she can spend in the cafeteria. All the girls are "protective" of poor little Tishy. Maybe if they weren't she could grow a spine. As it is, she is an invertebrate jellyfish. Squishy, yet occasionally poison. Deadly poison. Her version of poison is to scowl at men who have the temerity to smile at her. Which is precisely what happens when Doctor Jason Mourik van Nie smiles at our gal. Dr. Jason is good friends with cross-over character Julius van den Berg Effert (from the much more delightful Damsel in Green). Jason knows all about "the unfortunate incident"...seems like everyone knows about it. Move along, people, move along.
Evil Medical Registrar stops by the recovery room for a spot of dumping on our gal...and who should walk in, it's Doctor Jason! Who is Tishy riled up at? Doctor Jason. Why? Exactly.
Time to head off to Aunt Maud's to cool off. Disregard Aunt Maud, she never makes an appearance
. On the way to said mythical aunt, Tishy falls off a curb, into the path of a grey Jensen Interceptor. The car belongs to Jason, and never fear, he manages to brake nearly in time to avoid hitting her. Nearly. Her ankle is sprained due to her lame-o attempt to fall in a way that won't hurt her new outfit. Her tights are ruined...when Jason cuts them off of her, neatly, just above the ankle. Instead of taking her to Aunt Maud's, he kidnaps her...and takes her to Dalmer's Place. Yes, THAT Dalmer's Place...the part-time home of Julius and Georgie van den Berg Effert. It's okay, she's been there a couple of times before...her older sister Margo is a great friend of Georgie. Georgie immediately puts her matchmaking cap on and sees hearts and flowers where there are none. Yet.
Jason has a few things to tell Tishy:
1. Not all men are villains.
2. Tishy is almost pretty when she smiles.
3. Tishy is a very touchy girl.
Jason drives Tishy home - it's sort of on his way to Plymouth. Thus begins the Typhoid Infected Gypsy Interlude. Tishy and Jason bond over feeding the scruffy dog, boiling water, and burning their clothes. After wasting some perfectly good Rich Tea Biscuits on the hungry dog, Tishy gets her knickers in a twist because...well, really for no good reason. Tishy does not take well to some implied criticism of her old clothes...and the implied hint that they should have been burnt months ago...and this leads naturally to the realization that she is in love with Jason. Right. In typical Neels style, Tishy will now have to hide her love away. She knows it's a bad idea...she's more sensible than that. "Common sense at times could be a dead bore."
Jason and Reverend Marsden bond over a mutual love of porcelain figurines, such as Shepherd Boy with Dog. Men and their hobbies...
Back at the hospital Tishy pines a bit. She is looking plainer than usual. Her modest looks are suffering. Margo (remember the older sister?) shares a birthday party invitation to Georgie's birthday. Which is all well and good until she hears, I mean overhears Julius and Jason talking about her...and Jason damns her with faint praise. She's not that plain and she's a nice girl. She's mad...and she's not going to take it. Take what? Exactly.
House party at Dalmer's Place...Tishy saves the Day! There is an episode involving a bull in a field...she not only saves Georgie and her daughter Polly, she also distracts the bull so that she can save Jason too. During the house party, Tishy spends a fair amount of time with Cousin Karel...who is pretty close to her in age. They laugh and joke and have fun...almost like he's a brother. Let's keep that term "brother" in mind.
I could go through the play by play, but let's not. Suffice it to say, Tishy is in love, and spends a lot of time being snippy, cold, sour, uneasy...all traits that seem to endear her to Jason. Yes, Jason is in love (why, oh why?) but thinks that Tishy might really like the younger man, Karel. Jason finally proposes, but neglects to say the three magic words - I love you - so Tishy declines. Jason discovers that Karel really loves Mary, Tishy is rude and icy to him - which must be quite the attraction, because he tracks her down at work where Tishy shows her true colors, again, and is shrill, cross and furious. I predict a ton of make-up implied conjugal relations in their future.
Verdict: Gah. A Small Slice of Summer is the pathetic Side B. A few good moments, but overall, not so much. Tishy is even more unpleasant than the less than enchanting, Samantha. Jason is not unpleasant, but he just doesn't really register that much. There seems to be no good reason for him to fall for Tishy...maybe it's a gratitude thing for saving him from a charging bull? Kidding. The Great Betty was not on the top of her game with this one. The quote I used (from Pirates of Penzance) for yesterday's trifle would work just as well for this book, so here it is again."Individually, I love you all with affection unspeakable; but, collectively, I look upon you with a disgust that amounts to absolute detestation." I'm going to be super generous and give this a beans on toast.
Food: A slab of treacle tart because starch was filling. cold roast beef, rhubarb pie with clotted cream, bread and butter, scones, Rich Tea Biscuits mixed with canned corned beef (for the gypsy dog).
Fashion: Tan jersey cardigan with a shell pink blouse that she had bought instead of eating properly, old slacks and a cotton shirt that have to be burned, last year's blue and white striped dress, green voile.
Oh my, Betty Debbie--tell us what you really thought of the book.
ReplyDeleteBeans on toast--don't believe I've seen a rating that low before!
I actually remember this book and you nailed it perfectly!
Betty Barbara signing off
the Typhoid Infected Gypsy Interlude
ReplyDeleteROFLMAO!!!
Great Job Betty Debbie! I felt like this book went on a bit too long. A real compliment for a BN book is to be disappointed when it ends - I was glad when this one was over.
ReplyDeleteLove this review! Tishy quite frustrated me, too. I kept expecting more from the Unfortunate Experience.
ReplyDeleteTyphoid Infected Gypsy Interlude - Oh, that was ODD Not that the bull interlude was all that normal...
Here goes my defense: I like "Tishy" better than the more common "Letty" for Letitia AND the overheard conversation was humiliating regardless of his protestations later AND no well-heeled anybody in tailor-made clothes had better talk to me about burning my clothes when I'm using pence to pay for my lunches AND gypsies with typhoid ('nuff said) AND I did so like the bull scene (maybe you have to be a rancher's daughter to appreciate it).
ReplyDeleteEven so, I agree not Her Best.
I liked this one (tepidly) because we went back to Dalmers Place, which was such a nice er... place to be. I also liked catching up with all those cousins of Julius'. Probably Betty should have just written a sequel to DAMSEL and told us more.
ReplyDeleteI do think the Great One was really straining her imagination to come up with bull sequence. The Gypsy thing she's sort of done before. She did have some strange fascinations, didn't she?
I felt there was far too much narration - pages and pages without dialogue, and often the pages of narration held just one paragraph. Also, was quite so much of Georgina and the rest actually necessary? It added up to too little T and J interaction to make romantic sense.
ReplyDeleteThe many pages of proposal and getting together at the end were great.
I'm surprised to say I liked this book! Wanted to strangle Tishy at times but was rooting for her throughout. Loved that Jason got spurned twice!! Ending was more detailed than usual.
ReplyDeleteOn a re-read, this one comes off worse. There is no reason for "Tishy" to be so hyper sensitive about men. Jason comes off as a wimp. Sorry I am so down on it, but it just doesn't shape up!
ReplyDeleteIt is always interesting the 'hate' the more prickly heroines receive. Yes, Letitia is prickly, moody and over sensitive but she does have her redeeming qualities.
ReplyDeleteAfter a bad romance she has sworn off men. We think her reaction is understandable. Letitia presents as bit of a loner. She is the middle child of five daughters and tends to merge into the background. She appears to have no friends of her own (her social circle seems to consist of Margo and her friends) and it is revealed that she is happiest rambling alone. In those circumstances, a relationship breakdown will be magnified out of all proportion. It also seemed not be a clean break as the Medical Register (MR) is not above taunting her.
Jason is not the typical RDD. He actually smiles at the heroine on first meeting. The shock. Doesn't mind idle chat on long drive. Gasp! Doesn't flaunt the ex in the heroine's face.
Fate intervenes and in an era before the multi book family sagas, Neels has decided to wedge in Georgina's sequel. It is a plot device, Neels seems to favour for her quieter couples to entrap them together so they eventually express their mutual desire for a family but it does also tend to distract from their storyline (as it did in A Girl Named Rose).
We don't think that Jason is a wimp. Like Letitia, he is bit of a (nature loving) loner. He has five sisters so Letitia's crotchetiness is not a deal breaker for him. He is also trying to assess the damage the MR inflicted. He is a bit more prudent in picking his battles and much of her irritability can be attributed to her uncertainty about Jason. There is an age gap between them but it is not an irredeemable chasm as it is with some other couples.
We don't think the Bull incident is far off why Jason falls for Letitia. He wants to be loved and knows that Letitia is a caring person and realises through the bull incident and her interactions with Polly that she will be fiercely protective of those she loves. Jason wants that love.
Thank you for your insightful comments. I felt the same way about Tishy - in fact, I could relate to her a bit. Before I married, I was a shy loner, I was also a broke student who was not above “stealing” butter pats, sugar packets, milk cartons, and raw eggs (I pretended to drink them like Rocky) for making biscuits in my student apartment, and I wore dresses (all my clothes, frankly, and always purchased on sale) for years because I couldn’t afford to replace them. As a nurse, I did meet young doctors/residents who were hard to read ; I simply could not tell if they were flirting or not. So I felt both Tishy and Jason were relatable; as usual with BN Canon, I would have like even more interactions with them. Anyway, thanks again for your analysis; it helped me realize exactly why I liked this one better the second time around.
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