Historical Fiction Mini Reviews: A Tender Thing and Miss Benson's Beetle

Eleanor O'Hanlon is done with her boring life in Wisconsin. When she sees an advertisement for an open call for a show in New York City, she decides to head to the big city and audition. While she is not cast in that show, her audition impresses composer Don Mannheim. He invites her to be the star of his controversial new musical "A Tender Thing." The show tells the story of a biracial couple, and 1950s audiences are furious. As tensions rise both onstage and backstage, Eleanor must decide who she wants to be as an actress and as her own person. 

Emily Neuberger's love for the theatre is evident throughout A Tender Thing. Her descriptions of singing a perfect song or being exhausted after a lengthy rehearsal are excellent. But this story succeeds and fails with Eleanor. She is unexperienced but lucky in almost every way--she miraculously lands a leading role in a Broadway musical with no training, men find her intriguing, and this is the first time she sees the difference between the treatment she receives as a white woman and the treatment her costar Charles receives as a black man. This book might be a good pick for readers who love theatre, but I sometimes found it a bit difficult to read as everything consistently works out for Eleanor.

A Tender Thing
By Emily Neuberger

G. P Putnum's Sons April 2020

320 pages

Read via Netgalley 

Things are difficult in 1950s London, and Margery Benson is just trying to keep her head down and make it through another day of teaching home economics. When students pass around a nasty caricature of her, she finally snaps. Margery leaves her job and her home to embark on a sacred quest. Ever since childhood, she has wanted to find the mythical golden beetle of New Caledonia. With the unlikely Enid Pretty as her assistant, she sets off for an adventure unlike anything she has ever experienced. 

Miss Benson's Beetle, at its heart, might be a story about finding what gives you joy. Margery has been constrained by society's rules about what a woman should do, despite never finding her place there. Enid has used her looks to make it through life, but living in the jungle with Margery allows her to discover who she wants to be and how she wants to act when her life is not dictated by men. Rachel Joyce writes these two very different women so well, and the story of their growing friendship is compelling. Unfortunately, the book is a bit long and Joyce introduces a third storyline which doesn't add anything to the story. While this is not my favorite Joyce book, I have certainly found a place in my bookish heart for Margery and Enid and their adventures.

Miss Benson's Beetle
By Rachel Joyce
Dial Press November 2020
352 pages

Read via Netgalley 

Also by Rachel Joyce:

The Music Shop

The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy 

Review: The Music Shop

On a run-down street in England, there is a music shop. The owner Frank stubbornly continues to stock the shop with his beloved records, even as his reps tell him that time is almost over. Frank has a gift for knowing exactly what music people need. His shop is a beacon to his customers and the other people who live and work on the street--Frank's assistant Kit, a tattoo artist, a former priest, the baker, and a pair of brother undertakers. One day, a beautiful woman faints outside and the two strike up a friendship as Ilse asks Frank to teach her about music. Their tentative lessons will help them both open up their hearts to other people and to music again.

The Music Shop is a love story on multiple levels. From the first time they meet, readers wonder if Frank and Ilse will be able to overcome their worries and love each other. But it is also a story of love for music, for a certain place and time, and for your community. Parts of the story are told in flashback, as Frank remembers his mother introducing him to the music of Bach and Beethoven and discovering Aretha Franklin and The Sex Pistols. Readers are also treated to a beautiful look at what it means to be a part of a neighborhood where you commiserate with your neighbors at the local bar, help them out in times of crisis, and fight gentrification alongside them.

Rachel Joyce clearly excels at writing about the lives of everyday people--no one in this story is going to become a millionaire or discover they are a member of the royal family. But we get to see the joys and tragedies of their lives and remember with the characters that a good friend and a good song can go a long way in carrying us through. This is a sweet book and there's never really any doubt that everyone will end up with a happy(ish) ending, but it's a delight to read while humming along the entire time.


The Music Shop
By Rachel Joyce
Random House January 2018
256 pages
Read via Netgalley

Other books by Rachel Joyce: The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessey, Perfect

Harold Fry, Queenie Hennessy, and Related Stories

               


When The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry begins, Harold receives a letter from a former colleague named Queenie. She is dying and has written to say goodbye. Harold writes a letter back but instead of just dropping it into the mailbox, he starts walking. He decides to walk across England, determined to get to Queenie and see her one last time. In The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy, readers spend the same span of time with Queenie as she learns that Harold is coming and tries to hold on until he arrives.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage was a huge hit for debut novelist Rachel Joyce. In The Love Song of Queenie Hennessy, readers get the other side of Harold and Queenie's story. I don't know if Joyce always planned to write a second book about these characters or if she made that decision after seeing the love that readers had for Harold. Either way, the second story never felt entirely necessary to me.

I enjoyed reading about Harold's adventures in the first book. Harold was a delightful character and it was wonderful to read about people looking out for and caring for each other in a time when that seems rare. I think it's the first time I really thought about the lack of elderly protagonists in literature and set out to find more of them.

Reading The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy was a tender, lovely experience. The book is its own sort of love song to the quiet moments of love and life. But hearing Queenie's side didn't seem to add much to the story overall and revealed few things that we didn't already know about this pair's history. I'm glad I experienced the story of Harold and Queenie, but I wonder if it might have been better served in one book that alternated between perspectives.



Do you recommend any connected stories?  Do you think they are necessary or is the story better when it is told only once?

Review: Perfect

Perfect

By Rachel Joyce

Random House January 2014

400 pages

Read via Netgalley

My review of Rachel Joyce's new book Perfect is up at the Atlantic Highlands Herald. You can read it here!

Review: The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

By Rachel Joyce

Random House July 2012

336 pages

From the library

My review is up at the Atlantic Highlands Herald. See you there?