book data
175 ratings,
3.97
average rating, 19 reviews
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published
November 2000
by Moyer Bell Ltd
(first published 1982)
details
Hardcover
isbn
1559212349
(isbn13: 9781559212342)
description
An Unsuitable Attachment is set in a parish outside of London. There the novel's "unattached" characters work out a confusing web of match…more
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 246)
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4 stars (81)
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3 stars (36)
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1 star (1)
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avg 3.97
editions: all | this edition
editions: all | this edition
Read in February, 2009
My sixth Barbara Pym book this year. I'm not giving it full marks because it was a little 'twee'. While predictably romantic, there still was a certain 'who's going to marry who' at the end. Typical of Pym, however, she likes to explore some 'taboo' topics (well, at least taboo for her and her time) such as the whole cross socio/economic theme (marrying outside one's class, etc). I still laughed at parts (like the Irish priest on the plane to Rome who kept saying "did ye see the little bott...more
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Read in September, 2009
This lightly humorous tale is set in a north London parish in the 50s/60s and concerns the marrying off (or not) of some members of that parish. Both the author and the characters in it assume that most people go to church, and that that church is CofE.
It is of its time, so can seem a little twee, with Ianthe being a little shocked that a woman knows about wine and sentiments such as "like many modern young women she had the right old fashioned ideas about men and their work"...more
It is of its time, so can seem a little twee, with Ianthe being a little shocked that a woman knows about wine and sentiments such as "like many modern young women she had the right old fashioned ideas about men and their work"...more
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Read in March, 2010
I read this book for the second time after reading it a year ago, and like most Barbara Pym books I have read, found it even more funny and sweet and well written the second time around. Like calling dinner "tea", pickled beets, marmite, and rock cakes, Barbara Pym is an acquired taste and not for everyone. If you do not delight in Barbara Pym's books, I recommend them nonetheless as a soporific. If you don't care for quirky, stylish, original English people going about their lives in ...more
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Read in January, 2010
I did not enjoy this book and, consequently, did not actually finish it. I actually read more than half of it and realized that I was torturing myself. There are a few redeeming qualities, including the names of the characters. The only thing I looked forward to was the entrance of new characters only to see his or her name. I also was semi-pleased to realize a marriage that happened between characters in Pym's Excellent Women.
On the surface this seems like a book that would appeal ...more
On the surface this seems like a book that would appeal ...more
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Read in December, 2009
This is a nicely written glimpse into daily life in north-west London in the 1950's. The quaintness is nicely balanced with the author's great sense of humor. Her ability to poke fun at her own genre (novel writing) and the somewhat antiquated idea of 'suitability' bring us back to a bygone era but allow us to laugh at it a little, too. Her characters have a nice sense of reality to them. The reader gets a great impression of life back then, and how different social classes saw themselves an...more
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Read in August, 2009
Spare, understated writing, which adds power to statements like this:
"She sat humbly in the cold church, making some effort to get into the right mood for the service. God is content with little, she told herself, but sometimes we have so little that it is hardly worth the offering."
"She sat humbly in the cold church, making some effort to get into the right mood for the service. God is content with little, she told herself, but sometimes we have so little that it is hardly worth the offering."
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Read in June, 2009
The setting is a village in England in the 1950s so it should be a sure hit for me but I found the story and characters to be pretty boring.
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Read in January, 2010
recommended to Kate by:
Nancy Krecommends it for: Anglophile and Masterpiece Theater aficianadoess
This was my first Barbara Pym. Liked it, didn't love it, but rushed to the library to get two more.
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Read in January, 2009
Pym's usual dry wit and a very good read, but not as terrifically wonderful as Excellent Women.
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Read in March, 2008
The modern world makes itself known in this Pym. Girls with "odd" hairstyles and eccentric clothes would seem to threaten the status quo -- if their stodgy neighbors weren't so quick to dismiss them and their ilk. Little did that crew know that the hippies were coming, the hippies wer ecoming! By the way, who knew how many different types of clergy there were, back in the the day, and how much your relation to a clergyperson, however, impoverished, determined your social position!
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Read in February, 2009
I enjoyed this novel ,I am a devotee of Barbara Pym like her other novels there are quirky characters and situations she deviates a little as the setting is in north London and not a small vicarage where everyone knows everyone .She stays faithful to her wonderful style of writing .
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Read in September, 2008
This book was missing the crispness of other books I've read by Pym. It also lacked that unsettling feeling that I've felt towards other Pym characters (by clinging to their oh-so-proper lives, they're courting a life of regret and loneliness). I also didn't like how either the word 'suitable' or 'unsuitable' made its way onto nearly every page.
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This is the novel that was rejected by Pym's publishers after 5 straight winners. She did not write again for 10 years.
While I understand how upsetting that was for Pym, I can see why they rejected it. It is aimless. The characters are shadows of her other creations, flat and colorless. I was disappointed.
While I understand how upsetting that was for Pym, I can see why they rejected it. It is aimless. The characters are shadows of her other creations, flat and colorless. I was disappointed.
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Read in November, 2009
Barbara Pym writes of such restrained, easily embarrassed but never willing to show it people. Ianthe's almost hardly there love story enthralled and everyone else was five parts funny and one part tender.
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Read in September, 2008
Nothing earth shatttering just a nice story that takes place in another time. Interesting characters. Very little plot. I enjoyed the prose.
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a bunch of unremarkable adults saying and doing basically nothing. typical barbara pym.
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I've read this book but am planning to re-read it so I'll edit my review then.
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Read in August, 2008
Barbara Pym is one of the best writers ever.
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