Prudencia Prim is a young woman of intelligence and achievement, with a deep knowledge of literature and several letters after her name. But when she accepts the post of private librarian in the village of San Ireneo de Arnois, she is unprepared for what she encounters there. Her employer, a book-loving intellectual, is dashing yet contrarian, always ready with a critique of her cherished Jane Austen and Louisa May Alcott. The neighbors, too, are capable of charm and eccentricity in equal measure, determined as they are to preserve their singular little community from the modern world outside.
Prudencia hoped for friendship in San Ireneo but she didn't suspect that she might find love—nor that the course of her new life would run quite so rocky or would offer challenge and heartache as well as joy, discovery, and fireside debate. Set against a backdrop of steaming cups of tea, freshly baked cakes, and lovely company, The Awakening of Miss Prim is a distinctive and delightfully entertaining tale of literature, philosophy, and the search for happiness.
Worldbuilding/Writing Style
This book is set in a small town in France, and it totally has a small-town feel! But at the same time, it's a Distributist small town, so it has a little bit of a different feel from the typical small town...which I like! And there's food. So much food. They take food to each other when they visit! And drink coffee! And I love it.
As for the writing style, the writing itself is beautiful! Many lovely uses of parallelism to make a point, extreme subtlety with important details, and other super elegant writing techniques. The author obviously knows her craft. (It's pertinent to note that the book was translated from the Spanish, and the translator obviously knew her craft, as well!)
Plot
The plot seems simple...a modern librarian moves to a small distributist town to act as librarian for a man who lives there, "The Man in the Wing Chair". Along the way, a lot of interesting and beautiful things happen, including a sort-of-romance and an enigmatic ending. If you were looking at it solely for the plot, you might be confused and even a little surprised that it seems not to have a whole lot of point. (Even though I love everything that happens. It's a bit of a contradiction in terms.)
However.
The actual point of the plot is the conversion of Miss Prim's views--her encounter with good philosophy, and her response to it. And I don't always say this, but I'm so very glad I waited to read this until after I had a good grasp of philosophy, and had read a lot of world literature. You can see her slowly coming in contact with the good ideals, having them permeate her mind, but her resistance to them and why, and ultimately...well, I shan't spoil it for you. (But the subtlety of the ending! Is astonishing!)
The amount of philosophy that's packed into this book is mind boggling. I kept a running tally of the philosophers I recognized (and that was not including the philosophies I recognized but didn't know who they were from) and it came to seven! Chesterton, Dante, Thomas Aquinas, the Roman poets, Dostoyevsky, Lewis, and Tolkien! (TOLKIEN, guys.) It was fantastic.
But the thing is, no matter how much philosophy is crammed in, it never feels like "Oh, here is this character who is here to teach an important lesson." No, it's much more organic and natural. It feels real.
Characters
Amazing.
Okay, okay, I'll give you a little more than that! Miss Prim's overall embodiment of the modern ideals and philosophies contrasts perfectly with her desire to get away from modern life to somewhere that's a little simpler...and the contrast keeps the book moving, a lot of the time.
The Man in the Wing Chair's patience is unbelievable, and I wish I could debate philosophy as well as he does! I don't believe his name is mentioned once in the book, but I have a vivid mental picture of him, and if I'm called to marriage, I want it to be to someone just like him. (If anyone asks, I did not admit that.)
The children demonstrate very effectively the argument for homeschooling, but beyond that, I JUST LOVE THEM. They are my babies.
Herminia and the San Ireneo Feminist Club are simply #goals. But honestly, all the townspeople are #goals. :)
Romance
Adorable. And subtle enough that I wanted more, not less. But perfect in the realism of the initial impossibility.
Content
None!
Overall Rating
Four stars! And it's definitely going higher on the reread, I can already tell.
Reminds me of...
*draws a complete blank* Um...there were parts that were kind of reminiscent of Pride & Prejudice? That's the only thing that comes to mind.
Have you ever read this one? Have you read any other books that were translated from Spanish? Do you have any other recommendations for books that gracefully incorporate philosophy?
Oh, this was originally in Spanish? That's so cool! Now I'm interested in reading the untranslated version to practice. I've been watching a lot of shows in Spanish and it's really helping me pay attention more because I have a hard time listening to it instead of seeing the words on paper. But, this sounds delightful! It depends on my mood for if I like stories without really any plot or not. L. M. Montgomery does it very well!
ReplyDeleteYes, apparently it was! Ooh, that's a great idea! I don't know that my Spanish is good enough to read it in the original yet, but hopefully one of these days...
DeleteYes, L. M. Montgomery does a great job with books that don't have a standard plot! This one is I think a little more "plot-y" than LMM, but along similar-ish lines. :)
ACK SAMANTHA. You know I love this book! I'm so happy you enjoyed it. Isn't the Man in the Wing Chair fantastic? I wouldn't mind a husband like him myself. :D
ReplyDeleteMan, now I want to reread this.
YES! Thank you so much for recommending it! Ahhh the Man in the Wing Chair. I suppose we shall just have to hope that there are two men like him somewhere out in the world...:D
DeleteI know, I just read it, and I already want to reread it!
This sounds like my type of book! Philosophy with Lewis and Tolkien? I MUST read. You have me really intrigued with that Man in the Wing Chair. :)
ReplyDeleteI definitely think it would be your kind of book! (From little what I know about your taste in books. :)).
DeleteI love books set in small towns with copious amounts of food and coffee in them.
ReplyDeleteI'll have to add it to my list.
Those are some of the best kind of books, in my opinion! :)
DeleteThis looks really interesting! I'll have to add it to my TBR.
ReplyDeleteLet me know what you think, if you read it!
DeleteI've been wanting to read a book set in France. This could be a good one to do
ReplyDeleteThis would be a good one! Although the setting is not super *obviously* French...
DeleteOh man, you're really making me want to reread this. I mean, I already wanted to sometime (there were things I loved so much! but also Significant Quibbles! also you can have the Man in the Wing Chair allll to yourself lol!), but now I REALLY want to. I forgot it was translated, too! Maybe I should reread it in Spanish to practice my skills - although at this point my Spanish is so rusty that might be a horrible idea, haha.
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite things: the argument about Little Women. Seriously. I...loved that part. I don't know why but it was great.
Have you read Rose in Bloom? It's one of Louisa May Alcott's lesser-known books and when you mentioned books that "gracefully incorporate philosophy" I thought of it. It's a bit different, but yeah. I'm kind of blanking on philosophical books - which is SAD because they're amazing.
(Well, I might have to share the Man in the Wing Chair with Megan Chappie. XD) I've thought about reading it Spanish, too! But I haven't been in a Spanish class since last year, and even though I've been trying to keep it up...it's really rusty.
DeleteI KNOW, I loved that part, too!
I have read that one! It's been ages, though--I was probably twelve or so the last time I read it, and at the time, I preferred Eight Cousins. XD I don't remember any philosophy in it from then, so I might need to reread it!
(Oh dear. I will helpfully nudge Jess Harper in her direction, and maybe that will solve your difficulties. :P) Yeah, I haven't had Spanish since high school, and my sister's taking it in college now and she asks me for help and...apparently I still know more Spanish than she does? But my vocabulary is sadly diminished since days of yore. XD
DeleteEight Cousins is my favorite LMA!!!!! (I mean besides maybe Under the Lilacs. I did love that one too though I didn't read it as much. Am I correct in assuming you loved Eight Cousins? Or were you just saying you liked it /better/ than Rose in Bloom? XD) I love that book so much and I need to reread. <3 I'm not sure how /much/ philosophy there is in Rose in Bloom, I just remember Mac and Rose discussing Ralph Waldo Emerson and I think they had other philosophical discussions too. But it's not as prevalent as in this book. :)
(Sounds good. XD)
DeleteOh wow, it's impressive that you can still help your sister! But I feel you on the lost vocab...
It's SO good!!! (So, yes, I loved Eight Cousins. :)) I definitely need a reread of it, too! Oh, yes, I remember the philosophical discussions, now. Those were fun. Or at least, they are in retrospect; tiny me wanted to skip the boring bits and get back to the "interesting parts". XD