The Millstone

Margaret Drabble's book is the relatively short narrative of an illegitimate pregnancy. We are led through the conception, the pregnancy, those evidently tortuous visits to the doctor, the birth and eventually to a kind of ending. The protagonist (Rosamund Stacey) is very much of her time and class; she is a grammar school girl in the early 60's and behaves as such. Those virtues of independence, intelligence, courage in the face of adversity etc. et. al. are all there as well as a Victorian self-loathing and non-conformist guilt about her sins. We do however get introduced to other characters along the way which brighten the road up a little. One is Lydia, the protagonists lodger, who whilst I found myself wanting to drown her does provide at least a few  ironic laughs. Another point of alleviation are the repeated anecodtes. They hinder the progression of plot endlessly and infact became infuriating but nonetheless were alleviation. (One must remember that since I ahve little desire-or ability- to give birth to an illegitamte baby and could thus little empathise Rosamund's plight)
The book has been described as a portrait of  London before it really began swinging. Indeed it is exactly this. The expectant mother's experience of the National Health could not be imagined now-a-days and her self restraint too, it must be said. For whilst her pregnancy is illegitimate it is not born of repeated one night stands but more of an accidental breach of protocol. The conclusion however is to be expected, after a hundred and fifty odd pages one is repeatedly told about the nature of our narrator and whilst the conception was a breach in protocol, the final few actions are completly in her nature. This does not mean to say that one is left feeling content.
Recently there has been a renewed interest in this period of our shared history, seen noticeably in Madmen. This has manifested itself now in fashion much to the horror of several parties involved. Reading this novel one gets the idea that we have moved on so very far, that things for all concerned have improved and that we should stop looking at the past with tinted glasses and with drinking clouding our judgement.
I don't feel this is a badly written book, I think it is a little dawdy styistically but the narrative would hardly be suited to anything more exotic Yet, as I've already said, I am in a position wherein I cannot physically become pregnant, nor do I have certain hormones or suffer certain emotions etc. such that I could not really empathise as much as the author probably intended for her reader to.  Ultimately I just feel that it was not a bad book, just a bit dull.

68/100 (Fiction)