TREASURE OF TIME

by Penelope Lively ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 11, 1980

Tom Rider, a British grad student in history, is engaged to and living with Kate Paxton, herself a museum assistant--but more crucially Kate is the daughter of the late, famous archaeologist, Hugh Paxton. So, while Lively shows us the give-and-take of this romance, she also introduces us to Kate's mum Mrs. Laura Paxton--who is shallow, unfaithful, neglectful--and to Laura's sister Nellie, who's incomparably warmer than Laura (though now invalided by a stroke); she was the late Mr. Paxton's real, however platonic, love. And when a BBC crew comes down to the Yorkshire house of the Paxtons to film a biography of the famed Hugh P., Nellie must watch as Laura travesties the truth of the past by putting herself forward as Hugh's great helpmeet. But Lively's most interesting angles here involve the characters' attitudes toward the preservation of the past and her attitudes toward them. Cynical Tom sees the Paxtons as a queasy-making example of the British fascination with the past, vicious Laura as a vulgarizer/destroyer. But, surprisingly, Lively sees Tom and Laura as equals: both of them over-refined, from different ends of the spectrum, so refined that they hardly are able to feel anymore. Tom, for instance, has a fine scene where he finds himself a guide in Oxford, squiring around a group of Japanese tourists--who become totally confused at Tom's finding the buildings ugly while they find them beautiful. . . and vice versa. The only problem with the novel is that this point arrives rather soon, and thereafter Lively basically only embroiders it. Still, it's an always intelligent book, an always crisp one--from a writer known here primarily for her juveniles.

Pub Date: April 11, 1980

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1980

Categories: FICTION