Guppies for Tea

Categories: Rediscoveries , Fiction

I love minor novels.  Don’t get me wrong, I love major novels, too—big, muscular novels of ideas and literary bravura—but sometimes a small-scale work is just the right size.  Lately, that seems to be what I’ve been in the mood for.  (Did you like Moon Women and Uninvited Daughters?)

Englishwoman Marika Cobbold’s 1994 debut, Guppies for Tea, is another graceful, assured, and deliberately small-scale work.

Amelia Lindsey, by nature rather vague and irresolute, finds herself forced to take up the role of caretaker for her widowed grandmother, Selma.  The family has put Selma into a nursing home—nice enough in its way, but depressingly cheerful—and Selma hates it.

Amelia has to cope with Selma’s increasing confusion and ill-health while her own life falls apart.  Her lover leaves her, and her mother is headed for a nervous breakdown. 

But Amelia can’t just dither.  As Selma’s health fails, Amelia is forced into action to see that Selma gets to spend her last Christmas at home.  Unfortunately, this requires breaking and entering, as Selma’s house has been sold.

Humorous but also filled with emotion, this is a charmer.  Both the stubborn, frightened Selma and nice, directionless Amelia are well-crafted characters.  So if your mood matches mine, and you enjoy a marvelous minor novel, invite Marika Cobbold to tea.