The brimming cup (Canfield) 254

After discussing Canfield's The home-maker, published by Persephone books, with a friend yesterday, and talking about Her Son's wife (a VMC Canfield), I couldn't resist grabbing The brimming cup from the VMC TBRs to see what that was like. I loved The home-maker, and enjoyed Her son's wife (though not quite as much), so I had high hopes for this title.

The book is the narrative of the life of Marise, a wife and mother living in Vermont. We meet her first in a prologue as she has just become engaged to her husband, and then officially several years later when she is sending off her youngest child for his first day of school. This event, as for many mothers, causes her to reassess her life. The book progresses through the next year, witnessing the changing seasons in their small town, and describing the outlook of Marise and various other characters - children, husband, neighbours. We learn that Marise thinks life in a small town is better than in the cities and the book explains her reasons why.

Unfortunately for me this title didn't live up to the two other Canfield's that I have read. I was certainly in the mood for her gentle writing style, but I think I found that the book was a bit too heavy on description and a lot lighter on plot than the two previous books.

Only one Virago edition, an original green cover, above, which I own. (Intriguingly, when I googled it to look for pictures I found that it is available for download onto Kindle! I'm not sure if this is the VMC edition though, and it certainly wouldn't come with a green cover).

Her son's wife (Canfield) VMC 220

I first encountered Dorothy Canfield when I read The Home-maker earlier in the year, a Persephone republication about the role reversal between a husband and wife following the husband's disablement. However, I didn't quite connect the two until I read the introduction when I picked up Her son's wife on Monday from Oxfam as she is given her full name on the Persephone title of Dorothy Canfield Fisher.

Like The home-maker, Her son's wife is strongly concerned with family relationships. At the beginning, we meet Mrs Bascomb, a fifth-grade school teacher. The book opens with a parents evening, which I found entertaining, and then Mrs Bascomb returns home for supper with the first-grade teacher, Mary. It is immediately obvious that Mrs Bascomb hopes that Mary will marry her much cherished son, Ralph. However, after Mary leaves that night, Mrs Bascomb opens her mail to find out that Ralph, has given up law school and got married that day to Lottie. Not only is this a huge shock and out of character for her son, but the letter has a postscript "she is not your type mother, but she is alright". The new couple go to live with Mrs Bascomb, in order to enable Ralph to finish his diploma, and the first part of the book is about the friction between the couple and Mrs Bascomb. Eventually Lottie has a daughter, Dids, the reason for the sudden marriage, and Mrs Bascomb tries to free Dids as much as possible from Lottie's influence.

I liked this book very much because it was an interesting study of the four main characters - Mrs Bascomb, Ralph, Lottie, and Dids, and the way in which people are forced to examine their ideals. In some ways I felt that none of the characters got their behaviour "right", regarding their actions towards each other, but Dids grew up happily, and departs for college in the final chapter.

Just the one cover, the one I stumbled on in Oxfam for £2.49.