e-Book Foxybaby download

(3.5 stars) The earlier books that I have read by Jolley, while a bit more boisterous in some ways than the works of her contemporaries in England, like Jane Gardam, Muriel Spark, Penelope Lively, and Beryl Bainbridge, seem to fit comfortably into the niche of polite satire occupied by these other, better known authors. With Foxybaby (1985), which follows Mr. Scobie's Riddle (1983)... and Miss Peabody's Inheritance (1984)..., however, Jolley permanently separates herself from her peers back in England, writing a book in which nothing is sacred, with characters who are sometimes crazy, usually self-absorbed, unashamedly venal, and often bawdy. She is realistic, if not enthusiastic, in her depiction of sex in all its variations as salve for the souls of the lonely and the sometimes bored. Nothing about this book is dainty or subtle.

Alma Porch, a timid teacher and writer at an Australian girls' school, has been hired to conduct a drama program at a summer program, part of a session to build a "Better Body Through the Arts." Her arrival at the school has ominous overtones. The Principal, Miss Peycroft, has her own ideas of the manner in which she wants Porch's play to be produced. As the other participants arrive, two of them gorgeous young men brought by a former participant, it becomes clear to everyone except Porch that these additional participants are there to provide nightly "fun and games" for their hosts, and perhaps for each other. Openly single-sex relationships abound, and assignations of all kinds occur. Throughout the novel, it is Porch who seems to be left out, though she often overhears intimate conversations and is frequently trapped so that she cannot avoid participating vicariously in others' amours.

The play, "Foxybaby," raises many issues which parallel those of the participants in the program, the primary themes being the relationship between alienation, loneliness, and lack of love. As the play opens, the lead character, Mr. Steadman, a scholar and writer, is waiting outside a cafe for his daughter Sandy to go home with him. Sandy, "Foxybaby," is recently released from prison. She has just had a baby, and is suffering from drug addiction. Her child is also infected and addicted - and not thriving. The relationship between father (Steadman), daughter, and granddaughter reveals itself as the play continues. Predictable complications arise. (Obviously, this play is not going to be a candidate for any Tony Awards.)

Elizabeth Jolley is clearly having great fun writing for the free, forgiving attitudes of Australia as she creates this over-the-top novel, filled with wild characters - some, like Porch, exceedingly repressed, while others may be taking part in this summer program so they can pursue their desires away from "civilization." Jolley's large cast of characters is well-choreographed to allow the farcical actions to proceed in many different directions at once, though the novel's focus and themes sometimes get lost in the confusion. The ironies of the "Foxybaby" play, with its strange and sexual subtexts, stereotyped characters, and clichéd action, are frequently matched with quotations from real literary sources - Sophocles, Goethe, Proverbs, Jon Dryden, Ibsen, Schopenhauer - providing "breadth" and "depth" to the action, but few readers will take these seriously. Ultimately, the novel connects the action in Porch's play with real life, and this is where everything spins wildly, and some might say, quite happily out of control.

Trinity College hires novelist Alma Porch to teach a summer seminar at the school's Better Body Though the Arts program. Her students are all overweight women wanting to lose weight. However, her first day at the college starts off with a bang when Miss Porch rams in the back of bus leaving her vehicle disabled and escape futile. She meets her roommate Mrs. Castle who cannot take a breath without talking about her darling three grandchildren; who after fifteen minutes Miss Porch loathes sight unseen. .

She introduces her class that seem to exclusively include gays and lesbians only to what Miss Porch believes will soon be a classic drama, "Foxybaby" that she is still writing, but insists the students perform. The story line focuses on a sandwich generation single mom on the run with her child and her father. Although her preference is classical music like punk and hard rock to accompany her play, school director Mrs. Peycroft and her friend Miss Paisley intrude.

This is a reprint of a 1985 character study that uses hyperbole to satirize relationships. The story line is an amusing Australian absurd musing on relationships between lonely souls. Although at times the need to connect with others is confusing due to extreme sublime understatement, Foxybaby is an intelligent humorous look at people's basic needs to relate to others, but not always in a positive way.

Harriet Klausner