Bloomsbury Girlsby Natalie Jenner
Rating: ★★★★
isbn: 9780749028046
Publication Date: January 1, 2022
Pages: 411
Genre: Fiction, Historical
Publisher: Allison & Busby
One bookshop. Fifty-one rules. Three women who break them all.
1950, London. Bloomsbury Books on Lamb’s Conduit Street has resisted change for a hundred years, run by men and guided by the manager’s unbreakable rules. But after the turmoil of war in Europe, the world is changing and the women in the shop have plans.
As the paths of stylish Vivien, loyal Grace and brilliant Evie cross with literary figures such as Daphne Du Maurier, Samuel Beckett and Peggy Guggenheim, these Bloomsbury girls are working together to plot out a richer and more rewarding future.
Straight up general fiction, with a strong ‘female power’ theme, Bloomsbury Girls feels a wee bit modern-day-feminist in a few places, but it really isn’t (or else I’d have DNF’d it). This is, however, an accurate enough portrayal of the emerging shift in gender dynamics that took place after WWII, when women were less inclined to give up their jobs or their independence, and the painful adjustment this meant for so many men raised in one world-view and then thrust into another.
I thought Jenner created a realistic cast of characters for such a time; the women came from different backgrounds – one aimed for a traditional family, another embraced her independence, and the third a former servant trying to find her footing in a culture that would have been out of her grasp only a decade previously. The men, too, were a mixed lot, and with not a little irony folded in. Some of them found women’s new roles refreshing and empowering to everyone, while others were ambivalent, and yet others fought against it with everything they had. I like this much better than the recently popular trend of making all men evil and all women down-trodden and oppressed, which is so unrealistic it drives me more than a little nuts.
Overall, I found this to be a gentle read, with likeable, well fleshed out characters. The cameos by real historical characters added a bit of flair here and there, and nicely highlighted that in the 50’s there were more than a few powerful women around, willing to offer friendship and mentoring to others. Of course, their actions here are fictitious, so perhaps they weren’t as altruistic in real life, but nevertheless, it makes the story work.
I enjoyed this and would recommend it to anyone looking for a palette cleanser between reads, or an amuse bouche between favourite genre reads. It’s not going to change your life, or keep you on the edge of your seat, but it did keep me turning the pages, interested in what was going to happen and how it was all going to work out.
(Note: this is the author’s second book, and is apparently in the same world as her first The Jane Austen Society with character overlap. It reads as a stand alone, but there are enough references to said previous book that the connection is obvious. I might have to give that one a go soon.)