The Pumpkin Eater (1964)

[charliechaplinfan]

I got the book out of the library, it didn't take me long to polish it off, it's not a difficult read, it's told quite dispassionately by the lady herself, it's never said how many children she has got but she had been married 4 times. The only child talked about and named is the only child with her second husband, a major who died. This daughter, Dinah is 16 at the time of the sterilisation and abortion, the youngest at this time is 3. She was married young, had a few by her first husband, then the major, she had one there, then the violinist, she had a few more there and finally Jake who by the time of the sterilisation she has been with 9 years and had a few children by. When she first knew Jake she was 7 months pregnant, yet she fell in love and went with Jake, just like she moved on from all the other marriages, left her supposed happiness behind without a backward glance. The point is, she doesn't talk about the children as individuals just as a group, just as a fact of her life. There is a need to keep reproducing, why is never explained. There is a feeling that she has only been happy when she looks back, although she was certainly happier when she was poorer, she was poor, busy and happy. When Jake became successful, he let her have a cook, nanny and cleaner. We know the eldest went to school. When her chores are taken away from her, she falls apart, the only way to fill that space is to reproduce but even then she would soon be dissatisfied. She wanted to be sterilised, she felt free, she felt able to enjoy Jake to love him without a consequence, yet he was such a pig headed man that he gets another woman pregnant. James Mason's character is similar to a man in her youth. I don't think she will leave Jake or him her, rather they have accepted each other, he accepted so much with her large brood in the first place, he's not going anywhere, she will have to accept how Jake's circumstance. I don't feel a great deal more clued up after reading the book and perhaps that's the point, we can all read something a bit different into it but I'm more convinced that she was only partly an earth mother and partly a woman in free fall.

[JackFavell]

Oh darn! I was hoping this would shed some light on the film!

[charliechaplinfan]

I think it sheds more light on the times than anything else, a woman's lot was very different 50 years ago and women would have been expected just to carry on with their load of the housework and child rearing. It's before the pill so birth control wasn't as reliable. She just doesn't connect to anyone but Jake, the kids are a tribe, she likes them little whe they can get tucked away at night but as they grow (as I know to my cost at the moment) the children don't want to go to bed and encroach on the night time. It's a strange book about a woman that's it's only partly possible to be on side with, Jake can't be blamed completely because he puts up with so much, perhaps because he does have his cake and eat it so to speak. I do feel devasted for her when she's sterilised, the pressure from doctor and husband have over powered her and she goes along, is happy then has to cope with Beth's pregnancy. Yet they'll go on together. I would recommend it as a read because it's a quick read that relies on the intelligence of the reader, maybe another set of eyes might read something a little different into it. It's a story I find compelling but not the most uplifting.

[JackFavell]

I don't know that I could revisit the story any time soon, it was disturbing to me as a film. I actually was totally on her side in the movie, but perhaps I wasn't supposed to be.....

[charliechaplinfan]

I think we are meant to be but perhaps with questions in our minds. I have to hand it to Anne Bancroft after reading the book, she absolutely nailed the character, Peter Finch and james Mason were superb too.

[JackFavell]

I guess that describes my reaction, on her side, but wondering why on earth her life has followed that particular path - why the kids, why the switching of husbands with no look back.... etc.