Review: The Shell Seekers, by Rosamunde Pilcher

Russ Allbery eagle at eyrie.org
Tue Dec 24 20:10:38 PST 2019


The Shell Seekers
by Rosamunde Pilcher

Publisher: Thomas Dunne
Copyright: 1987
Printing:  May 2015
ISBN:      1-250-06378-7
Format:    Trade paperback
Pages:     632

In science fiction and fantasy, I try to follow the genre closely
enough that I try out new books, discover less-well-known writers I
enjoy, and can follow discussions about best-of lists, award nominees,
and current trends in the genre. The occasional downside of following a
genre this closely is that I read a lot of "just okay" books, and
occasionally some bad books. (I love y'all, but some of the things you
nominate for awards are... not good.)

In other genres, such as multi-generational family drama, I read
selectively and rely heavily on recommendations. This tends to make the
ratio of hits to misses much better. The Shell Seekers was one of those
recommendations (in this case from my mother), and it's definitely a
hit.

The story opens with Penelope Keeling returning home (despite the
wishes of the doctors) to her comfortable house after a heart attack.
Her three children react to that with varying degrees of usefulness:
Nancy, her eldest, generates an endless series of worries and problems
that she feels obligated to deal with, such as ensuring that her mother
doesn't live alone. Olivia, the far more sensible middle child (and a
high-profile magazine editor), defends her mother, not that her mother
needs all that much defending, and otherwise stays out of her business
beyond the occasional visit. Noel, her youngest, does care about her
mother's health, but is not the sort of person to worry much about
other people's problems. He's far more interested in whether his mother
has kept any of her father's rough sketches for his paintings, work
that is soaring in value due to a renewal of interest in Victorian
painters.

That's the starting point of the present-time story arc, but The Shell
Seekers broadens from there to adroitly mix in scenes from the past:
Olivia's (truly beautiful) romance in Spain with a man named Cosmo,
Penelope's young adulthood at the seacoast with her much-older father
and her young French mother who treated her more like a beloved sister,
and eventually the shape of her disappointing and ill-advised wartime
marriage.

One theme of this book is Bohemians. Penelope's parents were both part
of that culture and Penelope was raised in it, traveling between France
and the English coast. Penelope carries on the tradition in her own way
in house in the city where she raised her children, always full of
guests and food and life lived largely in the kitchen. Olivia and
Cosmo's relationship reprises that life with a more modern feel, a
much-needed vacation for Olivia from her intense world of publishing
deadlines and careful orchestration. And Antonia, Cosmo's daughter, is
the next generation of that same mix of an open heart and a pragmatic
attitude towards life. I found it impossible not to love those
characters and feel soothed by their joy in life, particularly in their
sharp contrast with Nancy's constant worrying and Noel's avarice.

The other theme I picked up, somewhat more subtle, is learning how to
live for yourself and find happiness in the things that matter to you.
The reader slowly discovers that behind Penelope's confident and
grounded old age was a life with substantial hardship and a secret (and
alternate life course not followed) that none of them knew about.
Watching her struggle and find a path through her life events provides
foundation and depth to her decisions later in the book to handle her
affairs in exactly the way that is the most meaningful and satisfying
to her, regardless of the opinions of her children.

I liked Olivia a lot, but Penelope made this book. Olivia has a
reserve, a determined insistence to be her own person and thrive in her
world. I respected her, but it was Penelope and her pragmatism and her
refusal to care what anyone thinks of her that I connected with. The
book sets up a potential conflict with Nancy and Noel, potentially even
an exploitative one, but Pilcher reassures the reader at just the right
points that Penelope knows perfectly well what's going on and how to
deal with it.

This isn't a book with villains, exactly, but it's hard not to dislike
Nancy and Noel, both of whom are different object lessons in not being
satisfied with the life that one has. Nancy is the most frustrating.
She's the sort of person who would claim to have sacrificed everything
for her family, and yet doesn't seem to understand or care about the
family that she is supposedly sacrificing for. She is a bit of a
cliché, but the contrast she makes with Penelope, Olivia, and Antonia
is very effective within the story. Noel is more insidious:
occasionally charming on the surface, but self-centered, greedy, and
deceptive.

The Shell Seekers is a long and sprawling book, but except for a few of
the World War II chapters in which Penelope is making a series of bad
decisions and the reader has to endure them and their consequences, it
never dragged for me. Pilcher moves lightly over the least likable
characters or injects a bit of perspective into their viewpoint
chapters so that the reader doesn't bog down, and some of the chapters
in which her best characters are enjoying themselves are beautiful,
slow celebrations of life and love that I thoroughly enjoyed reading.

I do have some quibbles: The ending was sadder than I would have liked
(although the other closing events of the story were perfect),
Penelope's marriage was depressing to read about, and Danus (the
gardener who Penelope hires near the start of the book) has an oddly
melodramatic background that rang false at several points to me. But
they're just quibbles. This was a great book and a perfect thing to
read during a lazy, relaxing vacation. Recommended.

One warning: The Publishers Weekly review leads off with significant
spoilers for something only revealed halfway through the book, and is
of course quoted on places where you might buy this book. I recommend
trying not to read that bit.

Rating: 9 out of 10

Reviewed: 2019-12-24

URL: https://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/reviews/books/1-250-06378-7.html

-- 
Russ Allbery (eagle at eyrie.org)             <https://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>


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