Miss Benson’s Beetle
Review of the novel by Rachel Joyce
Like the pilgrim in The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and the shop owner in the Music Shop, Miss Benson is obsessed, and the obsession grows from peculiar to hilarious to heroic. This Rachel Joyce novel adds two unpredictable elements — the bizarre and treacherous terrain and weather of New Caledonia (in the South Pacific) and Miss Benson’s kleptomaniac assistant “Enid.”
Memorable lines:
“It was so easy to find yourself doing hte things in life you weren’t passionate about, to stick with them even when you didn’t want them and they hurt.” p. 51
“…she had been raised in a house of women whose skill at not saying a difficult thing verged on professional. The truth had become such an elusive entity, she could as easily talk about her feelings as ride a mule.” p. 93
“It had been with her ever since her father had walked out of his French windows and left her behind. You might travel to the other side of the world, but in the end it made no difference: whatever devastating unhappiness was inside you would come, too.” p. 175
