Review: Miss Benson’s Beetle by Rachel Joyce
by The Borrowers Book Group Kesgrave Library
The Borrowers Book Group at Kesgrave Library share their thoughts on Miss Benson's Beetle, written by Rachel Joyce.
About Miss Benson's Beetle
It is 1950. In a devastating moment of clarity, Margery Benson abandons her dead-end job and advertises for an assistant to accompany her on an expedition. She is going to travel to the other side of the world to search for a beetle that may or may not exist. Enid Pretty, in her unlikely pink travel suit, is not the companion Margery had in mind. And yet together they will be drawn into an adventure that will exceed every expectation. They will risk everything, break all the rules, and at the top of a red mountain, discover their best selves.
This is a story that is less about what can be found than the belief it might be found; it is an intoxicating adventure story but it is also about what it means to be a woman and a tender exploration of a friendship that defies all boundaries.
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Book group review
This is an entertaining book, almost comic in the portrayal of some of the characters, with some laugh-out-loud bits. The backstory of the photograph which inspired the novel, written at the end, we found fascinating.
The book is well-structured and flows from the limitations on women and the strictures of Edwardian life, through the greyness and drudgery of post war London in the 1940s to the colour of New Caledonia. As the relationship between Enid and Miss Benson grows from co-dependence to friendship, the central character metamorphoses from Miss Benson to Margery to Marge, casting off not just her corset, but finding also her inner strength.
The dreary snobbiness of ex-pat life of the time was well captured and the odd dynamic that exists between local communities and foreigners who assume their own superiority. Some parts felt contrived and characters exaggerated, but we loved Enid’s philosophical observations.
Recommendation: An entertaining book, true to the time in which it was set, and the reader learns a lot about beetles!
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