The Pumpkin Eater by Penelope Mortimer Review

Mrs Armitage, the wife of a successful screenwriter and producer, is having a breakdown. Her marriage is a wreck and she’s discovered that having one child after another hasn’t given her the fulfilling life she wanted. Where’s a pumpkin shell when you need one, eh?

Penelope Mortimer’s 1962 semi-autobiographical novel, The Pumpkin Eater, was pretty decent. Her dialogue is so good that she drew me immediately into the novel and Mrs Armitage’s world, and, despite the lack of story, was able to hold me fairly well from then on.

The commentary on the complexities of marriage is compelling and the glimpses into her own marriage to the playwright John Mortimer (“Jake” in the book) are interesting too in a gossipy way - like Jake, John knocked up an actress during his marriage to Penelope and she writes through her devastation at being betrayed. It’s amazing that John Mortimer got laid so much back in the day considering he looked like Hodor’s little brother after a stroke – dude must’ve had a helluva personality!

But the meandering, intermittently unfocused nature of the book is its biggest weakness. Sometimes the narrative is enthralling as Jake’s infidelities come to light, as well as Mortimer’s descriptions of her inner turmoil and any scenes with dialogue, and sometimes nothing’s happening and things get very mundane. The ending too is extremely dull – it went on and on and on and was very anticlimactic - and the metaphor of the idyllic tower in the country that’s constantly being built in the background was ineffective.

You can sense the stirrings of feminism in the book as Mortimer notes how women are condescendingly talked down to and treated in general, though it’s not an overtly political text, just a wry snapshot of 1950s society. To that point, there are also a couple of casually racist comments early on that might offend some people today(babies). Otherwise, it’s a period piece that’s aged very well.

Penelope Mortimer’s The Pumpkin Eater was alright – it’s accessible, well-written, thoughtful, and occasionally interesting.