Mrs. Palfrey At The Claremont

Elizabeth Taylor
1971
Rating: 7

There’s some very good writing in this novel, and it’s a well-paced if very conventional story. It’s set in the late 60s, in a hotel with a number of senior citizens who live there permanently. It’s frequently amusing, occasionally laugh-out-loud funny. It feels like an extremely English novel, pre-globalized England, which reflects the era in which it was written. In that sense reading it felt a bit like an escape, there was something exotic about it.

It’s also a challenging book to read in some respects, in that it’s about the indignities of aging. It is frequently bleak and frosty. Rife with rude, bitchy turns from friends and family alike. It will not make you feel great about growing old.

I’m glad I read it though, I enjoyed it and would recommend it if you’re in the mood for something English, funny, and somewhat sad.