"Close Quarters" by Angela Thikell

It is probably never a good idea to allow too much time to pass between finishing reading a book and then writing about it - especially as you get older! That's, no doubt, even more true when the book is part of a long series like Angela Thirkell's Barsetshire novels because in addition to the danger of forgetting, there is the danger of getting the books mixed up. The novel in question this time is Close Quarters which is the third from the end - only Never Too Late and Three Score Ten remain. 

The focus of this novel is Margot MacFayden or as we first met her Margot Phelps the adult daughter of retired Admiral Phelps and his wife, all three of them lived in Jutland Cottage in Southbridge, the town where Southbridge school is located.  An early novel called appropriately enough, Jutland Cottage is the story of how friends of the family rescue Margot who is slowly (less slowly everyday) killing herself taking care of her aging and ailing parents.  The rescue takes the form of helping Margot to care more about her appearance and to get out more which results in her marriage to Donald MacFayden a vegetable magnate who not only loves Margot, but can provide for her financially.

At the beginning of this novel, Mr. MacFayden has died leaving Margot a relatively young widow with plenty of money, but also with two even more aged and more ailing parents.  A great deal of the book is taken up with Margot's trying to figure out how to care for her parents both emotionally and physically without moving back in with them and starting to kill herself all over.  Obviously for anyone who read the earlier book, Mr. MacFayden's death opens up the possibility of second chances for Margot's other suitors who, of course, are known to the reader, but not to her.  One of the advantages of such a long series of books is that it allows for second chances, and the result of that part of the story should be of no surprise to anyone.  Another interesting romantic angle of this story is that the longest running courtship in the series, that of Edith Graham has ended before the book even begins ending therefore off stage with her being engaged to a character who appeared only briefly at the end of the previous book. 

However, much of Close Quarters like many of these later novels is in many ways a meditation about old age and death.  In this case there is the added element of the responsibilities of the next generation to those who have little left to do but their dying.  I don't mean to suggest that this is morbid, if anything Ms. Thirkell seems to stress how much it is a natural part of life.  In an earlier book, she misquotes (intentionally I am sure) Shakespeare by changing Hamlet's "the readiness is all" to "the willingness is all" with regard to death.  Almost all of the characters who die in these books (all of whom go of natural causes at advanced age) have this willingness.  At first I didn't see the significance because willing or not it will happen to all of us.  But it made me think of a remark by Senator Edward Kennedy at the time of his diagnosis with brain cancer, something to the effect of "Let's see if I can make a good ending."  Perhaps that's what Thirkell is referring to with the stress on willingness - a commitment to making a good end which can in turn help both the dying and those who care for them do so with as much grace as possible.  If so it is an important lesson for all - another such lesson from an author who, in my opinion, is a lot more than a writer of light social satire.