FROM MAY TO OCTOBER
by Jennifer Lash
Hamish Hamilton
6.95 pounds

A Review
by Carla Phillips
Eastern Daily Press
24 November 1980
 
 

                     A HAPPY family may not be news but it is as much a subject for a novel as any other theme.  Jennifer Lash, in From May To October, attempts to describe the elusive phenomenon of domestic happiness.

               She tells the story of the Lamberts with their large family and their picturesque farmhouse in the West Country.  Husband, Michael runs a small bookstore; his wife Caroline paints.  Their life together, relationships with their five children, their friends and in-laws, are carefully drawn.

                As time passes, Caroline spends more time painting.  This causes strain.  There are more pressures from outside in the form of the bank manager -- this is set in the real world.  Not too much happens (that isn't the object of the exercise) but here is a carefully described picture of one corner of contemporary life.