Lily King’s first
novel, The Pleasing Hour, is the
third of her four novels I have had the distinct pleasure of reading. King grew up in Massachusetts and received a
B.A. in English Literature from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
and an M.A. in creative writing from Syracuse University. She has taught at a number of schools and
colleges. Lily has also racked up a
number of regional awards as well as a MacDowell Fellowship and a Whiting
Award.
Rosie anguishes over
her sister Sarah’s inability to conceive a child. Rosie seems a bit shy, but she hatches a plan
to help her sister, whom she dearly loves.
She doesn’t date, but she selects an equally shy young man, and after a
few dates, Rosie convinces him to sleep with her. Two weeks later she finds she is
pregnant. She tells Sarah and her
husband she wants them to keep and raise the baby. Rosie lies to her boyfriend and convinces him
the baby is not his. She goes through
counseling and insists on giving the baby to her sister. After the birth, the baby is taken away from
Rosie after holding him briefly, but she has only has a fleeting moment of
regret. As the narrator, Rosie barely
mentions the baby. Then Rosie abruptly
answers an ad for a jeune fille – an au
paire – in a small town, Plaire, France, and she abandons her plan to
attend college. She neither speaks nor
reads French. With the help of the
children Rosie cares for, she slowly learns to speak and read and do the
shopping for the family.
The Pleasing Hour is an apt title for this novel. Numerous times I would read a passage, put
the book aside, and turn the page over again in my mind. These passages were “pleasing” in more ways
than one. Rosie had no friends, but
Nicole, the mother of the family, makes a call, and a jeune fille , who worked for a friend, called Rosie and offered to
take her out on the town, King writes,
“The metro stop was unmarked. a sudden flight of stairs descended beneath the
sidewalk. A monthly pass came with the
job, and I had used mine twice. I slid
the orange ticket through the meter in the turnstile and hurried down the
hallway marked Gare d’Austerlitz. There
was only one line at this stop, so the passageways were small and without
vendors or musicians, though the walls were plastered with the same enormous
advertisements: on the left was a poster for an Italian movie, one large breast
held in a man’s hand, and on the right a yogurt ad. They were repeated for the entire walk to the
rails. Spoon, lip, smirk, litter, wind corridor, wrist nipple, wind, sign,
trench coat, slouch. I let English
flood inside me as I rounded the corner” (50).
This brings back memories of my first time in the Paris Metro.
Rosie also spends a
chapter describing each of the children she handles, as well as Nicole and
Marc, the parents. As the story progresses,
it becomes apparent that Rosie is nursing a crush on Marc. Nicole seems withdrawn from Marc, who works
long hours in a hospital. The family
decides to take a vacation to Spain, and they invite Rosie to come along. At first Rosie seems reluctant, and she
deliberately leaves her passport at home.
As they approached the airport, she announces the missing document, but
Marc turns around, goes home, and gets her passport. Lily King’s novel, The Pleasing Hour is definitely a wonderful way to arm chair travel. 4-1/2 Stars
--Chiron, 3/16/17
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