The Pumpkin Eater

by Penelope Mortimer

Of course as you would derive, I was attracted to this book merely because of the “Cucurbitean” title!

As it turns out this is a very good read that grips you, Penelope Mortimer seems to have written this book according to critics as a semi-autobiographical rendition of her own life.

As I read it, it offered a window sill perspective of the question we all should ask in life: what is my purpose? Sometimes in this modern era, I get the feeling that we label value to ourselves by what we accomplish in careers. Mrs. Armitage, the main protagonist, seems to find solace to everyone else’s chagrin, in being a mother, the progenitor of lots of children. In one sense the ability to produce life is overwhelmingly powerful, and it surprises me that young women in today’s modern societies have lost the marvel of their own fecundity. Returning to the novel, many people including some of her lovers and her psychiatrist are aghast at her willingness to produce children. In the end, the novel leaves one realizing that much of the trauma and duress that we create in life is a result of our own reaction to life itself. A melodramatic effort to raise it to some tragic level all the while missing out on the extreme beauty of it all.

Despite the fact that Mrs. Armitage seeks solace from the counsel and love of others, in the end, she returns to the solid footing of purpose in nature.

About the Pumpkin eater? “Peter Peter. Pumpkin eater, had a wife and couldn’t keep her.”

Great book, fun reading.