Old Baggage

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I’ve just realized that the title of this book is a bit of a pun. The main character, Mattie Simpkin, is referred to as an “old baggage”, meaning a cantankerous old woman. But the point of this story is that she is also carrying a lot of “old baggage”, as in emotional baggage. And that the old baggage actually isn’t carrying her old baggage terribly well, leading to the crisis point in the story. As the story begins, it’s 1928. Mattie is in her late 50s, and while she may not think of herself as old, it’s clear that others around her do. (I found this poignant and ironic at the same time as I’m older than Mattie but don’t see myself that way at all. It’s true that “old” starts at least 15 years past one’s own age) The cause was not won, only placated a bit. The fight was not over. Women were not equal. (They still aren’t) But Mattie’s methods don’t do her any favors, and she alienates as many people as she convinces. Probably alienates more people than she convinces.

Initially, Mattie seems like somewhat of a comic figure. She’s an old battle axe who doesn’t seem to recognize that it’s time to put the axe up on the wall. While her mannerisms can be amusing, and her stubbornness is plenty infuriating to her friends and neighbors, she’s also right. Those two things don’t cancel each other out.The real love story, however, is that between Vee and Noel. Evans has us rooting for this makeshift mother and son throughout her story’s many twists and turns towards a satisfactory ending in which her characters can be seen to move forward with their lives post war. V for Victory is a book to be treasured and returned to again and again. The men in this novel are very much on the periphery. Did you find that refreshing or would you have liked at least one to play a more major role? Lissa Evans has written books for both adults and children, including Their Finest Hour and a Half, longlisted for the Orange Prize, Small Change for Stuart, shortlisted for many awards including the Carnegie Medal and the Costa Book Awards and Crooked Heart, longlisted for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction.

Old Baggage is a funny and bittersweet portrait of a woman who has never, never given up the fight. Evans is funny, too, with Noel’s burgeoning relationship with a young girl next door a highlight: “He re-read the Christmas card he’d received from Genevieve Lumb, which she had signed with five Xs. He remained a little troubled by the message, which mentioned that she was spending Christmas ‘with my cousins Andrew, Lloyd and Alistair. Alistair had just won the South of England under-16s long-jump trophy, although, as you know, I don’t care much about sports’.” verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ I think it was mostly convincing, but don't know much about the time period. History focuses on the World Wars, roaring twenties and the Great Depression, but 1928 seemed an uneventful year compared to those before and after, Once upon a time, Mattie was one of the celebrated (and frequently derided) suffragists that marched, agitated and were jailed to goad the powers-that-were to grant women in Britain the right to vote. (It wasn’t any better in the U.S.) And Mattie’s need to prove herself to someone who has never had any intention but to bring her down and keep her there has no end of bad consequences. For Mattie, for her best friend Florrie, and especially for the girls and young women they have taken under their wings.

For those who haven’t read the novel, Old Baggage isset in 1928– the year that all women in the UK received the same voting rights as men – and followsMatilda Simkin, a passionate and dedicated suffragette who no longer knows what to fight for. The men in this novel are very much on the periphery. Did you find that refreshing or would you have liked at least one to play a more major role? It was only on a second read that I realised that the male character feature so much on the edges. Evans draws them so well, that I saw them as playing a much more major part. The old friend she has lunch with, or the husband that brings a drink to the car. I thought the scene at the end when she realises that Inez's father is a good father was very telling. The ending was certainly surprising, but satisfying that Mattie and Florrie reconciled and Mattie was able to help Ida out both economically and with her child. I am reading Crooked Heart now, for which this book is a prequel, so I already know what Mattie does next. It is 1928. Matilda Simpkin, rooting through a cupboard, comes across a small wooden club – an old possession of hers, unseen for more than a decade. I liked Mattie a lot, though I think she would drive me mad if she was a friend of mine with her insistence that she is right, even when she probably isn't. I liked the way she mostly loved by her principles and she was kind. She also never gave up on anyone, which in part contributed to the disaster when she cheated over the quiz. She was so desperate to engage Inez that she told her the answer. She also had blind spots, but I liked that she was willing to listen when her friends told her about them.Mattie Simpkin, former suffragette, is referred to by the disparaging epithet of the book’s title only once, by an insignificant young man (all the males in this novel are peripheral). It’s 1928 and at last the suffrage is to be extended to women over 21. It doesn’t come soon enough for Emmeline Pankhurst, who dies mere weeks before the act is passed, but Mattie and her fellow radicals, now stout and bedraggled, can finally celebrate victory. Except that Mattie is not the sort of person who can relax. A chance discovery leads to a daring plan of action, which risks being scuppered by the other kind of old baggage – the emotional sort. At first, this seemed to be a simple story about someone whose glory days were long behind them – and that same person’s inability to cope with that fact. But it’s not nearly that simple. Review: The Dead Take the A Train by Richard Kadrey and Cassandra Khaw – Escape Reality, Read Fiction! on Review: A Season of Monstrous Conceptions by Lina Rather Evans explained:‘I really wanted to write about what it would be like after you’d done something dramatic, trying to make sense of your life after you’d done something extraordinary.’