One of the reasons I love these club years is that it makes me delve into the books that have sat on my shelves for donkey’s years. I bought Tea at Four O’Clock by Janet McNeill in 2005, and it has sat quietly waiting for a long time. I even read a couple of her other novels when Turnpike Press republished them (they’ve also done this one), and I enjoyed them though I wasn’t blown away by them. Not in the way that I was by Tea at Four O’Clock. It’s brilliant.
As the novel opens, Laura Percival is returning from the funeral of her sister Mildred. They have lived all their lives in a very large house (‘Marathon’) in Northern Ireland, now neither parent is alive, and for the past six years Laura has been looking after Mildred. As she walks home from the funeral, the words of the priest are going around in her head: ‘the sister who with exemplary devotion did not spare herself in the long months of nursing’. It is the only tribute she has received for these years of service. Now that Mildred has finally died, Laura has agency – and for the first time in her life.
We learn that, even before this sickness, Mildred dominated Laura’s life with a well-intentioned but draconian insistence on routine. And on respectability above all else. It’s that rigorous routine and respectability that Laura finds hard to escape in the days after Mildred’s death – she has left such an imprint on Marathon that it is unthinkable to do anything but obey her. This is what George sees when he returns – the wastrel brother who has been estranged from the family for decades. The quote below is where the novel’s title comes from. (Miss Parks is a friend of Mildred’s who came to visit and then moved in, and is clearly hoping to be asked to remain.)
“It’s a good many years,” he said, a little uncertainly, “since I heard that clock.”
Miss Parks was quick to emphasise her more intimate acquaintance with it. “Four o’clock! That’s always been a very special time with us. Mildred rested in the afternoon, you see, and Laura brought her tea-tray in at four o’clock. Mildred did like regular habits, you know. It’s a great help to an invalid, and Laura understood that so well. Do you know, Mr Percival, I’ve seen Laura waiting outside the door in the hall, with the tray in her hand, and the minute the clock had finished striking she would knock and come in. ‘Mildred,’ she would say, ‘Mildred dear, it’s four o’clock.'”
George could suddenly bear no more of it. He could see Laura standing there waiting, the tea-tray with all its appointments of lace and china and silver correctly placed for the personal satisfaction of one querulous invalid. He could imagine Laura’s hand, a small hand, never very clever at anything except the delicate brushwork of her paintings, poised ready to knock when the sound of the clock had sunk to silence. Then the hesitant rap and the opening door, and Mildred on the sofa turning her ailing body to feed on Laura’s apparent health. He felt sick and turned to the sofa to reassure himself it was indeed empty. “I’m going out into the garden,” he said, “for a smoke,” and fumbling his way through the blinds he opened the french windows and went out onto the lawn.
Hopefully that’s given a sense of how good McNeill’s prose is in this novel. She is also so good at the nuances of how Laura is reacting now – some relief, some guilt, some helplessness, some uncertainty. She doesn’t want to switch her dependency from the dead sister to the newly returned brother, but nor does she know what to do with independence. Each of the interlocking characters, dead and alive, is drawn so subtly and cleverly.
We also see the lost chances of the past – and the different paths for the future. George has affection for this sister, but also a plan to get him, his wife and child out of relative poorness (his wife is a wonderful and wise character). It’s hard not to sympathise with all of the characters. Even those whose motives are initially suspect grow more forgivable as we understand them more.
It’s a beautiful and brilliant novel, and I’m so glad I finally got it off the shelf.
Ah, families! This sounds almost unbearably close to life and brilliantly observed. I’m making a note of it. Not an author I’ve ever heard of, I have to admit.
Hope you find a copy, Marina! Yes, families give endless material, don’t they?
Agreed – we all need a push sometimes to pick up a particular book, and the clubs are great for that! I’ve heard good things about McNeill and if that quote is anything to go by, she’s definitely worth reading!
So glad I didn’t give it away in one of my bookshelf purges!
This sounds absolutely wonderful. I really enjoyed her “The Maiden Dinosaur” and have kept her on my radar ever since.
Oo I’ve had that one for a long time but haven’t read.
This sounds excellent – I love the writing from that excerpt – and is one of the Virago titles I’d heard very little about before.
Lovely writing, isn’t it? I’m hoping for some other reviews this week cos I know a handful of people were hoping to read it.
Very good review. She is an author I have not encountered before.
Thanks Lisa! Definitely one to look out for.
I love this book, and while I enjoyed the other McNeill books republished br Turnpike, I do think this is by far her best book. The family dynamics are brilliantly explored.
I definitely wouldn’t have seen anything this good coming from the others I read – which were fine, but not in the same league.
This one sounds great! I will be looking for it.
Excellent :D
I love anything with family dynamics and a book with “tea” in the title always gets my attention. I will put this on my list.
Yes! I would definitely be drawn to anything with ‘tea’ in the title – it’s what made me originally pick up Tea Is So Intoxicating.
Janet McNeill is a new writer to me. I agree, though, that this is great time to pick books off the shelf – this year in particular I have too many from 1956!
It is such a good year, it turns out!
I’m so glad you loved this, and you’ve really done it justice in your review.
“She (McNeill) is also so good at the nuances of how Laura is reacting now – some relief, some guilt, some helplessness, some uncertainty. She doesn’t want to switch her dependency from the dead sister to the newly returned brother, but nor does she know what to do with independence.” That’s so very true.
A wonderful novel that captures the complexity/messiness of family relationships to a T.
Adding this to my wishlist. I love a good dysfunctional story! Your description makes me think of the Australian author, Elizabeth Harrower, who also wrote perceptively about family tyranny.
I’m adding this one to my wishlist. It sounds amazing! Thanks!
Although I loved reading about this book I don’t think I could bear to read it, so unfair for Laura to be so used by everyone, even a stranger who tries to move in! I do so hope she gets free of the lot of them and keeps the house too.
I completely agree with your affection for events like the one you and Kaggsy are hosting for the urge to get longtime shelf-sitters into your reading hands. Whatever it takes to get us focussed on our own shelves and the darker, untouched corners therein. I’ve already commented on Cathy’s blog that this is one I’ve had for a long while and I didn’t realize it was a sad story, only assumed it was comforting with the tea in the title! Like Judith Kerr’s tiger for tea, without a tiger!