Decent to read but characterization and plot were a bit superficial. ( )

Matilda Simpkin lives in a glorious, thrilling past as an activist for women’s suffrage, who, before the First World War, rubbed elbows with the Pankhursts and threw elbows at policemen trying to subdue her. But it’s now 1928, and London life has dulled for Mattie.

She lectures from time to time on the old days, for she has priceless lantern slides of the movement and can talk about what it was like to be imprisoned at Holloway, the infamous jail where suffragists were tortured, out of the public eye. An elegant, passionate, witty speaker, she’s quick on her feet and quicker to remind her audiences that women under thirty still can’t vote in Britain, nor those of age who lack the property qualifications. So Mattie still has her cause, her sisters in need, and the energy to lend a hand.

But nobody’s paying attention, really, and that’s Mattie’s problem. Not only has her generation lost its fire; she needs to feel listened to, be the center of attention, to mentor others. However, she can be too quick to offer solutions to their problems and too slow to hear their silent plea simply for an understanding ear; and her urge to fix people, whom she sees as acolytes, can make her impossible.

She assumes that those who turn away must be complacent or scared of risk, never dreaming that she herself scares them, or that the way she comes across subverts her efforts. In other words, Mattie Simpkin is a good-hearted, committed narcissist, and though such people often make waves, they don’t always pay attention to those who fear drowning in them.

Picture, then, her attempt to teach the younger generation. She forms a girls’ club called the Amazons, which meets weekly near her home on Hampstead Heath, for intellectual and physical exercise, learning and cooperative games. Who’d bother to join a club run by a windbag feminist of yesteryear? Dozens, as it turns out, a victory that Mattie accepts as a matter of course, and she thrives in her role.

Despite her pedantry and occasional lack of sensitivity, both of which can be hilarious, she has much to teach, as relevant now as it was then: As a girl, you’re a real person, and you can make a difference. Her students aren’t always sure what this means, but most like the sound of it, and things go fine until a particular girl shows up, one who evokes the past. On such small incidents, worlds turn.

As you find out only at the end, Evans’s previous novel, Crooked Hearts, has a tangential connection to Old Baggage. I liked Crooked Hearts, but I like the current book better. It’s more serious yet funnier at once, which sounds odd until you notice that the tone here lacks all consciousness of satire, and the characters feel deeper. They have no sense that anyone should laugh at them, because they believe what they’re doing is utterly important.

But our heroine needs a sidekick, one who’s more tuned in, and Florrie Lee (called The Flea), fills the role perfectly. The women are sparring partners in both heart and in politics, and though there’s social commentary aplenty, I never think it’s over the top or pasted on. It’s part of the action.

Besides the sense of humor visible on almost every page, Evans has a knack for capturing historical ages and scraping the sepia off them. She understands politics and social movements from the inside and how they look from the outside. Likewise, the difficulties Mattie faces in her quest to educate the young reveal obstacles inside her and in others, so that her inner narrative connects to the outer, seamlessly accomplished. ( )

Old Baggage - Evans
Audio performance by Jane Copland
3.5 stars

What do you do with a middle-aged suffragette after the battle has been won? That is the question for Matilda Simpkins in this book. It’s England in 1928 and the combative Matilda Simpkins is bored.

It took me several months to finish this audiobook. I kept renewing it from the library. In many ways it’s just the kind of historical fiction that I usually like. There’s a strong feminist theme. It’s a familiar setting filled with quirky characters. I enjoyed Crooked Heart, also by this author. The book has many humorous moments and there’s really nothing wrong with it.

I just didn’t like the well-meaning Matilda. She’s not without her good points. She’s generous and righteous in a good cause. She’s also a self-indulgent narcissist. She’s a disaster waiting to happen. This could have been a set up for a very funny book. But, it wasn’t. I was always so annoyed with her that I had no desire to return to the story. That is probably my own very personal response. The book was well written. As far as I could tell, it was historically accurate.
There’s an interesting mix of characters and events that reflect the social and political conflicts of the time. It might have been very good, if Mattie hadn’t been so very annoying. ( )

Matilda (Mattie) Simpkin, former suffragette, 1928-1929. She has large old house that an inheritance helped her buy. She occasionally speaks on the topic of women’s rights & their recent history in Britain.

In this book, she is joined at “the Mousehole” by The Flea (Florrie) who cooks for her keep. The Flea dies near the end of the book.

Mattie starts a girls’ club called the Amazons, mainly to engage red-headed Ida whom she hit on the jaw with a flung bottle while Mattie was chasing a purse-snatcher. Her club grows and she is eventually joined by Inez, who as it happens is her dead brother’s daughter (but doesn’t know it).

Ida is put through nursing school by Mattie and, at the end of the book, is departing for a position in Malta, but leaves her son with Mattie. The son was from a teen pregnancy and had been adopted by a rich couple. After the child was mildly crippled by polio at age 1, he was put in a home and left behind when the couple return to Australia. Ida has stolen him out on the eve of her departure.

Pg21 People always stared. If one didn’t creep around, if one said what one thought, if one shouted for joy or roared with anger, if one tried to get things done, then seemingly there was no choice but to be noticeable. She couldn’t remember a time when her path hadn’t been lined with startled faces; they were her reassurance that progress was being made.

5 stars and I need to find other books by this author! ( )

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