Though many terrible things happen in Rachel Joyce’s Miss Benson’s Beetle, the book’s tone stays sprightly and light hearted enough to make this, for me, an almost guilty pleasure.
I used to think the only worthwhile novels grappled with weighty issues in weighty prose and had to break new stylistic ground. These days, I’m also in the market for unlikely adventures featuring middle aged ladies who everyone else has written off.
Maybe because I, like so many middle-aged (and older) women, often feel unseen and underestimated. I share something else with the book’s main character: an obsession with insects and the natural world.
In 1950s London, Margery Benson is a big-boned, sad-sack schoolteacher who favors sensible shoes and dresses in various shades of brown. But Margery has a dream: to travel to New Caledonia in search of the rare golden beetle, with which she’s been obsessed since her father showed her a drawing of it in his Wonders of the World book.
Margery is no amateur, though she doesn’t have the credentials of the scientists for whom she does unpaid work at the British Museum. She feels grateful to have access to such a hallowed institution, and grateful that one of the (married) scientists there appears to have feelings for her.
Fast forward through many mishaps and heartbreaks, and Margery now has so little to lose that she sells everything she owns to fund her New Caledonia expedition. She procures all the right insect-hunting gear: “a sweep net, a pooter with two rubber tubes, specimen jars, killing tubes, a supply of ethanol and naphthalene, trays, moth balls, cotton wool, labels, and insect pins.”
Some readers may not appreciate this level of detail. I loved the specificity, which grounded me in the adventure. But this tale is not about a woman going it alone despite the odds. It’s about two women going it together despite the odds.
Enter Enid, as slim as Margery is heavy-set, as loquacious as Margery is taciturn, and as flighty as Margery is grounded. Enid Pretty (love the name) totters around in heels and a form-fitting pink suit. She is a hopeless flirt, and she is on the run from the law.
Hijinks ensue: ocean voyages, eluding police, camping in the jungle, and the relentless pursuit, no matter what, of the elusive golden beetle. The odd couple of Enid and Margery come to not just appreciate but to love each other. All does not necessarily end well, but the book is so fun and big hearted, and heart is what the reader is left with.
Miss Benson’s Beetle, by Rachel Joyce, 334 pages, 2020, Dial Press New York
My own book news
A gardener at The Alhambra in Granada takes a break to read my book.
My debut novel, You Could Be Happy Here, comes out September 16. It’s about a California woman who heads for Costa Rica in search of her long-lost father. Want to know more or pre-order the book? Visit my website.
I’m thrilled that my book has won praise from authors I love.
“You Could Be Happy Here vividly captures the tension of being a privileged foreigner in another country, as well as the profound understanding that we are all in this messy life together—that it’s all about forgiving each other for being human. Beautifully written and soul-searching.”
—Sharman Apt Russell, author of An Obsession with Butterflies and What Walks This Way: Discovering the Wildlife Around Us Through Their Tracks and Signs.
"Miss Benson's Beetle" sounds like my kind of book. Thanks for calling my attention to it. I'm looking forward to the release of "You Could Be Happy Here"!