In this 1940 novel by Frank Baker (another of the awesome Bloomsbury Group reprints), after a young man invents an eccentric octogenarian friend named Miss Hargreaves as a joke, his world is turned upside down when she turns up on his doorstep, exactly as he described her. I’m a great fan of books where imagination becomes reality (Pamela Dean’s Secret Country trilogy, for instance), so this concept was right up my alley, and for the most part I loved the story, which is a nice blend of silly comedy-of-manners and darker musings on the godlike creator’s power over and responsibility toward his creation.
My only quibble is that I wanted more Miss Hargreaves! Norman finds her so mortifying that he spends a lot of time being quite rude to her and trying to change her or get rid of her entirely, even though he admits that deep down he likes her, and that frustrated me at times, because I thought she was pretty awesome. I found myself wishing Norman would just relax and enjoy himself—probably unfair, I know, because that’s not what the book is about, but it was just one of those cases where the protagonist’s awkward handling of the situation seemed to cause more trouble and embarrassment than the situation itself. I felt more sympathy for Miss Hargreaves than for Norman most of the time, which amplified the more tragic aspects of the plot and made it feel a bit less like pure madcap fun than some of the other books I’ve read in this genre. Still, it’s definitely a unique book, and highly recommended for those who like their charming WWII-era British fiction tinged with the surreal.
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