Miss Benson's Beetle: An uplifting story of female friendship against the odds

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Thirty Days of Darkness” by Jenny Lund Madsen – Book Review @OrendaBooks @JennyLundMadsen #ThirtyDaysOfDarkness #BookReview @edelweiss_squad @meganeturney November 26, 2023 And then it dawned on me that he couldn't believe the book wasn't about him.. and that seemed interesting to me. So I sat and wrote him as a dream of consciousness exercise, just to see where it might take me. After that, I did a lot of research into POW's. But his chapters were always very different writing experiences. I felt I had to just 'be' him. I loved this book and it’s quirky characters. Margary is in her late 40s and has never married although she had a decade long crush on a professor at the Natural History Museum. She never dresses up or goes out. She’s a teacher at the local school, until one day when the students make her the target of a joke. She’s upset, humiliated and on the spur of that very intense moment, steals the PE teacher’s soccer boots. That job is toast! Since Margary’s world is now spinning on the lam, she decides to go to New Caledonia in search of the gold beetle that her father told her about when she was a child. Her father’s introduction to the gold beetle has inspired a lifetime’s interest in beetles; now, Margary is somewhat of an expert and knows all the proper equipment needed for her investigatory search. When Margery was ten, she fell in love with a beetle.’ It was a passion built flimsily on a picture of a golden beetle her father showed her out of a book of strange incredible creatures. It was no ordinary beetle and I could picture how beautiful it must be – a golden soft-winged flower beetle 'like a gilded raindrop.’ I loved when the women went swimming- floating on their bellies- naked noodle skinny dipping — with the water gracefully holding them - nourishing them - as water can do.

This is a story that is less about what can be found than the belief it might be found; it is an intoxicating adventure story but it is also about what it means to be a woman and a tender exploration of a friendship that defies all boundaries. Q: What do you need in your writing space to help you stay focused? Also, if you have pictures on your writing desk, who/what are they of? Vivid descriptions. I don’t have a high tolerance for chunky descriptions, but here, I ate it all up. I guess that’s because they weren’t really chunks; you put action and dialogue between the descriptions in just the right doses. In the Insect Gallery of the Natural History Museum—Margery found beetles that lived in the roots of trees, that lived inside dung…beetles that fed on rose petals, that fed on rotting flesh—many in glass cases and drawers—but nowhere did she find her father’s golden beetle 🪲 of New Caledonia. London, 1914. Ten year old Margery doesn’t share her father’s love for insects until he introduces her to the golden beetle of New Caledonia. No one has found and cataloged it yet. So it may or may not exist.There are echoes of classic travel adventures such as Around the World in Eighty Days, as genteel British explorers attempt to maintain their customs and decorum in the most un-British environments, and plenty of madcap capers to hinder our heroine, who regrets her impulsiveness almost as soon as she has set foot on board the ship to Australia. But there is a darker side too; the war has left scars, and Margery and her brash assistant, Enid, are pursued by a man deeply traumatised by his experiences in a Burmese prison camp, who has convinced himself that he is the only guide Miss Benson needs.

She put down the camel and the bird, and she followed him. She would have stood on her head if he'd asked. Be sure to read the amusing Q&A “interview” with Margery and Enid at the end as well as the author’s note about where she drew inspiration for her book. She experienced the dense feeling.....as if she was always on the other side of a flawed glass wall and seeing the truth way after it was too late.' Rachel Joyce’s wonderful 2012 debut, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, was about a man who walked 600 miles to see an old friend and found comfort and wisdom on the way. Its follow up, The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy, told the story of that friend, a woman who was dying having missed out on something in life. Miss Benson’s Beetle is also a pilgrimage of sorts, this time made by Margery Benson, one of a stifled generation of “leftover women” who are marking time in the aftermath of the second world war. There were short bits of time where I was a little bogged down, but I’m such an emotional reader, I can give this no less than five stars because of how much I came to love Enid and Margery, how much I rooted for them, and also, the ending. I think the author gifted us with an ending that left a mark and brought great closure.I realize now that I happen to love books where women heroes go off to exotic locales. I have two other favorite woman-in-the-jungle novels: State of Wonder and Euphoria. And this year I read two other books with the theme of women with a mission, roughing it in esoteric locales: Migrations and Once There Were Wolves. All just entertained me bigtime. Recommended: If you love quirky and unique stories with beautiful writing and zany adventures, you might want to put this on your TBR (it does have some sad and tragic parts, too). If you are a fan of Rachel Joyce, Miss Benson’s Beetle is not to be missed! This story also lends itself to a great book club discussion! And Enid Pretty? Her upbeat zaniness should have been refreshing. Instead, I thought she was loony. She had a difficult time committing to anything. The year is 1950, and although World War II is over, London and many other major cities are still rationing goods and materials and rebuilding their shattered communities. Husbands, sons and brothers have died, and the women of the world are starting to come into their own, having taken up major roles in both war efforts and homes. One of these ladies is Margery Benson, a schoolteacher and devout spinster who was raised by her mother and religious aunts after her father died by suicide upon receiving the news that his sons had been killed at war. Now in her late 40s, Miss Benson is still ambling by, living in her deceased aunt’s cold, austere flat, surviving on scraps and teaching home economics to young women. Defying all the odds, they embark on their madcap journey and endure many hardships and dangers along the way. Their adventure is zany enough to require the reader to suspend some disbelief, which is not easy for me, but in this case the characters won me over. However, it’s not all fun and games, as there are some darker elements at play.