Silly and affected. ( )

I do love a book which divides opinion. As I was preparing to write about my reactions to the novel, I glanced over a few reviews of it on Librarything.com and Goodreads.com – and there certainly seems to be as many people who really liked it as didn’t. So before I go any further I must immediately put myself in the former camp, I loved it. It is only the second Molly Keane novel I have read – and I am looking forward now to reading more.
Molly Keane was the real name of writer M J Farrell, she wrote under a pseudonym because she was part of the small world of Anglo-Irish hunting aristocracy that she wrote about. Sometime before writing Devoted Ladies – Molly Keane had been made aware of lesbianism and homosexuality – and this novel was her fascinated response to it.
“In her friendships with men as well as with women Jessica spent herself so lavishly and so emotionally that soon there was no more she. She had spent what she was in a sort of dreadful effort towards entire mental contact with the person she loved. And having reserved no smallest ledge of herself for herself, no foothold for the last secret feet of her mind, she would retreat in anger and despair from her friendships. Then cruelly, disdainfully and despitefully she would speak against such a one as she had loved”
Devoted Ladies – is a darkly comic satire, some of the characters are quite unlikeable, although I really did love the ridiculously silly Jane and her dreadfully camp, deliciously vicious house boy/valet Albert. The novel opens in 1930’s London – at a party given by Sylvester Browne. Jane and Jessica have been living together for six months, Jane is rich very silly and completely bullied by the horrid Jessica. During the party they have an argument and Jessica throws a bottle of tonic water at Jane. It is also at this party that Jane first meets George Playfair, an Irish gentleman hunting type. George is something of an innocent; he has no idea about the truth of the relationship between Jane and Jessica. This hedonistic 1930’s world is wonderfully reproduced by Keane – it was quite a different setting for her books and was not where her readers at this time were used to finding themselves upon opening one of her novels. Jane, weak and suggestible succumbs to alcoholic poisoning - and it is during her recovery that George visits Jane – when Jessica is out – and persuades her to visit Ireland. From here on the reader is back in familiar Molly Keane territory.
Sylvester Browne – friend of George Playfair is now back in Ireland – staying with his cousins Hester and Viola (Piggy) Browne – Piggy is a desperately sad character who I found at times a little pathetic and at other times I couldn’t help but sympathise with. Piggy is utterly devoted to her friend Joan – George Playfair’s sister. Her unrequited crush is really quite pitiful, Joan married to another Irish gentleman hunter, and mother of twin boys uses Piggy – and quietly despises her. It is into the Browne household that Jane, Jessica and Albert crash land. Jessica is injured in a car accident on the way, and is laid up in the house, while Jane is able to go out and about with her new friends. She and Sylvester see in George Playfair her chance of freedom from Jessica. However Jessica is darkly vicious, she will do anything to prevent Jane having her own way. The stage is set then, for a battle – and it is never quite clear how it may be won.
I found this utterly compelling, and loved the dark humour of it, there are some terrible 1930’s stereotypes – which I am sure, were quite deliberate – it is a novel of its time. Still I found it immensely enjoyable. ( )

I’ve been really up and down with Molly Keane’s books. On one hand, I loved The Rising Tide and Taking Chances; on the other, I really didn’t like Loving Without Tears or this one. This is the story of the friendship between two women in London (and then, in true Molly Keane fashion, a decaying old estate in Ireland). Jane is a weak-willed woman who is caught between her friendship with Jessica and her budding relationship with George Playfair; Jessica is controlling and manipulative.

Neither of the two main characters is particularly likable, which made it hard for me to care what ultimately happened to them. Jane is practically a doormat and not that smart; Jessica gets herself involved in everybody else’s life, which I found irritating to the extreme. Their relationship is passionate, stormy, and I couldn’t quite see why they were friends in the first place. I also didn’t like Piggy, and not because of the lesbian element; I just didn’t care for her character all that much.

Molly Keane had a very sharp sense of humor; sarcasm practically drips off the page, especially when they characters talk about each other. Sarcasm and wit is one thing, but I thought the excess was a bit too over the top. However, I did like some of Keane’s characterizations, especially Albert the (gay) manservant. In addition, much of the story takes place through dialogue; there’s not much action, which makes this novel a bit hard to follow at times. It’s too bad I didn’t like this one, but since I have the rest of Molly Keane’s oeuvre on the TBR shelf, I’m going to soldier on. ( )

Molly Keane, who wrote as M.J.Farrell, probably found her pseudonym useful in the case of Devoted Ladies. I imagine this novel of a lesbian domme and sub was a bit risque in 1934 - even if people were humming Cole Porter's new tune "Anything Goes" as they bithely danced the foxtrot. And how fitting it is for an author who once rode to the hounds to turn out a story about what it means to be top dog in a twosome when the "bitches" are ladies.

There are two merging tributaries to the storyline.

One branch concerns the relationship between Jane, a ditzy alcoholic bisexual, and her bullying, brainy domme partner, Jessica. A liver complaint and social happenstance conspire to convince Jane to chance a switch from the city life, wine AND women. Jessica, however, is not about to let that happen.

The other branch concerns Viola (a.k.a, "Piggy", or just plain "Pig") a living breathing doormat of a spinster who has a platonic crush on her lifelong friend Joan. Joan is an outdoors woman and haute snob extraordinaire. And Joan, as the wife of a county squire, "crushs" Piggy under her heel whenever Pig fails to lick her regal boots properly.

Sylvester is a gay writer who also serves as a link between the two couples. He's a useful foil to stir the pot, pinch Jessica, and add a bit of pepper and spice whenever the simmering slows. Piggy's sister, Hester; Jane's gay manservant, Albert; and Joan's husband Robin round out the cast.

But it's a straight man (of all things) named George Playfair (of all names) who put the scales out of balance for these two duos and creates a cascade of events. Not that George is all that dynamic. He's more of the dullish but solid hero that was Ronald Reagan's stock-in-trade in his career as a "B" actor.

Keane has a knack for building and connecting an ensemble of characters. It takes a bit of time for her to set it all in motion, but when she does, the story is alive and unstoppable. She's also a bit of Molly Keane the Mean Colleen in how she appears to relish painting the portrait of poor ole wimpy Piggy. In Full House, she similarly etches, with acid, the cameo of poor Prudence. However, all the meanness makes absolute sense in the end.

Devoted Ladies is a dark glimpse behind the veil of female relationships, and a reminder that power plays and pressure politics aren't limited to Wall Street or Washington, or only Hillary and Sarah. ( )

I debated for a time whether giving this book a half a star was overrating it or not. Apparently I missed the point to this terribly tedious book. If you're looking for a story about obsessive love, I suggest Clemence Dane's Regiment of Women. ( )