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

This book is so good! I am so glad that I requested it on NetGalley and was approved for the same. It is not at all my regular genre and I needed something different but good for my reading to come back to me. It’s a story of a woman who is just trying her best to live in a post World War Britain of shortage of things and rationing. On top of that, the school she teaches at has girls who find her to be a funny looking teacher. Worthy of being mocked for her appearance. After an incident wherein she finally loses her patience with her students, the teaching body and the school in general, she’s left to pick up the pieces of her temper. In optimism, she decides to go back to her basics. The things she had truly been interested in and for that, she puts out an ad for a companion/assistant for the journey. Margery Benson is going to find the beetle that nobody has been able to.In all her interviews, she finds that there aren’t really people who are eligible or even interested in this and she ends up with her least favourite candidate. Enid Pretty. She’s not at all what Benson wanted and yet she’s the only one who would stick around. Margery is friendless and awkward, she’s middle aged and very large in comparison to her peers and in a complete opposite direction, Enid Pretty is illiterate, chatty and traditionally very pretty and attractive. She’s not what Margery wanted in an assistant. It’s their journey towards something more that made this whole book. They both have their own reasons as to why they want to leave the country and why it feels like an important journey. The friendship that blooms between them is so good!Overall, it’s just a story of two women who are trying to find if there’s more in their life, if there could be more. In doing so, they find joy, tests that check their endurance and just life. It’s atmospheric, it’s fun and it’s also a bit tragic. I found it to be very engaging and touching.

Such a lovely book about companionship and loyalty. Well written and loved the two main characters. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did :)

Absolutely loved every second of this novel! It really transports you, makes you smile, perhaps tear up as well and for a while there, I really felt transported to another world and time. I highly recommend this book!

This book evoked strong emotions from sadness to joy. The description of post-war England and the vivid, atmospheric portrayal of the jungle was transporting. The story was lovely and beautiful despite all the hardships and conflicts endured. The characters of Marjorie Benson and Enid Pretty were well developed and told with humour and passion. Marjorie was a large 47-year-old spinster, very prim and proper, reserved, self-conscious, and both physically and socially awkward. The story begins with Marjorie trying to teach her class of unruly, disruptive girls. They are passing around a drawing making fun of her appearance. Humiliated, she walks out of the school after stealing a pair of boots. She decides to fulfill a lifetime dream of finding and proving the existence of a rumoured golden beetle in the jungles of the remote New Caledonia Island. She wants to present her discovery to the Natural History Museum. Out of necessity, she advertises for an assistant to accompany her to this faraway island. The first two applicants were found unsuitable. A third woman was hired but backed out later. This left Enid Pretty, who was rejected and not interviewed because the woman’s initial letter made her appear nearly illiterate. Marjorie’s journey is quickly drawing near and she has little choice than to meet Enid. When the two women meet, Marjorie is dressed in dull-colored jungle clothes. The much younger Enid shows up dressed in a pink, provocative outfit. Her hair is dyed a bright yellow, and she is later described as looking like a call girl. She is enthusiastic about the expedition and pleads to be Marjorie’s assistant. She never stops talking, rambling on from one subject to another, which is very annoying to Marjorie. Enid is not prepared. She doesn't even have a passport and knows nothing about beetles, but time is short so Marjorie reluctantly agrees that Enid accompany her on this journey of exploration. Both women have different reasons to leave England far behind. I won't go into their backstories as these would be spoilers. Due to my reluctance to diminish any enjoyment of the book, I am avoiding the hilarity and misadventures aboard ship or the perils and pleasures they encounter in the jungle. It is inevitable that the two women with such different temperaments clash frequently. They finally come to support and depend upon one another. Not only does a friendship but a family-type love develop. In the meantime, they are being followed by a former soldier who endured the horrors of the Burmese march and imprisonment by the Japanese. He is broken physically, mentally, and spiritually. Having psychotic episodes, he presents a danger to himself and others. Also, in the storyline, are British wives leading frivolous lives in the capitol, one who is targeting our two explorers. I absolutely loved this book from its early scenes of Marjorie failing to control her classroom to its very satisfying conclusion years later. I would like to see this as a TV series but it would probably be too expensive to produce. Highly recommended!

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Frye brought me to this book by the same author. Like that book was a story of a man going for a walk, this book is a story of a woman looking for a beetle- and so very much more. This is a story of people who have hit breaking points. Margery Benson and Enid Pretty have nothing obvious in common but they each have reached their limits and they each decide to keep going. No whining, no self-pity- just forging ahead with their days. The destination is defined, but the destination is not as important as the journey. It is a story of adventure, tenacity, growth, and friendship laced with humor, grace, forgiveness, and generosity of spirit. The story is set in 1950 when rationing was still in effect in Britain and travel took more effort- in this case a long ocean voyage. Margery has left her teaching job. She makes plans to head to New Caledonia to search for a golden beetle. She is truly knowledgeable about insects and beetles, but not about expeditions or adventure. She is not even particularly good with people. Enid Pretty knows nothing about insects, beetles, or expeditions but she has some skills in manipulating people and she needs to leave London. They are followed by Mundic, a WWII veteran whose grip on reality is tenuous and whose residual PTSD from his days as a POW held by the Japanese during the war is crippling at times. The story is well-written and engaging. The pacing is brisk, and the pages turn quickly because the reader wants to know what will happen to Margery and Enid. Enid’s backstory is treated as a mystery for much of the book and that also adds to the interest. These were not people that I could recognize, but they were people that I could believe and care about. The book is far removed from the pandemic and today’s politics so it an excellent escape from the issues facing all of us. I cannot remark about my quarrel with elements of the ending without spoilers, so I will not. In any event the ending is always the prerogative of the author. Still- did you have to?

reassuring and heart-breaking at the same time