I had not heard of Phaedra Patrick, but this book - ‘The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper’ - was recommended to me by Amazon, based on some other books I had read and liked. The blurb sounded intriguing so I put it on my wishlist, and was given it for my birthday… eighteen months ago! It has been sitting on my to-be-read shelf all that time, and I finally picked it up to read about a week ago.
It’s an engaging story. Arthur Pepper is in his late sixties and is a creature of habit. He was widowed nearly a year earlier, and is still grieving for his wife, Miriam, and he has set up quite rigid routines to stay in control of his day. He eats the same thing at the same time, and wears the same clothes. He has a generous neighbour who bakes cakes and pies for him, but he tries to avoid her.
Arthur also seems to have lost touch, or nearly so, with his two adult children Dan and Lucy. Dan lives in Australia with his wife and two children, so it’s no surprise that he wasn’t able to get back to the UK for his mother’s funeral, but Arthur is still quite hurt that Lucy, who lives relatively close, couldn’t face it and didn’t attend.
On the anniversary of Miriam’s death, Arthur decides to start clearing her closet. In doing so, he discovers an unusual charm bracelet, which he is quite certain he’s never seen before. It doesn’t seem to be the kind of thing that Miriam would wear, yet it’s tucked away inside a pair of her shoes. The charms are a mixed bunch: there’s a silver elephant with what looks like a real emerald in it, a tiger, a paint palette, a heart, a little book… and more.
He notices a phone number embedded in the trunk of the elephant, and - led by extreme curiosity - decides to call it. He doesn’t expect to get anywhere, but to his astonishment he gets through to a house in India, and manages to speak to someone who knew his wife, many decades earlier. .
But Arthur had no clue that his wife had travelled anywhere outside the UK, let alone to somewhere as exotic (in his mind) as India. He learns things about his wife that she had never told him, and is given a clue to one of the other charms too.
This is the start of a series of adventures which Arthur undertakes, as he attempts to work out the source of each of the charms. Some are easier than others to discover, and each one comes with a story, something more about his wife that he didn’t know. He begins to feel quite hurt, wondering if he ever knew her at all. Yet at the same time he feels himself maturing, as he follows unexpected paths, behaves in ways that he would not normally dream of doing, and even starts to dress differently.
It’s all very clever, and I thought Arthur a very likeable person: he’s polite, and generous, and is also a deeply caring person who has lost his way, temporarily. He meets some people whom he would never normally have come across - some nice, some bitter or angry, and some frankly bizarre.
There are other side stories: a growing appreciation for the neighbour, and getting to know her teenage son who is moody and feels that nobody ever listens to him. Arthur is a good listener. He plays down his skills, feeling himself to be dull, plain and untalented. Yet his personality shines through, and the final chapters, even if a tad predictable, are really very moving.
The writing is excellent, the story well thought out, and overall I enjoyed the book very much.
Definitely recommended.
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