Cold Comfort

Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons

I love satire. I work at a junior high. I love funny. Cold Comfort Farm is touted as one of the funniest novels ever written. Well, if so, it sure didn’t hit my funny bone. Now, before those of you who read and now adore the book, let me qualify myself: there were some funny parts. I did laugh out loud once or twice. But all in all, it just didn’t quite hit my specific sense of humor. Maybe it’s because I read pages 1-50 at the most awful, painful graduation ceremony I’ve been to in years. Maybe it’s because my sense of humor isn’t as refined as it needs to be. Whatever the case, I’d give it a lukewarm review, but it’s not on my list of favorites.

On with the lukewarm review.

Stella Gibbons tale revolves around Flora Poste, a recently orphaned young woman who, rather than actually get a job, decides to live with some distant family members and meddle in their lives. She writes several family members, and decides that she will live with the family she knows the least about: the Starkadders of Cold Comfort Farm.

Flora shows up to meet her new housemates and is amazed at what she finds: Cousin Judith is depressed and obsessed with her son, Seth loves the ladies (especially the farm maid, who has had a child each year after she and Seth have their little forays), Reuben covets the farm but knows he will never receive it, Amos preaches doom and destruction by deity, Elfine is beautiful but is too artsy and doesn’t have a clue how to attract a man, and Aunt Ada saw something nasty in the woodshed some 50 or so years ago and is bedridden because of it.

Flora decides she has come here in order to “fix” these Starkadders. First, she starts with Elfine. She teachers her how to walk, how to sit and eat, what to talk about, changes her wardrobe and her hair, and gets her engaged to one of the richest men in town. Then she moves on to the rest of the family. She “borrows” her cousin’s friend, the moviemaker, who sweeps Seth off to Hollywood (since he’s so dashing and farmy and all). She flames Amos’s religious fire, telling him how unfair it is to the world that he isn’t preaching all over everywhere. With Amos out of the way, Reuben has full reign of the farm, and is able to do what he will with it. Judith is sent off on a journey around Europe touring old churches so she can obsess about herself. And Aunt Ada finally makes it out of bed, with Flora’s help, and decides to live the high life in Paris. All is well, Flora moves out, and gallivants off to fall in love with her second cousin, who happens to also be a marvelous dancer.

Well, of course, there are twists and turns along the way, which are for the most part, amusing. What bothered me was that it read like a math problem. Problem – Flora doesn’t want to work and would rather meddle. Solution – Sarkadders! Problem – Judith is depressed and obsessed. Solution – churches in Europe. And on and on. There seemed to be no hindrance to the problems, and though the narration was solid, not much of the dialogue was particularly witty. I will fully admit that, having not much of a clue about life in England, I may be missing a lot of the humor in what I read. However, I am of the belief that a truly funny book can be funny no matter where the book is read. The problem could also be that I spent my major reading postmodern African American literature, none of which has a shining ending or a funny plot. So if you're into 1930s British Literature, you'll probably appreciate this much more than I did. Regardless, I did enjoy Cold Comfort Farm and am moderately glad I read it. Now just wait till Calliope reads this entry and decides she needs to set me strait in her own review of the farm…