Date: 22 May 2016
Location: Bob & Linda
It was another beautiful Sunday afternoon as the Bookers met to discuss Alan Bradley’s The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, a cozy mystery with a most unusual heroine.
The book had been selected for the Madison County Reads program, a local offshoot of the national Big Reads program. We were delighted to welcome special guests to our meeting: Jennifer Garlen, her husband David Sparks and their daughter Cate. Jennifer had supported the Madison County Reads program by giving talks about the book to several different organizations.
The mystery genre essentially began in the mid-19th century with the works of Edgar Allan Poe, Wilkie Collins and then Arthur Conan Doyle. Jennifer discussed how the cozy mystery subgenre developed as a major offshoot of this, with Agathe Christie’s novels featuring Miss Marple probably some of the best-known examples. It is clear that the 70-year old Bradley was following this model as he wrote this very interesting book.
The novel is set in rural England in 1950. Our heroine is the preternaturally gifted 11 year old Flavia de Luce, who is sort of a combination of Nancy Drew and Miss Marple with a bit of a mean streak thrown in for good measure. Flavia is a prodigy–extremely intelligent with a special interest in chemistry and poisons in particular. Her mother is dead; her father is withdrawn and un-involved; and Flavia is constantly battling with her older sisters, Ophelia and Daphne, who are also highly talented in their own ways. While often the target of attacks from her sisters, she is quite ready to retaliate in kind. In fact, at times she can be mean, maybe even amoral; but after all she is still a child and she is roughly provoked by her sisters.
Of course, this is a mystery novel with the requisite murder and search for the guilty party, and naturally Flavia becomes actively involved in solving the case. She is courageous, even foolhearty, and–with no parental supervision–is able to get into very frightening and dangerous situations. This combination of grit, independence and intellect in an 11-year old girl make for a very interesting (delightful?) character. Apparently, the author Bradley remarked that when he started writing the book he intended for Flavia to be a minor character, but she quickly took over and dominated the book.
I think most of us enjoyed the book and look forward to further adventures of the intrepid Flavia.
— Bob