DECEMBER 2020 - AudioFile
Master storyteller Juliet Stevenson employs her considerable vocal talent to memorably narrate this audiobook about an unlikely friendship between two very different women. Stevenson hits just the right notes of humor, wit, and pathos in her sparkling characterizations and evokes vibrant British and island settings. She expresses the resolve and lingering hopefulness of Margery, a lonely woman who pins her dream of a more fulfilling life on finding the elusive golden beetle of New Caledonia. Accompanying Margery on this perhaps foolish expedition is Enid, who is wonderfully portrayed with a sly bubbliness that masks her mysterious past. As the two come to appreciate and support each other and outwit numerous obstacles, listeners will cheer them on—especially as gloriously presented by this expert narrator. M.J. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
★ 08/31/2020
Joyce’s sparkling latest (after The Music Shop) pops with grit, resilience, and the power of friendship. It’s 1950, and 46-year-old Margery Benson teaches domestic science to girls in a London school. Having been humiliated one too many times in her 20-year stint teaching, a demeaning sketch of her by a student captioned, “The Virgin Margery!” is the catalyst that changes her life: she leaves the school with a pair of stolen lacrosse boots, returns to her lonely existence in her deceased aunt’s flat, and puts an advertisement in the paper for a French-speaking assistant to travel with her to New Caledonia, where she intends to find a mythical golden beetle. The adventure is sparked by a memory of her father showing her a picture of the beetle in a book called Imaginary Creatures, full of “many incredible extra creatures in the world, and nobody had found a single one of them.” Enter Enid Pretty, Margery’s polar opposite: young, beautiful, petite, and headstrong. During their travels in New Caledonia, each woman faces uncomfortable truths about herself and the other, and both eschew traditional women’s expectations in their own way to celebrate their true selves. Joyce’s graceful touch and cutting humor undercut the potential for mawkishness and give the characters a rich complexity and depth. With a plucky protagonist and plenty of action, this is a winner. Agent: Alexander Cochran, C&W Agency. (Nov.)
From the Publisher
I fell in love with the unlikely friendship between two wildly different women—their devotion to each other as they trek up and down mountains in someplace called New Caledonia is a hysterical delight. This novel made me realize how hungry I am for stories about women loving each other into being their best selves.”—Ann Napolitano, author of Dear Edward
“Miss Benson’s Beetle is a pure joyride. Sweet, witty, poignant, filled with intrigue and unlikely friendship, it’s a perfect escape. I loved it.”—Lisa Wingate, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Before We Were Yours
and The Book of Lost Friends
“Whatever you may look for in a novel—adventure, fully realized characters, humor, poignancy, a chance to learn something new—is all here in Miss Benson’s Beetle. What’s also here is the particular grace and humanity that Rachel Joyce brings to her work. She reminds us that we all are broken in one way or another, but that we are capable—oftentimes in unexpected ways—of helping to make ourselves and others whole. This beautifully written novel is an absolute delight.”—Elizabeth Berg, author of The Story of Arthur Truluv
“As ever, Rachel Joyce made me laugh out loud, then weep for the battered majesty of ordinary human beings. Two unlikely heroines, their strange love, a pitiful villain, and a life-affirming search for miraculous beauty . . . all combine in a wild, hopeful picaresque journey into the soul.”—Bel Mooney, Daily Mail
“It’s full of humor, pathos, and insight, extolling the virtues of love, acceptance, and hard-won self-discovery—all that gleams about the human spirit. It’ll capture you right at the beginning and hold you tight the whole way through. This book is a pure and serious joy.”—Paula Saunders, author of The Distance Home
“A beautiful portrayal of female friendship in all its frailties, contradictions, and strengths.”—Raynor Winn, author of The Salt Path
“Bursting with the irrepressible wonder that is quintessential Rachel Joyce . . . Miss Benson’s Beetle is about the courage to say YES! Yes, I will. Yes, I can . . . radiant, transporting, idiosyncratic, tender, and shimmeringly alive . . . the master of charm and delight.”—Keggie Carew, author of Dadland
“Rachel Joyce is a masterful storyteller, and has written the perfect book for these times. Funny, perceptive, and life-enhancing—I urge you to read it.”—Sarah Winman, author of When God Was a Rabbit
“For Eleanor Oliphant fans, Miss Benson’s Beetle is pure gold—full of complex, memorable women, plot twists, and a deft balance of hilarity and emotion, it’s a book you’ll stay up late to finish.”—J. Ryan Stradal, author of The Lager Queen of Minnesota
“Enthralling, amazing . . . Any reader accompanying Rachel Joyce on this exhilarating expedition into the far reaches of the imagination is destined to be rewarded with the richest pleasure.”—David Park, author of The Light of Amsterdam
Library Journal
★ 11/01/2020
In 1914, Margery Benson is introduced to the mythical Golden Beetle of New Caledonia at the age of 10. Her family is almost immediately deeply devastated by World War I, and Margery shelves her dream of finding the beetle until 1950. In her middle age, she realizes that her life is not what she wants it to be, and she wants to prove to the world that the golden insect does in fact exist. She just has to make her way to New Caledonia, an island in the South Pacific, pay for an expedition, and hire an assistant to help her find, mount, and describe the beetle to entomologists back in England. She engages the services of Enid Petty, the least likely assistant to an entomologist to ever be found, a brassy young woman with troubles of her own. VERDICT Joyce (The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry) has written a delightful book filled with for whom characters readers will root. Margery finds herself again, after being buried by family and work troubles; Enid finds a friend and completes her own dream while in the wilderness of New Caledonia. Sure to be a hit with book clubs.—Jennifer Mills, Shorewood-Troy Lib., IL
DECEMBER 2020 - AudioFile
Master storyteller Juliet Stevenson employs her considerable vocal talent to memorably narrate this audiobook about an unlikely friendship between two very different women. Stevenson hits just the right notes of humor, wit, and pathos in her sparkling characterizations and evokes vibrant British and island settings. She expresses the resolve and lingering hopefulness of Margery, a lonely woman who pins her dream of a more fulfilling life on finding the elusive golden beetle of New Caledonia. Accompanying Margery on this perhaps foolish expedition is Enid, who is wonderfully portrayed with a sly bubbliness that masks her mysterious past. As the two come to appreciate and support each other and outwit numerous obstacles, listeners will cheer them on—especially as gloriously presented by this expert narrator. M.J. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2020-08-19
In 1914, when Margery Benson was 10 years old, her father showed her a book of magical creatures, none more fantastic than the golden beetle of New Caledonia. Thirty-six years later, jobless and alone, she’s determined to have the adventure of her life and find that beetle.
After stealing a co-worker’s new boots in a fit of despair, and consequently losing her job as a teacher of domestic science, Margery finds herself eager to get out of England before the police catch up to her. In addition to packing up her apartment and collecting an impressive array of bug-hunting equipment, she places an advertisement in the newspaper for a French-speaking assistant, an ad to which only four people apply. After a series of curious events, she finds herself aboard the RMS Orion with one Enid Pretty, a shockingly blond woman in a pink suit who never seems to stop talking, much to Margery's dismay. But once Margery succumbs to weeks of seasickness, Enid turns out to be the best friend Margery never knew she needed. Thus, two women too often discounted, one as an old maid and the other as a floozy, begin a very funny journey, indeed. But Margery and Enid are being followed by two shadows: Enid’s mysterious, possibly criminal past and Mr. Mundic, a man Margery rejected as her assistant. A survivor of the Second World War POW camps in Burma, Mr. Mundic is frequently waylaid on his mission to reunite with Margery by bouts of beriberi and violent, hallucinatory memories. Once in the northern wilds of New Caledonia, Margery, Enid, Mr. Mundic, and the golden beetle are set on a collision course teeming with screwball comedic scenes deftly choreographed by Joyce.
A hilarious jaunt into the wilderness of women’s friendship and the triumph of outrageous dreams.
