Book Review: Miss Benson’s Beetle by Rachel Joyce

 Miss Benson’s Beetle by Rachel Joyce

I took a chance on this book, and I don’t think I can really explain why.  When the title came to my attention some unnameable thing compelled me to have a closer look.  I don’t like bugs or beetles.  The depth of information about the creepy crawlies in the book might have put me off, but for some reason, maybe my desire to find something outside of the sorts of titles I always read, I found myself diving into Miss Benson’s Beetle.  

Author Rachel Joyce knows how to tell a story.  She draws in the reader with surprising details and with a story demanding an audience.  I couldn’t put it down. 

The book begins with Miss Benson, a spinster teacher, who has just learned what her students think of her.  Shocked—perhaps because we never see ourselves the way others see us—she does several things so far out of character that leaving the country seems a good idea. Indeed, leaving the country is an out-of-character decision.

Leaving her job, she decides to go off to New Caledonia to find a theorized but never before identified and categorized golden beetle.  What follows is a story of self-discovery, limits reached and surpassed, and unexpected friendships.

It wouldn’t be fair to say she has no background in this sort of thing, but she has no formal training.  This being England of 1950, women weren’t at the forefront of entomology.

We learn along the way of her background, her family, her less than inspiring life so far, and at the same time we see her grow and change. It’s not always a willing change, but the Miss Benson at the end of the book is adifferent woman to the one who leaves her job at the start.  Stepping out of her personal normal, she embraces, sometimes with great reluctance, a way of life that she’d never have conceived and if she had, she never would have chosen.

Miss Benson: A solid protagonist, she is easy to understand and, as she reveals bits and pieces of her past, it is easy to sympathize with her string of rotten luck and her life of solitude. 

Enid Pretty, Miss Benson’s assistant:  What a fabulous character!  With secrets of her own, she manages to changer herself as well as Miss Benson.  Embracing change, leaping into the unknown as often as possible, and, though the sensibilities of the 1950s impose constraints, she intends to get what she wants. 

The other characters in the book move in and out of the story and each is well written, well defined, and believable.  The culmination of the tale, the denouement, is exciting, impactful, and lends itself to the thought that Miss Benson may be helping another generation of women step outside the confines of expectation.

Well worth your time, Miss Benson’s Beetle by Rachel Joyce is a welcome addition to your bookshelf.