The Good Listener, Pamela Hansford Johnson’s 1975 novel focuses on the lives and loves of three young men who became friends while studying at Cambridge in the 1950s. Her principal figure a young man who badly needs a well-intentioned boot up his rear end to get him to stop being such a jerk.
One of them was willing to embrace celibacy so he could pursue his destiny as a cleric. But he’s so good looking, women in his parish can’t help paying him attention. The second of the trip, Bob Cuthbertson, is the brains of the group, a man destined for great things in the corridors of academia. But he has to get married before his career really gets off the ground when his girlfriend becomes pregnant.
And then there’s Toby Roberts, the character whose experiences with women form the crux of the novel. He’s turns out to be a thoroughly dislikable person, the kind of young man who badly needs a well-intentioned boot up his rear end to get him to stop being such a jerk.
Tony is the only child of a tobacconist and his amateur painter wife who make personal sacrifices so their son can become the first in their family to attend university. The boy turns out to excel more at dodging decisions and responsibility than he does at his studies.
In his final term he meets Maisie, who is beautiful, energetic, tense and vulnerable. She draws him into her world of wealth and ease overseen by a matriarch who loves to surround herself with artists, writers and musicians. Maisie falls in love but Tony, while more than keen to enjoy nights of passion, holds back from making any real commitment.
He takes up instead with Maisie’s friend Claire whose family boast even greater wealth as well as a hereditary title and a seat in the House of Lords. Claire is tall and statuesque and takes life as it comes where Maisie is petite and earnest.
Neither relationship succeeds. Tony prides himself on being “a good listener” but he doesn’t understand women, doesn’t recognise a good thing when it’s right in front of his nose. So he dithers and dithers about his true feelings for these women. It’s much easier to keep them dangling.
Why should he be forced to make decisions? He was overcome by a restless irritation. … There was plenty of time, the Lord only knew there was plenty of time but people were trying to make him telescope it.
He gives no thought to the distress and hurt he causes Maisie but becomes outraged and upset when the girl decides to seek love elsewhere. Only then does he decide that he does after all love her and just can’t countenance it when she rejects his advances. There’s no need to feel sorry for him however — people like him always manage to bounce back. There’s a sequel to this book, called The Good Husband, so we know he does eventually get married, hopefully becoming a more sensitive man in the process though I doubt it.
I don’t plan to read the sequel, having had more than my fill of Tony Roberts. Pamela Hansford Johnson captures the spirit of the 1950s well but the atmosphere doesn’t compensate for a tale that lacks any real dramatic tension.