Bernice Rubens

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Sentimental Joy-Ride

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The twilight world of U.N.O. and the W.F.O. and their agents in Java is the setting of Bernice Rubens latest novel The Ponsonby Post. To the Third World, which sometimes appears to be lying fallow waiting for ideological and agricultural cultivation, come the improvers. For the most part cynicism has eroded their commitment to the organisation, which sent them, or to the country which is their host—willing or otherwise. The officials' and administrators' lives are played out in pampered luxury, enlivened by the time-honoured ingredients of drink, gambling and sex. (p. 52)

A wide variety of characters is brought into the novel, and Bernice Rubens maintains control of them so that profusion does not lead to confusion. Sure of her touch she can, at the beginning of the novel, tiptoe up the edge of farce and get away with it…. But too often in her portrayal of some of the Europeans and of the Javanese, Bernice Rubens lets her sympathy and compassion become exaggerated. The story loses its credibility, and becomes a joy-ride for those who wallow in sentimentality.

Large political and emotional themes are touched on. The interaction of the rebels, the local police and the foreigners is explored to some extent, as well as the effect of the foreigners on the local culture and of the latter on them. Emotionally love is seen in many forms…. But throughout the novel there is an uncomfortable mixture of sentimentality and of the superficiality of the detective story. (pp. 52-3)

Olga Rosenbaum, "Sentimental Joy-Ride," in The Jewish Quarterly (© The Jewish Quarterly 1977), Vol. 25, No. 3(93), Autumn, 1977, pp. 52-3.

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