‘An Experiment in Love’ is a novel that I expected to connect with more than in fact I did. It follows a girl called Carmel as she gets into a selective high school, has to have a whole fancy uniform that seems incredibly expensive, does well at school, goes off to university, and negotiates the novel freedom of living with a group of other young women for the first time. Although the narrative is set in the 1970s, I had all the aforementioned experiences myself in the 90s and 00s. Carmel is an interesting character and I liked that her friendships and emnities with women were the focus rather than her boyfriend. (He lurked stolidly in the background.) On the other hand, said relationships remained somehow mysterious and Carmel’s first person narrative never quite hooked me. I found the treatment of her eating disorder odd and the tempo of events uneven. This wasn’t any fault in the writing, which was beautiful, but perhaps had something to do with the memoir-ish structure. The narrative darts back and forth between school and university days, with no apparent rhyme or reason. This makes for a meditative rather than plot-driven novel.

Now and again there was a magnificently acute paragraph, though. This one in particular:

When men decided that women could be educated - this is what I think - they educated them on the male plan; they put them into schools with mottoes and school songs and muddy team games, they made them wear collars and ties. It was a way to concede the right to learning, yet remain safe; the products of the system would always be inferior to the original model. Women were forced to imitate men, and bound not to succeed at it.

As I re-read that passage, I noticed that Carmel refers to women as ‘they’ not ‘we’. Perhaps that is what limited my engagement with this novel - her sense of detachment. Thus I was interested but not moved, when I expected both. Hilary Mantel is an incredible writer, though, so I am holding her to much higher standards than most. At the end of the edition I read is an interview in which she says that [b:A Place of Greater Safety|101921|A Place of Greater Safety|Hilary Mantel|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1363435037l/101921._SX50_.jpg|1168385] was the first novel she wrote, back in the 1970s. That’s extraordinary! It’s one of my all time favourite books and she wrote it while in her 20s, never having written a novel before. What talent. ( )

what if the part of TSH where richard almost dies from cold was the entire book, English, and much more about female friendship and your family... these are all good things btw ( )

An exquisite reminiscence of an English boarding school for women, an exploration of characters and friendships, all beautifully written, sprinkled with unexpected, vivid metaphors. ( )

Another dip into Hilary Mantel's backlist. An Experiment in Love is about a group of girls on the brink of adulthood away at college. It takes places in the 1960s and the main character is Carmel. She reflects on her childhood friendships and how they've changed as she grows. She also mentions her mother enough for the reader to realize that her experience in approaching adulthood is a reaction to her perception of her mother's life.

The young women are experimenting with life. Their relationships with men, with sex, with food and body image are all explored.

I couldn't shake the feeling, while I was reading this, that I knew this book and that the author was not Mantel. I'm not sure who I was thinking of - A.S. Byatt? early Margaret Atwood? Alice Munro?
I'm really not sure. But then in the last third of the book it turned into a Hilary Mantel novel. And I also don't really know what I mean by that!

So overall, yes, I thought this was a good book, and I'm glad I read it. ( )

A really engaging story, was totally unprepared for the ending. ( )