Anita Miller's memoir Tea and Antipathy has to be one of the strangest books that I have ever read. It was such a frustrating read for me that I almost gave up on it, the only reason I didn't was because it is one of those books that you can zap through.
I saw it in the library and picked it up thinking of how much I had enjoyed Edna O'Brien's accounts of living in London in the '60's expecting this to be in the same vein... It wasn't.
The Millers are a well to do Chicago family. Whilst the husband is working in London he rents a house in Knightsbridge so that his wife and three sons can join him for the summer of 1965.
Fifty years later Anita Miller publishes this memoir (Mrs Miller is now 89).
I was expecting an amusing read. Sure, it wouldn't be plain sailing for the family and I appreciate that the cultural differences and living conditions in England and America were much more different than they are today but this is just a really weird rant! Everyone who Anita Miller comes into contact with is horrible - they 'hate her' and in turn she despises them. The food and accommodations are awful, the TV is dreadful and there is 'nothing' to do. Even the smallest thing, such as somebody looking at her strangely will set Mrs Miller off and she harps on about each small incident for pages.
I'm just totally confused as to why, if, that summer was so awful Mrs Miller needs to dredge it all up and focus on it. It's all very odd and results in a bizarre book that I really can't recommend in any way, shape or form.
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