Because of Sam

[from back of Dean Street reprint; photo from Furrowed Middlebrow blog post]

"Sometimes, in a rare moment of leisure, when Mrs. Maitland looked back across the thirty years of her short married life and long widowhood, the ninteen-year-old girl on the other side of the gap seemed a total stranger, incredibly young and untried, incredibly ignorant."

Millie Maitland has settled happily into her busy if slightly impoverished existence in the Scottish village of Mennan, watched over now and then by her solicitor, who once proposed marriage, and her daughter Amabel, grown but still a handful. Millie is much loved by her friends and neighbours, including the gossipy Mrs. Gray, the kind Mrs. Denholm, a shepherd's wife isolated in the hills, and the appalling Mrs. Noble, a flirt whose husband is overseas. But into this contented, quiet life comes a bit of drama. It all starts innocently enough when Martin Heriot, a bachelor farmer, asks Millie to board a black labrador puppy named Sam.

Because of Sam is a gentle, cozy read. Millie -- 49, gray-haired, deeply loyal, kind and principled widowed dog boarder -- is an atypical and highly sympathetic main character. Her difficult, prickly, less-than-kind daughter Amabel gets a satisfying growth arc. Sam is, of course, a delight. And Molly Clavering's affection for her small Scottish town and for the wild countryside around is so quietly seductive, you'll find yourself browsing Scottish village Air BnBs. I'm not crazy about the predatory rival/maneater trope in vintage fiction -- for what it says about female relationships and what it purports re. the stupidity of men -- but it didn't rise anywhere close to deal-breaker here. Molly Clavering was a friend and neighbor of the better-known D. E. Stevenson, but on this one-book acquaintance, at least, I have to say, I prefer Molly. "Because of Sam" is funnier than many of the Stevenson's I've read and less...I don't know, dispiriting? Big thanks to Scott at Furrowed Middlebrow for rediscovering her. Interesting highlight: discussion of the introduction of strip-lighting! If you like "Sam" also be sure to try Ruby Ferguson's Apricot Sky.