The diary of Isabella M Smugge by Ruth Leigh
 

The author has created a modern, memorable character, and amid Issy’s story is a slow-developing, well-observed narrative about her relationship with God

The diary of Isabella M Smugge
By Ruth Leigh
Instant Apostle
ISBN: 978-1912726400
Reviewed by Terry Young

Paul, the editor of The Baptist Times, avers – and I’m sure he’s right – that I selected this book from the list for review some time ago but that he couldn’t find a copy at the time.  However, having discovered a copy, he emailed it along with The continued times of Isabella M Smugge (2022), which I took to be the sequel.  I duly read the former and was about halfway through the latter, when the pdf ran out, so I had to buy the Kindle edition to see what happened. #onlyhalfthestorywithBapTim

A third book, The trials of Isabella M Smugge (2021) appears to lie in between, although I had assumed that the narrative gap was a clever ploy to skip, as Issy does at church, over the boring bits. As a result, I can’t comment on the middle book, but I am sure it is wittily written.

For Ruth is a very clever author. In Isabella Smugge, she has created a memorable character, an influencer for the upwardly mobile mum, not to mention those circling the top of society. She portrays her heroine as a deeply perceptive woman with energy who nevertheless is also devoid of much self-awareness – as most of us are one way or another. In style, it reminded me of Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine and in its social commentary of About a Boy.

I mention these comparators because it would ruin any review to go through the plot and unpick its well-woven fabric. Ruth has glorious fun in relocating her heroine with her family from London’s movers and shakers to rural Suffolk, dealing with the backwash of resentment that follows her early efforts to join a very inferior social whirl. #whentheydontseeitcoming

But that isn’t Ruth’s only aim with this book, for under the comic icing and behind the laugh out loud moments there is a lot of sadness, not just from Isabella’s past but in the main story as it evolves. What redeems Issy from being the butt of all the comeuppance humour is her agility on her feet, her phenomenal resilience, and a sense of integrity that has to put things right in the end. She gets hurt, works out how the new game is played and responds. There’s good stuff on forgiveness, on human worth, reconciliation and even compassion in the stories, as well as interesting angles on intergenerational living. I can’t comment on the counselling advice, but if it works in the real world as well as it does in rural Suffolk, I’m all for it.

Although she starts out as one of life’s most annoying women, Issy’s curiosity and innate humanity rescue her, and you find yourself in her corner rooting for her, even when she is about to do something very unwise. Ruth also fills in Issy’s back story in small instalments, which add to the sense of development as you read.

The longest, slowest developing narrative in these books is about Issy’s relationship with God. I still don’t know quite how it’s going to end, and I love her way with words as she grapples with prayer (p 225, The continued times…): ‘Dear God, This is Isabella Smugge. I really need Your help.’ Like most of us, she carries around all kinds of assumptions about God alongside a growing store of truth and revealing experiences. Slowly, the former get dismantled, while the latter grows. It’s well-observed and escapes the formulaic approach of a lot of Christian writing around conversion.

Throughout her journey, Issy is fixated with demographics and where her three million followers (you’ve read this far, it’s hardly a spoiler…) are.  I’m really unsure, too, what demographic this is aimed at. I suspect that grandfathers like me are hardly Ruth’s main audience, but I’ve enjoyed it and it made me think, and laugh… and think again.
 

Terry Young is a missionary kid who read science and engineering. After a PhD in lasers, he worked in R&D before becoming a professor, when he taught project management, information systems and e-business, while leading research in healthcare.

He set up Datchet Consulting to have fun with both faith and work and worshipped at Baptist churches in Slough for 19 years before moving to the New Forest