Another odd couple

I have been a Rachel Joyce fan since The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, and now with Miss Benson's Beetle (2020) she has equalled, if not surpassed, that novel.

The plot doesn't sound like much. A plump, introverted middle-aged woman travels to New Caledonia in 1950 to search for a golden beetle, accompanied by a much younger woman different from her in every way imaginable. It's a buddy novel — an Odd Couple novel — featuring women, yet Joyce turns it into something much more than that.

Margery Benson was a little girl when her father told her about a gold beetle found only in New Caledonia, except that no one has officially found it yet. Then he committed suicide, but she has never given up the dream of going half way around the world to try to find her mythical beetle. When she loses her teaching job because of her response to being humiliated in her classroom, she realizes that if she is ever going to pursue her dream, now is the time.

When she advertises for someone to accompany her on her expedition, the applicants leave much to be desired. One is a former prisoner of war who isn't always clear whether he's still in a Japanese prison or not. The winning candidate turns out to be Enid Pretty, a peroxide blonde who is a magnet to men and who never stops talking. Enid has none of the qualifications necessary for this overseas adventure, including a passport, but at least she isn't a crazed former POW.

Enid's own goal in life is to have a baby, but her reason for wanting to go beetle hunting is to stay a few steps ahead of the law. Meanwhile the former POW follows their trail to New Caledonia.

Much that follows may be predictable, but it all happens in such an original, often hilarious and sometimes poignant manner that it hardly matters. This is a novel that brings joy to the heart, a smile to the face and a tear to the eye. We love Margery and Enid as much as they eventually come to love each other. You won't easily find more wonderful characters than these.