Liza's England (Paperback, Reissue)

Less strident and more sentimental than her earlier books (Union Street, Blow Your House Down). Barker's third is the carefully researched, tightly constructed story of two lonely people - a poorly educated, cranky old woman about to be evicted from her house and a 29-year-old gay social-worker estranged from his blue-collar family - and how they connect. Liza Jarrett Wright, born into poverty and neglect in 1900, has spent her life scraping by; now she is ending her life in the shabby house where she has raised two children and a grandchild; but before she dies, the still-irrepressible Liza wants to put the past in order. Assisting her in sorting out 86 years of memories is Steven, a social worker whose job it is to persuade her to move out before the wrecking ball hits but who stays to become a friend. Liza's vivid, rich recounting of her impoverished girlhood, unhappy marriage and struggle for survival makes up the body of the book, and her stories - both historically accurate and quite moving - are especially affecting when she describes Louise, her mother, who bore 19 children, and Frank, her husband, whose obsession with seances and faith healing grew out of his traumatic experiences in WW I. Listening to Liza's unsparing account of the difficulties of working-class life from 1900 on, Steven - her "spiritual son" - is revived brought back from the alienation he's felt from his own working-class parents, threatening his job and his relationship with Gerald, his lover. Steven's chapters are plodding, and, all in all, he's a less convincing, real character than Liza; but, still, this hard-nosed, compassionate novel is mostly absorbing entertainment. (Kirkus Reviews)

Dauntless Liza Jarrett, born at the dawn of the twentieth century, is now in her eighties, frail and facing eviction with her cantankerous parrot Nelson, when she is visited by Stephen, a young gay social worker. As she learns to trust him, she recalls her life - her embittered, exhausted mother, her shell-shocked spiritualist husband, her beloved son and chaotic daugter. Their friendship, deepening with the unfolding of their stories, comes to sustain Liza through her last battle and brings new courage to Stephen.

General

Imprint:	Virago Press Ltd
Country of origin:	United Kingdom
Series:	Virago Modern Classics
Release date:	September 1986
Authors:	Pat Barker
Dimensions:	197 x 126 x 19mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Paperback - B-format
Pages:	284
Edition:	Reissue
ISBN-13:	978-0-86068-611-8
Categories:	Books > Fiction > General & literary fiction > Modern fiction
LSN:	0-86068-611-6
Barcode:	9780860686118

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