From a wasteland-neighborhood in Britain's depressed industrial
North: seven vibrant yet unrelievedly grim portraits of woebegone
womanhood, in order of ascending age. First, in the book's longest
story, comes eleven-year-old Kelly Brown - neglected by her
slatternly Mam, raped during one of her nightly solo rambles,
silent about it for three weeks, then filled with lonely pride and
fury ("There was nothing bad enough to do"). Joanne Wilson, 18,
works at the local cake-factory - there are indelible glimpses of
factory life - and is pregnant by her student-boyfriend ("It was no
pleasure. A sparrow couldn't've farted quicker"); but though she
seems headed for marriage into a higher class, she'd really rather
just stay with her adoring roommate, a handsome midget named Joss.
Lisa Goddard is only a few years older than Joanne, but she's
already forever stuck - with two screaming sons, an abusive,
unemployed husband, and an unwanted baby on the way; still, despite
the vividly evoked misery, and detailed labor pains, Lisa is able
to feel a glow when holding her first daughter. And then there's
poor Muriel Scaife, with a domineering mother, an ailing,
illiterate husband (whose death provides a powerful vignette), and
a son who could never make contact with his loving father - a
relationship reminiscent of David Storey's comparable fiction. The
older women here, however, are more determined to take control of
their lives: Iris King, unofficial den-mother for the whole street,
sees this neighborhood as a step up - and refuses to risk the
status quo when sullen daughter Brenda gets pregnant (there's a
harrowing abortion/premature-delivery); aging prostitute Dinah
cheerfully, graphically awakens a middle-aged man's libido; and
aged stroke victim Alice Bell, for whom Union Street has been a
step down, will stop at nothing to avoid being placed in a
state-run home (to her, no matter what they say, it's the
"workhouse"). First-novelist Barker attempts to link these tales -
and to give them a boost or two of feminist solidarity - by having
some of the characters cross paths. But the overall effect is
nonetheless more documentary than fiction, with raw/true dialogue,
visceral specifics (sex, pregnancy, birth, death, illness), and
convincing, despair-soaked atmosphere. (Kirkus Reviews)
Vivid, bawdy and bitter' (The Times), Pat Barker's first novel
shows the women of Union Street, young and old, meeting the harsh
challeges of poverty and survival in a precarious world. There's
Kelly, at eleven, neglected and independent, dealing with a squalid
rape; Dinah, knocking on sixty and still on the game; Joanne, not
yet twenty, not yet married, and already pregnant; Old Alice,
welcoming her impending death; Muriel helplessly watching the
decline of her stoical husband. And linking them all, watching over
them all, mother to half the street, is fiery, indomitable Iris.
General
Imprint: |
Virago Press Ltd
|
Country of origin: |
United Kingdom |
Series: |
Virago Modern Classics |
Release date: |
May 1982 |
Authors: |
Pat Barker
|
Dimensions: |
199 x 127 x 18mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Paperback - B-format
|
Pages: |
265 |
Edition: |
Reissue |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-86068-283-7 |
Categories: |
Books >
Fiction >
General & literary fiction >
Modern fiction
Promotions
|
LSN: |
0-86068-283-8 |
Barcode: |
9780860682837 |
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