I couldn’t stop listening!!

For those who like the smell of a book and say, “I started reading and I couldn’t put the book down!” That’s exactly what happened with my audible book. Loved the story! I can see this being a movie! Stella Duffys writing, the storyline, the characters is exemplary! Loved it and what made it easy to follow was narrator Antonia Beamish! Antonia was great using different voices, accents for different characters. Thank you Antonia. I recommend this book. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

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1 person found this helpful

Well told but rather dreary

This book tells the story of a family whose three generations have been hurt by the cruelty of men. Each of the women goes along with the development of bad and then cruel behaviour to begin with, presumably because she has been conditioned by society to do so, or I assume that's what we're supposed to think because there is no actual explanation. None of the women turn to their support system for assistance even though they all have a loving family, and again there is no explanation offered.

The two sides are drawn: the baddies, who are the men who care about money and are property developers, personifications, it seems, of the political right. On the other side are the women, who are the 'goodies', who have little personal agency and whose lives are controlled by bad men, and the occasional rare but good man who is of course on a zero hour contract. It will come as no surprise that race issues are also briefly brought into the book. So are LGBT issues and it's a relief to find that the lesbian relationship is accepted by all and not presented as yet one more political struggle.

While it might be understandable that the central character was unable to assert herself due to the time when she was born, I can see no good reason why the younger generations couldn't show more gumption and there was altogether too much crying for me.

Although the story was well told, I found it dreary and depressing and it was an effort to keep going with the book. I did keep going to the end. I can't honestly say I learned anything.

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