Thursday, July 5, 2007
Welcome to the Purple Book Club!!
Hope this gets the ball rolling !!! Junes book club read was Margaret Forster's "Diary of an Ordinary Woman"
Welcome to the Purple Book Club!!
Hope this gets the ball rolling !!! Junes book club read was Margaret Forster's "Diary of an Ordinary Woman"
4 comments:
Before starting this book I was unsure. It certainly wasn’t on my list of ‘must reads’. I’m a fan of pre 1930s literature or yarns of daring adventure. I suspected ‘Diary of an Ordinary Woman’ to be some ghastly kitchen sink drama. I was wrong.
Certainly the first few diary entries don’t quite ring true. Millicent seems a very fictional thirteen year old to me and I was looking for faults to dislike. However I quickly appreciated the subtle way the author hangs back from telling everything, revealing some incidents, glossing over others, always leaving the reader wanting more.
It would be easy to mistake this book for a real diary, and not recognise it as an unusual work of fiction. In my own family are stories of young men joining up to fight in wars, with equally tragic results, I think George’s story is very real. The account of life in the First World War hooked me and from then on I couldn’t put the book down.
I feel for this woman. How she wants more from life but is challenged at every turn, though really she has far more opportunities than many of her time, male or female. She annoys me. I am irritated by her lack of staying power and even slightly jealous of her job on the bohemian, artsy magazine. I scoffed that she doesn’t realise that, when a young man says he admires her ‘critical faculties’, he really wants to get his hands on something else. I could understand her rage and frustration, trapped in that dreadful Brighton school with a head teacher she scorns and detests and all the time wanting something better. I wanted to find out more about her life. I began to really care about what happened next.
My heart goes out to her, with a life so full of duty and even love, but so devoid of true friendship. The lack of anyone close to confide in goes well with the conceit of a confessional diary.
Was she an extraordinary woman or just an ordinary woman living through extraordinary times? I haven’t made up my mind yet, I’m still thinking about it, and to my mind that’s the mark of an extraordinary book.
Suffolkmum said...
I found this book very thought provoking too. I find that a common trait in Margaret Forsters's books is a lead female chaacter that I can't warm to. I felt for her, sympathised with her, could occasionally relate to her, but didn't like her terribly. She became a sort of 'everywoman' for me, living through some extraordinary times. I really liked the contrast between her early life and her adopted daughters's (it's a couple of years since I read this, so can't remember her name!)- it really hit home to me just how radical the post-war period was. One reaction I had surprised me - even though it was clearly advertised as a 'novel' and as fiction, I still felt vaguely let down at the end, knowing it wasn't a real diary. That contradition proves to me that Forster carried it off; her life was very believable and absorbing. Would write more, but must get back to my packing for my hoiday tomorrow!
01 July 2007 13:10

mountainear said...
Suffolkmum said...
I found this book very thought provoking too. I find that a common trait in Margaret Forsters's books is a lead female chaacter that I can't warm to. I felt for her, sympathised with her, could occasionally relate to her, but didn't like her terribly. She became a sort of 'everywoman' for me, living through some extraordinary times. I really liked the contrast between her early life and her adopted daughters's (it's a couple of years since I read this, so can't remember her name!)- it really hit home to me just how radical the post-war period was. One reaction I had surprised me - even though it was clearly advertised as a 'novel' and as fiction, I still felt vaguely let down at the end, knowing it wasn't a real diary. That contradition proves to me that Forster carried it off; her life was very believable and absorbing. Would write more, but must get back to my packing for my hoiday tomorrow!
01 July 2007 13:10

Posie Rosie said...
Oh now I feel really behind, I was full of good intentions as I loved the idea of the book club forum, but haven't got the book yet. I may wait for the next title after reading your reviews....hope that isn't cheating!
02 July 2007 00:31
Pondside said...
Good morning - I did read the book - all the way through!
As I began it I was sure I was going to love it and be lost in it and wish it to never end. As I read, I went from exasperation to boredom to the odd nodd of 'I get it'.
I felt a bit silly when I realized it was fiction. Of course, logically I knew it was, but I love biography and diaries and was hopeful. I know that there was an incredible amount of research required for such a work, and that showed.
I agree that she was an ordinary woman living in extraordinary times. I didn't like the child Millicent - bossy and selfish - but felt that she was portrayed very realistically. I remember, as a child of 11 being horrified that my mother was expecting a fourth child! I knew that I would be expected to take on yet more responsibility and it seemed so unfair!
I was frustrated by Millicent the adult. She made choices that could have led to fullfillment, even excitement, but she always held back in a way that I found hard to believe. Even with Robert, she held back. It didn't ring true to me, that a woman of independent means and some education would be so.....dull.
I really liked the last years, when Connie was at Greenham Common. I think that my moment of greatest affection/insight regarding Millicent occurred when she was mailing the parcel and was asked by the lady at the counter why anyone would do what Connie was doing - Millicent was about to shrug and more-or-less agree with the prevailing attitude, but changed her mind and 'gave a little lecture'. It was a small moment, but showed her 'stepping out' in a way that she'd always avoided.
So, would I read more from this author? Perhaps. I wasn't enthralled, but it was an enjoyable read.
I look forward to the next one.
02 July 2007 08:31


snailbeachshepherdess said...
I could hardly wait to start and tore the cellophane off, flicked through the pages and unfortunately found the author's note at the back....that took the sheen off a bit because I had thought it was a real diary. anyway on I went and found the little girl selfish and a bit precocious but then i told myself off because it was supposed to be a diary and they are selfish instruments really...well they would have been to an 11 year old! I kept wanting something to 'go right' for Millicent to make her jump about with happiness to excite her but I don't think even Robert got her to dizzy heights! Then I told myself off again ...this is the diary of an ORDINARY woman...s**t happens to ordinary women! Sometimes they will go on and on and never find their cloud with a silver lining. I think she nearly found fulfilment with Connie but even that was too ethereal to appreciate. Undoubtedly the historical context is accurate and it was as someone has already said 'an ordinary woman in extraordinary times' and even though I wanted something so much more for Millicent I sort of knew she just wasn't going to get there.....a bit sad really. I'm sad I have finished it ....it is sort of still up in the air and I keep wondering about those real diaries..I bet you that they describe a more exciting life than Millicent's ..but then we'll never know will we? And next time I shall not read the author's note at the back first....that'll larn me!
02 July 2007 10:08

patsy said...
This is not generally the sort of book I would pick up in a bookstore. Perhaps selfishly, the emotional ups and downs, trials and tribulations of ordinary people do not interest me unless the characters are truly engaging. I read little fiction therefore, unless it is a murder mystery, travelogue or the story hangs off a historical background for example. I don’t like my emotions to be manipulated just for the sake of it.
Therefore it was with some resignation that I tackled the book. Although I knew it was a fictional account of her diary, I chose not to remember this while reading about our heroine Millicent.
Millicent as a character was unremarkable but living through extraordinary times. I think she proves the point that it’s not what you have but the choices you make, that shape your life. After a fairly feisty start to her life, when she was quite daring e.g. teaching in Rome, having an affair, she seems to have become stultified in her choices, though I admit she had good reason after she became guardian of the twins. Time after time she had the chance to make her life more interesting but hesitated and lost the moment. Hardly made the rest of the book exciting though. Although I found Connie’s sentiments were admirable ( I pass Greenham Common 3 times a week), like many people with a fervent belief, she seemed rather one dimensional and basically rather tedious. As for Toby, what was his point in the story? Nothing developed there.
However I was compelled to read on and complete the book (I’m a goody two shoes when it comes to homework). When the final twist in the tale was revealed i.e. that the author never read the original diaries, I felt a little cheated. As I had read the book, certain things had annoyed or irritated me in the narrative but I let them pass as they would have occurred in a real diary. For example, some boring bits when very little happened, or conversely, when tragedy struck, the writer was overwhelmed and unable to commit thoughts to paper. I could understand this would happen to any diarist. But later, on discovering that this was in fact a fictional account of a diary, I wondered why the author had allowed the pace of the story to slow. Or was she in fact calling the reader’s bluff, and boring the reader deliberately, as any one would be occasionally, when reading a true diary? !
Have I been had by a very clever author or was this truly rather a mundane story? I’m still pondering the conundrum…and is that not the mark of a great book, that I‘m still thinking about it, days after I closed the last page?
02 July 2007 12:13
Ah, have just found where to post comments on this. I knew it was 'fiction' from the word go because surely it says so on the front cover? That didn't bother me actually. Having said that, it was not the kind of book I would normally choose.
Yes, I found Millicent an unappealing character - bordering on irritating. So many wonderful opportunities - not taken up. But then i suppose that is real life and this wasn't supposed to be a novel with the twists and turns and resolutions you would expect from one.
I enjoyed the first half much more than the second. By the end I was finding Millicent really irritating and the whole thing became a bit depressing. What did she achieve? What was her life worth? Maybe it made me feel uncomfortable that I too am an ordinary woman and that my life too will vanish into nothing. We just march up the line.
I'm glad I read it but I'm not sure I'd race to read more by this particular author.
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