March09_4
Lynne Reid Banks has the aura of high school library to me and I loosely link her with the politically correct, earnest novels I didn't want to read when I was at high school. (The power of Google: she wrote 'One More River', which I did read in school, about a friendship across the religious divide in Israel.) 'The L Shaped Room' is slim, modest and beautifully shaped adult novel, but with the economy of scale and ambition which you used to see in young adult novels (but not anymore; today's YA novels are morbidly obese, but that's another story).
'The L Shaped Room' is about a pregnancy out of wedlock when that mattered a great deal; Jane is thrown out of home, finds a bedsit in a hovel and tries to carry on, filled with desperate selfloathing and denial. She reluctantly allows herself to be befriended by her neighbours, carries on working, builds a nest and grows up. It's beautiful to read because there's no high drama to the story, Jane is no more foolish or insightful than the next person and she isn't rescued. The resolution is domestic, her transformation profound but quiet.
Did I say how much I enjoyed the brevity of this novel? I say again: so neat, so effective.
I've just read (Google, thank you) that this was Lynne's first novel (1960) and is part of a trilogy, so I'll report further on Jane in coming posts, presuming Jane is still in print.
'The L Shaped Room' is about a pregnancy out of wedlock when that mattered a great deal; Jane is thrown out of home, finds a bedsit in a hovel and tries to carry on, filled with desperate selfloathing and denial. She reluctantly allows herself to be befriended by her neighbours, carries on working, builds a nest and grows up. It's beautiful to read because there's no high drama to the story, Jane is no more foolish or insightful than the next person and she isn't rescued. The resolution is domestic, her transformation profound but quiet.
Did I say how much I enjoyed the brevity of this novel? I say again: so neat, so effective.
I've just read (Google, thank you) that this was Lynne's first novel (1960) and is part of a trilogy, so I'll report further on Jane in coming posts, presuming Jane is still in print.
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