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3.95 AVERAGE
3.95 AVERAGE
2016 vreading challenge: a historical fiction novel.
In many ways, The Potato Factory could be described as a manifesto of the underdog wrapped in a scathing indictment of early 19th British culture: it features many characters from traditionally downtrodden classes who succeed through hard work, wits, and pure gumption despite the verdict of “society” that they were born to be trash, are inherently trash, will always be trash, and shouldn't even bother to dream of a better life because they are trash and trash doesn't deserve to be anywhere but the dump. Nearly everyone featured in the story is born to that most downtrodden of classes: the poor. In his foreword, Courtenay describes this novel as his personal thank you note to his adopted home country of Australia, and in many ways you could say the story of the underdog is the very manifesto of Australia itself – the will to show the world that a bunch of people “society” cast off as trash and scum can make it through hard work, wit and pure gumption, and they don't need silly things like “good breeding” or boarding school manners to win at life. You might even say that the idea that people should be judged by their words and deeds, and not by their birth, class, upbringing or money is an essential part of the Australian character. (Of course, it took them a while to apply that sort of thinking to the aborigines... I think Courtenay is engaging in pure bombast when he boasts several times in the foreword that Australia is “the most egalitarian country in the world.” Suuuuure it is... if you're white and male.)
Underdog #1: Our spunky heroine, Mary Abacus, is a woman who spends a significant part of her early life whoring, and later running a whorehouse, simply because whoring is about the only job open to a woman when she can't get a reference as a servant, and no one will hire a woman as a clerk. She faces first-hand the hypocrisy of a society that says the decent jobs should go to the men because a woman can always make a living on her back, and then scorns her for being a whore when she took the only path left to her. Although a significant chunk of the story is about Ikey Solomon, Mary is the clear lodestone and the character you can genuinely like and root for. Despite her rough upbringing and even rougher treatment as a young career woman on the streets of London, and the many brutal hardships she faces, she retains her inherent sense of fairness, compassion, and decency. That's not to say she's a pushover or an angel – she's sharp as a tack and as cutthroat as she needs to be to survive. But she's also smart and has a head for business, and she knows that a bit of human decency and tough-but-fair treatment costs very little and repays itself in spades in respect and loyalty earned.
Underdog #2: Our hero (or perhaps anti-hero), Ikey Solomon, is a notorious fence, con artist, forger, and criminal jack of all trades. He's a disgusting wretch and is almost as hard to truly like as Mary is hard to dislike. But his loquacious patter lulls one into almost-liking him, if for no other reason than that he's entertaining. And as criminals go, he could be worse. He's not a cruel or brutal man, primarily because he's too cowardly and physically wimpy to ever intimidate anyone. So he operates on slinking flattery and guile instead, but is an earnest believer in the principle of “always leave a little salt on the bread.” In other words, don't take so much that the people you deal with can't make their own livings. He and his odious wife Hannah richly deserve one another, but the story is written in a way that will ensure you dislike Ikey less than you dislike Hannah. She and Ikey are two of a kind, but for some reason she comes off much the worse as one of the clear villains. Perhaps it was that bit where but let's face it, we hated her long before that, even though in every other way, she's virtually indistinguishable from Ikey.
A lot of reviewers have described the character of Ikey Solomon as a recognizable lift of Dickens’ famous character Fagan of Oliver Twist. However, considering Ikey isn’t fictional but was a real person, I suspect the reverse is true – that the real Ikey Solomon inspired the fictional character of Fagan. (Bit of trivia: Dickens himself makes a cameo when he interviews Sparrow Fart for a newspaper article about Ikey.)
Underdog #3: The story is peopled with a motley supporting cast of whores, thugs, pickpockets, con artists, assorted convicts, and drunks, who are as often as not proven to be good of heart in their own way and simply trying to make their way in a hard world that has made them hard. They prove themselves capable of small, and sometimes large, acts of friendship and loyalty. They, as much as the main players, prove the story's point that people, on some level, deserve better than to be wholly judged by their class or wealth or even criminal lifestyle.
Villainy: In contrast, the empowered classes of the story repeatedly prove themselves to be generally (with a few notable exceptions) far worse people than the “scum” they despise on principle. They are ruled by bigotry, hypocrisy, smirking dishonesty, insatiable greed, and most notably, a depth of not only apathy, but open revilement, toward anyone they deem “beneath” them that is almost unfathomable by today's standards. It's unclear whether they are truly any worse than those of the lower classes, but they have the power to inflict far more misery on others, and they exercise it freely. No wonder these people were able to view the entire native population of Australia as mere vermin to be exterminated – they thought little better of the poorer classes of London. If they had been around during Hitler's time, they would have lauded him. Most of the story's graphic atrocities (and there are some doozies) are perpetrated by these sorts of people.
Oh, did you want to know about the plot?? I'll just say it's a rollicking (and often harrowing) adventure that involves lots of unsavory people in low places and Bad Things happening to our heroes. I never found it slow, and while it wasn't quite “couldn't put it down” riveting, the pages kept turning for me.
Minor Gripes
Much of the broad outlines of the story are based on real historical people and events, and as a result, Courtenay’s narrative style wavers between telling an up-close, personal, and immediate story based on the characters’ own experiences and perceptions, and pulling back to a broader, bird’s-eye historian’s perspective in which he continuously violates the novelist’s “show; don’t tell” rule. This is particularly true toward the beginning, in which he spends long passages explaining our characters’ personalities and motivations to us instead of simply showing them to us through their words and actions.
Some of Courtenay's portrayals of inter-racial relationships seemed off. Unfortunately, not the horrible stuff – to my sorrow, that’s all too believable. What I had a problem with is the idea that Mary, even as good and compassionate a person as we know she is, could really be as open-minded as portrayed, given the culture of the time.
In many ways, The Potato Factory could be described as a manifesto of the underdog wrapped in a scathing indictment of early 19th British culture: it features many characters from traditionally downtrodden classes who succeed through hard work, wits, and pure gumption despite the verdict of “society” that they were born to be trash, are inherently trash, will always be trash, and shouldn't even bother to dream of a better life because they are trash and trash doesn't deserve to be anywhere but the dump. Nearly everyone featured in the story is born to that most downtrodden of classes: the poor. In his foreword, Courtenay describes this novel as his personal thank you note to his adopted home country of Australia, and in many ways you could say the story of the underdog is the very manifesto of Australia itself – the will to show the world that a bunch of people “society” cast off as trash and scum can make it through hard work, wit and pure gumption, and they don't need silly things like “good breeding” or boarding school manners to win at life. You might even say that the idea that people should be judged by their words and deeds, and not by their birth, class, upbringing or money is an essential part of the Australian character. (Of course, it took them a while to apply that sort of thinking to the aborigines... I think Courtenay is engaging in pure bombast when he boasts several times in the foreword that Australia is “the most egalitarian country in the world.” Suuuuure it is... if you're white and male.)
Underdog #1: Our spunky heroine, Mary Abacus, is a woman who spends a significant part of her early life whoring, and later running a whorehouse, simply because whoring is about the only job open to a woman when she can't get a reference as a servant, and no one will hire a woman as a clerk. She faces first-hand the hypocrisy of a society that says the decent jobs should go to the men because a woman can always make a living on her back, and then scorns her for being a whore when she took the only path left to her. Although a significant chunk of the story is about Ikey Solomon, Mary is the clear lodestone and the character you can genuinely like and root for. Despite her rough upbringing and even rougher treatment as a young career woman on the streets of London, and the many brutal hardships she faces, she retains her inherent sense of fairness, compassion, and decency. That's not to say she's a pushover or an angel – she's sharp as a tack and as cutthroat as she needs to be to survive. But she's also smart and has a head for business, and she knows that a bit of human decency and tough-but-fair treatment costs very little and repays itself in spades in respect and loyalty earned.
Underdog #2: Our hero (or perhaps anti-hero), Ikey Solomon, is a notorious fence, con artist, forger, and criminal jack of all trades. He's a disgusting wretch and is almost as hard to truly like as Mary is hard to dislike. But his loquacious patter lulls one into almost-liking him, if for no other reason than that he's entertaining. And as criminals go, he could be worse. He's not a cruel or brutal man, primarily because he's too cowardly and physically wimpy to ever intimidate anyone. So he operates on slinking flattery and guile instead, but is an earnest believer in the principle of “always leave a little salt on the bread.” In other words, don't take so much that the people you deal with can't make their own livings. He and his odious wife Hannah richly deserve one another, but the story is written in a way that will ensure you dislike Ikey less than you dislike Hannah. She and Ikey are two of a kind, but for some reason she comes off much the worse as one of the clear villains. Perhaps it was that bit where
Spoiler
she and her son David cut the finger off a small child to try to extort money from Ikey,A lot of reviewers have described the character of Ikey Solomon as a recognizable lift of Dickens’ famous character Fagan of Oliver Twist. However, considering Ikey isn’t fictional but was a real person, I suspect the reverse is true – that the real Ikey Solomon inspired the fictional character of Fagan. (Bit of trivia: Dickens himself makes a cameo when he interviews Sparrow Fart for a newspaper article about Ikey.)
Underdog #3: The story is peopled with a motley supporting cast of whores, thugs, pickpockets, con artists, assorted convicts, and drunks, who are as often as not proven to be good of heart in their own way and simply trying to make their way in a hard world that has made them hard. They prove themselves capable of small, and sometimes large, acts of friendship and loyalty. They, as much as the main players, prove the story's point that people, on some level, deserve better than to be wholly judged by their class or wealth or even criminal lifestyle.
Villainy: In contrast, the empowered classes of the story repeatedly prove themselves to be generally (with a few notable exceptions) far worse people than the “scum” they despise on principle. They are ruled by bigotry, hypocrisy, smirking dishonesty, insatiable greed, and most notably, a depth of not only apathy, but open revilement, toward anyone they deem “beneath” them that is almost unfathomable by today's standards. It's unclear whether they are truly any worse than those of the lower classes, but they have the power to inflict far more misery on others, and they exercise it freely. No wonder these people were able to view the entire native population of Australia as mere vermin to be exterminated – they thought little better of the poorer classes of London. If they had been around during Hitler's time, they would have lauded him. Most of the story's graphic atrocities (and there are some doozies) are perpetrated by these sorts of people.
Oh, did you want to know about the plot?? I'll just say it's a rollicking (and often harrowing) adventure that involves lots of unsavory people in low places and Bad Things happening to our heroes. I never found it slow, and while it wasn't quite “couldn't put it down” riveting, the pages kept turning for me.
Minor Gripes
Much of the broad outlines of the story are based on real historical people and events, and as a result, Courtenay’s narrative style wavers between telling an up-close, personal, and immediate story based on the characters’ own experiences and perceptions, and pulling back to a broader, bird’s-eye historian’s perspective in which he continuously violates the novelist’s “show; don’t tell” rule. This is particularly true toward the beginning, in which he spends long passages explaining our characters’ personalities and motivations to us instead of simply showing them to us through their words and actions.
Some of Courtenay's portrayals of inter-racial relationships seemed off. Unfortunately, not the horrible stuff – to my sorrow, that’s all too believable. What I had a problem with is the idea that Mary, even as good and compassionate a person as we know she is, could really be as open-minded as portrayed, given the culture of the time.
This book took me a while to read, as I had to do so in breaks between other compulsory books I’m reading for my uni courses. In the end, however, I’m glad I took the time to enjoy every word Bryce Courtney put down on the pages of The Potato Factory!
I’ve always found Courtney’s work a bit hit and miss (loved Tandia and Power of One for example, but DNF’d Slyvia - so boring), but this novel is definitely my favourite so far!
With both deeply interesting character developments and a fast-paced plot, I found upon finishing The Potato Factory that Courtney really did discover the perfect combination (pun intended!) in terms of perfecting his writing style within this novel.
By far my favourite aspect of the book was Mary’s character, but also Ikey, and how their character developments seemed at times completely polar opposite. And yet, the relationship Courtney created for them throughout the novel felt oddly fitting. While the book in some chapters dragged a little, this is definitely a novel that keeps getter better and better as you go along - especially the latter half of the book that takes place in Tasmania.
I also loved how well researched this text is - the punishments meted to convicts and the barbaric treatment of Indigenous Australians in the text fall in line with much of what I’ve studied in Australian history courses. The characters of Ikey, Mary, and Hannah were also inspired by historical counterparts, and the small nod to Dicken’s in one chapter was also a nice touch. 😄
If I had to point to something I didn’t like in this book, I would say that I felt at times (I also had this problem with Tandia) that Courtney romanticises certain traits of a nation that I think are euphemisms at best.
The best example I could give is this line from chapter 25:
“[Mary] used this to create in the breasts of her older children a sense of social justice, so that they might understand that it is the strong who manipulate the weak... unknowingly perhaps, Mary began to teach the tenants of freedom upon which a community of convict slaves became the most egalitarian nation on earth.”
Maybe this is just me, but I feel comments like this are large generalisations that are less to do with truth and more so feeding into the white-man’s problematic national narrative of Australia first endorsed by John Howard in the 90’s. I am very proud to be Australian, but comments like these make me feel uncomfortable, simply because I feel this is how most non-Australians see our country (i.e. built off convicts) which detracts completely from the other ethnicities and cultures that were equally important to creating the Australian identity (i.e. Indigenous Australians being the most obvious, but also italian and greek migrants in the 50s, followed by the Vietnamese in the 70s, all of which contributed to the idea of egalitarianism in Australia).
This rambling rant aside however, I definitely think this is one of Courtney’s best novels (at least that I’ve read so far) - highly recommend!
Edit: Upon reading other reviews, I noticed a lot of one-stars due to the graphic scenes and coarse language that makes up much of the book. I totally understand this viewpoint (there is definitely a few hard to read moments!), but would like to say in defense of the novel that I believe the end of the story justify the means, and the development of the characters from completely downtrodden and wretched to England to something else in Australia (I don’t to give too much away!) left me upon finishing oddly at peace with the characters instead of disgusted. But if you’re the type of reader who can’t push past the gore, then perhaps this isn’t the best Courtney book for you.
I’ve always found Courtney’s work a bit hit and miss (loved Tandia and Power of One for example, but DNF’d Slyvia - so boring), but this novel is definitely my favourite so far!
With both deeply interesting character developments and a fast-paced plot, I found upon finishing The Potato Factory that Courtney really did discover the perfect combination (pun intended!) in terms of perfecting his writing style within this novel.
By far my favourite aspect of the book was Mary’s character, but also Ikey, and how their character developments seemed at times completely polar opposite. And yet, the relationship Courtney created for them throughout the novel felt oddly fitting. While the book in some chapters dragged a little, this is definitely a novel that keeps getter better and better as you go along - especially the latter half of the book that takes place in Tasmania.
I also loved how well researched this text is - the punishments meted to convicts and the barbaric treatment of Indigenous Australians in the text fall in line with much of what I’ve studied in Australian history courses. The characters of Ikey, Mary, and Hannah were also inspired by historical counterparts, and the small nod to Dicken’s in one chapter was also a nice touch. 😄
If I had to point to something I didn’t like in this book, I would say that I felt at times (I also had this problem with Tandia) that Courtney romanticises certain traits of a nation that I think are euphemisms at best.
The best example I could give is this line from chapter 25:
“[Mary] used this to create in the breasts of her older children a sense of social justice, so that they might understand that it is the strong who manipulate the weak... unknowingly perhaps, Mary began to teach the tenants of freedom upon which a community of convict slaves became the most egalitarian nation on earth.”
Maybe this is just me, but I feel comments like this are large generalisations that are less to do with truth and more so feeding into the white-man’s problematic national narrative of Australia first endorsed by John Howard in the 90’s. I am very proud to be Australian, but comments like these make me feel uncomfortable, simply because I feel this is how most non-Australians see our country (i.e. built off convicts) which detracts completely from the other ethnicities and cultures that were equally important to creating the Australian identity (i.e. Indigenous Australians being the most obvious, but also italian and greek migrants in the 50s, followed by the Vietnamese in the 70s, all of which contributed to the idea of egalitarianism in Australia).
This rambling rant aside however, I definitely think this is one of Courtney’s best novels (at least that I’ve read so far) - highly recommend!
Edit: Upon reading other reviews, I noticed a lot of one-stars due to the graphic scenes and coarse language that makes up much of the book. I totally understand this viewpoint (there is definitely a few hard to read moments!), but would like to say in defense of the novel that I believe the end of the story justify the means, and the development of the characters from completely downtrodden and wretched to England to something else in Australia (I don’t to give too much away!) left me upon finishing oddly at peace with the characters instead of disgusted. But if you’re the type of reader who can’t push past the gore, then perhaps this isn’t the best Courtney book for you.
I'm probably not going to be very popular on the reviews section, but I really did not enjoy this book. I realize a lot of research went into this book, but I just couldn't get over the never ending tragedy of this story. I had a hard time getting through it and, in fact, it took me a month to listen to it on audible. The only truly happy part of this book was the end and even that was mediocre happiness. And this is a trilogy?! Oi! I can take no more.
My complaints about this book are mostly personal opinion about the sadness, obviously. I do think it was written well and I liked the narrator on Audible as well. It is an amazing story a perseverance if you can handle it, which is why I decided to give it three stars instead of one.
My complaints about this book are mostly personal opinion about the sadness, obviously. I do think it was written well and I liked the narrator on Audible as well. It is an amazing story a perseverance if you can handle it, which is why I decided to give it three stars instead of one.
Had to quit reading this one about 300 pages into the 800 page book. I just didn't want to read it and found 1000 excuses to do something else. Will put into reserved because I think I might want to finish it at some time. October 2007
Lanah found this one at the school library.
Well I thought this book was a 3-star read. There were moments that were good and fun, including the end which tempted me to give it a higher rating. But I had to remember my experience whilst reading the entirety of the book and some parts were just not fun. Sometimes it seemed to drag on about unrelated things. I think this book probably could have been done better if it was like half the size. I swear like half of it was infodumps, which is alright because you can tell he did a lot of research and so he was providing context. But like still, please find a more engaging way of delivering this information.
That being said, I loved the characters in this book. Mary is someone you want to see succeed in life, Ikey you secretly love for his mischievous, villainous ways and his slow discovery of compassion, and Hannah you want to see die in a hole. Perhaps the characterisation wouldn't have been quite as strong as it was if the book was shorter, but to be honest I think that's alright. The more minor characters were done alright as well. I have emotional connections (whether positive or negative) with Bob Marley, Sparrer Fart, Marybelle Firkin/Sperm Whale Sally, Tiberius Potbottom, Mr Emmet, Billygonequeer, Tommo and Hawk even though they all have wack names which I can't really believe existed. All of the characters were very vibrant which made for amusing scenes when they interacted, even if they were twice as long as they needed to be.
Getting a glimpse into the history was really nice. The horrible conditions for the poor and destitute during 19th century London were reinforced to me, especially through some scenes which I don't think I was old enough to read. This made me think about the people that are living like this in industrialising nations today. It was also very good to learn about Van Diemen's Land as a burgeoning penal colony, which is what attracted me to the book in the first place.
I thought the portrayal of racism and sexism were pretty realistic, yet nice. Our favourite characters didn't necessarily think they were better than the Aboriginal and African people they encountered, but still didn't immediately empathise with their cause. For example, Ikey, out of kindness, tells an Aboriginal man that he must change to "be like us" in order to survive, instead of accepting him as fine as he how he is (which I'm sure a YA author would have made him do). Mary is constantly told that she cannot be a clerk because she is a woman, even by characters that we are supposed to like - but this doesn't mean she doesn't succeed. However there were a few times when Courtenay was like "women don't think about this like men do" where I was like *ugh cringe*. He also uses the N word far too many times for my liking. During dialogue I suppose it's okay, but during descriptions? The narration is omniscient and sometimes speaks about discrimination from a more modern standpoint so I was like why are you saying these things?
Overall, I'm still excited for the next book, because this one ended in a nice way with a happy character moment. Some parts of The Potato Factory were really boring, but the characters made me like it anyway. I just hope I never have to read another book where a prisoner's purse is described over and over and over again. *shudders*
P.S. Whoever wrote the blurb is a bad blurb writer. Everything that is described there happened by page 610! Like what the heck! You're not supposed to write what happens during the entire book!
Well I thought this book was a 3-star read. There were moments that were good and fun, including the end which tempted me to give it a higher rating. But I had to remember my experience whilst reading the entirety of the book and some parts were just not fun. Sometimes it seemed to drag on about unrelated things. I think this book probably could have been done better if it was like half the size. I swear like half of it was infodumps, which is alright because you can tell he did a lot of research and so he was providing context. But like still, please find a more engaging way of delivering this information.
That being said, I loved the characters in this book. Mary is someone you want to see succeed in life, Ikey you secretly love for his mischievous, villainous ways and his slow discovery of compassion, and Hannah you want to see die in a hole. Perhaps the characterisation wouldn't have been quite as strong as it was if the book was shorter, but to be honest I think that's alright. The more minor characters were done alright as well. I have emotional connections (whether positive or negative) with Bob Marley, Sparrer Fart, Marybelle Firkin/Sperm Whale Sally, Tiberius Potbottom, Mr Emmet, Billygonequeer, Tommo and Hawk even though they all have wack names which I can't really believe existed. All of the characters were very vibrant which made for amusing scenes when they interacted, even if they were twice as long as they needed to be.
Getting a glimpse into the history was really nice. The horrible conditions for the poor and destitute during 19th century London were reinforced to me, especially through some scenes which I don't think I was old enough to read. This made me think about the people that are living like this in industrialising nations today. It was also very good to learn about Van Diemen's Land as a burgeoning penal colony, which is what attracted me to the book in the first place.
I thought the portrayal of racism and sexism were pretty realistic, yet nice. Our favourite characters didn't necessarily think they were better than the Aboriginal and African people they encountered, but still didn't immediately empathise with their cause. For example, Ikey, out of kindness, tells an Aboriginal man that he must change to "be like us" in order to survive, instead of accepting him as fine as he how he is (which I'm sure a YA author would have made him do). Mary is constantly told that she cannot be a clerk because she is a woman, even by characters that we are supposed to like - but this doesn't mean she doesn't succeed. However there were a few times when Courtenay was like "women don't think about this like men do" where I was like *ugh cringe*. He also uses the N word far too many times for my liking. During dialogue I suppose it's okay, but during descriptions? The narration is omniscient and sometimes speaks about discrimination from a more modern standpoint so I was like why are you saying these things?
Overall, I'm still excited for the next book, because this one ended in a nice way with a happy character moment. Some parts of The Potato Factory were really boring, but the characters made me like it anyway. I just hope I never have to read another book where a prisoner's purse is described over and over and over again. *shudders*
P.S. Whoever wrote the blurb is a bad blurb writer. Everything that is described there happened by page 610! Like what the heck! You're not supposed to write what happens during the entire book!
Love this cruel and gritty story going from London to New York and Sydney town. Convict Australia and reading the gross treatment of the Tasmanian Abroginals is hard to hear.
Was suprised when it ended and looking forward to reading the next one in the series.
Was suprised when it ended and looking forward to reading the next one in the series.
I'm even more excited to go to Tassie next year after reading my first ever Byrce Courtenay book. I enjoyed the work of fiction very much so and I felt the story was clever and interlinked beautifully with past events.
It reminded me of Mary Byrant and her plight, just when something goes right disaster strikes!
Recommended for lovers of Australian literature and historical fiction.
It reminded me of Mary Byrant and her plight, just when something goes right disaster strikes!
Recommended for lovers of Australian literature and historical fiction.
I remember vaguely of loving the mini series adaptation of The Potato Factory that I thought I must read the book. However, one particular scene traumatised me so much, Mary’s hands being crushed , that it’s taken me forever and a day to pick this up and I still skip that scene in the book! I couldn’t handle it… I found that aside from that scene, I don’t actually remember anything else from the mini series so I don’t know whether that was a good sign or not but at least, I didn’t get bored as I wasn’t sure what’s coming next.
[a:Bryce Courtenay|63|Bryce Courtenay|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1277671069p2/63.jpg] is a master storyteller as he weaved a fictional story of a true historical personage, The Prince of Fence, Isaac “Ikey” Solomon. The main character in this book, however, is Mary Abacus, purported (fictionally) to be Ikey’s mistress. Whilst Ikey’s history or what is known of it anyway is followed rather correctly, there were many twists that the author can weave around this infamous convict including a ‘treasure chest’, twins of different colouring, etc. It sounds fantastical but the reality of life and how tough it was for the poor and the convicts were there. The Potato Factory is a story of life; of loyalty and betrayals, kindness and violence, but in the end, intelligence will win the day.
[a:Bryce Courtenay|63|Bryce Courtenay|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1277671069p2/63.jpg] is a master storyteller as he weaved a fictional story of a true historical personage, The Prince of Fence, Isaac “Ikey” Solomon. The main character in this book, however, is Mary Abacus, purported (fictionally) to be Ikey’s mistress. Whilst Ikey’s history or what is known of it anyway is followed rather correctly, there were many twists that the author can weave around this infamous convict including a ‘treasure chest’, twins of different colouring, etc. It sounds fantastical but the reality of life and how tough it was for the poor and the convicts were there. The Potato Factory is a story of life; of loyalty and betrayals, kindness and violence, but in the end, intelligence will win the day.
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes