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3.15 AVERAGE
3.15 AVERAGE
sad
Short novel about young, slum-dwelling Liza, who gets involved with a much older married man when she shouldn't. It doesn't end well for anyone. Maugham wrote this when he was a medical student, doing his obstetrics rotation in Lambeth, and there's a very sort of Call the Midwife undertone to a lot of this. Only an undertone, because a lot more emphasis is given to Liza's relationship and how it impacts on others, but it's there.
Coming from first-hand experience, there's a lot of verisimilitude here, but it doesn't quite have the character-building that Maugham is so excellent at in his later work. You can see it coming - Liza's mother, I thought, was particularly well-drawn for the relatively minimal page time she gets - but it's not a patch on The Painted Veil.
Coming from first-hand experience, there's a lot of verisimilitude here, but it doesn't quite have the character-building that Maugham is so excellent at in his later work. You can see it coming - Liza's mother, I thought, was particularly well-drawn for the relatively minimal page time she gets - but it's not a patch on The Painted Veil.
Liza of Lambeth is a short novel with an unexpected ending. I wonder what Maugham intended with Liza's death? I get the feeling that he either thinks the lower class is subjected to terrible woes or believes that Liza was in the wrong and was punished for her actions. I couldn't catch any strong moral undertones to the book, so I assume Maugham wanted to take a small snapshot of lowerclass life and let it remain how he viewed it, without any indepth analysis.
The story isn't anything new, and it is a story that goes far back in time as long as we have had relationships, yet the dialogue and the tempo of the novel was fresh. It was somewhat disconcerting to be in a time period where men beating their wives and vice versa was commonplace and a private dispute of no one else's business; however, I don't think Maugham had an opinion one way or the other.
I enjoyed that it wrapped up neatly and didn't have extraneous chapters and sections. I think Maugham did well describing the Lambeth neighborhood, even if it was rather superficial.
The story isn't anything new, and it is a story that goes far back in time as long as we have had relationships, yet the dialogue and the tempo of the novel was fresh. It was somewhat disconcerting to be in a time period where men beating their wives and vice versa was commonplace and a private dispute of no one else's business; however, I don't think Maugham had an opinion one way or the other.
I enjoyed that it wrapped up neatly and didn't have extraneous chapters and sections. I think Maugham did well describing the Lambeth neighborhood, even if it was rather superficial.
This is Somerset Maugham's first published novel, and of those of his that I've read, I think I like this one the best. About 12 years ago I bought several of his books cheap at a library sale, put them on a shelf and forgot them, and in the course of tidying the shelves I took them down to read, so I've been reading one after the other.
[b:Liza of Lambeth|398936|Liza of Lambeth|W. Somerset Maugham|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174432507s/398936.jpg|809028] is based on Maugham's experience as a medical student in a poor part of London. Well it's poor in parts. I once went to a garden party at Lambeth Palace, the London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and there's nothing poor about that!
Liza is a young girl, a teenager, 18 years old, who saves enough from her job in a factory to buy a new dress, which she wears to a street party and has a jolly good time. Her mother, who is a bit of a hypochondriac, and also a bit of a boozer, thinks the money would have been better spent on booze for herself. But Liza is happy and carefree, and enjoys herself. And her joy and love of life are infectious, and spread to others.
But gradually things start going badly for Liza. This partly because of her own choices, and partly because of the pressures of other people and society generally.
To say any more of the story would give away too much of the plot, but I will say that it still today, more than a century after it was written, gives an insight into the lives of poor people and the conditions in which they live. It's an outsider's view. As far as I know Somerset Maugham didn't grow up in poverty himself, so he writes from observation, not from first-hand experience. And it is pretty good observation.
But books like this are probably not read by the poor. They are probably read mostly by fairly comfortable middle-class people like me. And from what I have observed of the life of poor people, though the time and the place may be different, there is much that is similar.
To give just one example, it's the people in the streets. The book is about the inhabitants of one street, and they meet each other and talk to each other in the street. They sit on their doorsteps and talk to their neighbours.
Earlier this week I had a couple of hours to kill while my son wrote an exam, so went to visit a friend who lived nearby. Their gate was locked, so I called them on my cell phone, but there was no reply, so I thought I might as well sit in the car in the street and read my book.
It was a lower middle-class suburb. The houses were not pretentious. They were originally built by the Iskor steelworks nearby for housing their white workers, and were later sold off. But they had pleasant gardens and the street was quiet. Only one car passed. There was a tapping on the car window. It was a rather agitated bird, wondering what I was doing there. I waved and it and it went away. Two fat pigeons ambled across the street. A dog barked. In one of the houses nearby a baby cried briefly. A young black woman in a hoodie came walking over the hill and passed me, but there was no interaction between us. Another black woman with hair extensions came walking up the hill and went into the house over the road. But for the most part, nothing happened. And in our neighbourhood it is much the same.
But when we visit Mamelodi, a "previously disadvantaged" township, there are always people walking in the street, talking to each other, greeting neighbours. There are children playing games, hopscotch, cricket (as in Lambeth), football etc. On Sundays (which is when we mostly go there) a phrase from a poem I learnt at school comes to mind, "man's heart expands to tinker with his car." There are cars with bonnets up, cars being washed. On some Sundays there's a Golf club -- rows of Volkswagen Golfs with their bonnets up, with the owners hanging around discussing technical points.
The houses may be different, the languaghe may be different, the clothes may be different, the time and the place may be different, but Maugham's descriptions still ring true.
[b:Liza of Lambeth|398936|Liza of Lambeth|W. Somerset Maugham|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174432507s/398936.jpg|809028] is based on Maugham's experience as a medical student in a poor part of London. Well it's poor in parts. I once went to a garden party at Lambeth Palace, the London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and there's nothing poor about that!
Liza is a young girl, a teenager, 18 years old, who saves enough from her job in a factory to buy a new dress, which she wears to a street party and has a jolly good time. Her mother, who is a bit of a hypochondriac, and also a bit of a boozer, thinks the money would have been better spent on booze for herself. But Liza is happy and carefree, and enjoys herself. And her joy and love of life are infectious, and spread to others.
But gradually things start going badly for Liza. This partly because of her own choices, and partly because of the pressures of other people and society generally.
To say any more of the story would give away too much of the plot, but I will say that it still today, more than a century after it was written, gives an insight into the lives of poor people and the conditions in which they live. It's an outsider's view. As far as I know Somerset Maugham didn't grow up in poverty himself, so he writes from observation, not from first-hand experience. And it is pretty good observation.
But books like this are probably not read by the poor. They are probably read mostly by fairly comfortable middle-class people like me. And from what I have observed of the life of poor people, though the time and the place may be different, there is much that is similar.
To give just one example, it's the people in the streets. The book is about the inhabitants of one street, and they meet each other and talk to each other in the street. They sit on their doorsteps and talk to their neighbours.
Earlier this week I had a couple of hours to kill while my son wrote an exam, so went to visit a friend who lived nearby. Their gate was locked, so I called them on my cell phone, but there was no reply, so I thought I might as well sit in the car in the street and read my book.
It was a lower middle-class suburb. The houses were not pretentious. They were originally built by the Iskor steelworks nearby for housing their white workers, and were later sold off. But they had pleasant gardens and the street was quiet. Only one car passed. There was a tapping on the car window. It was a rather agitated bird, wondering what I was doing there. I waved and it and it went away. Two fat pigeons ambled across the street. A dog barked. In one of the houses nearby a baby cried briefly. A young black woman in a hoodie came walking over the hill and passed me, but there was no interaction between us. Another black woman with hair extensions came walking up the hill and went into the house over the road. But for the most part, nothing happened. And in our neighbourhood it is much the same.
But when we visit Mamelodi, a "previously disadvantaged" township, there are always people walking in the street, talking to each other, greeting neighbours. There are children playing games, hopscotch, cricket (as in Lambeth), football etc. On Sundays (which is when we mostly go there) a phrase from a poem I learnt at school comes to mind, "man's heart expands to tinker with his car." There are cars with bonnets up, cars being washed. On some Sundays there's a Golf club -- rows of Volkswagen Golfs with their bonnets up, with the owners hanging around discussing technical points.
The houses may be different, the languaghe may be different, the clothes may be different, the time and the place may be different, but Maugham's descriptions still ring true.
I read The Painted Veil years ago and really enjoyed it so wanted to finally pick up another book by Maugham. Unfortunately, though this started out really well, there were so many issues that came up by the end of the book that it tainted my experience. This was originally published at the end of the nineteenth century and it is very much of its time. There are trigger warnings for miscarriage and domestic abuse as well as a few instances of racial slurs.
Liza as a character started out interesting, standing out from other women of the time but in order to tell a moralistic tale, Liza became a victim in the story. One of the things I liked about this novel was the writing style. Maugham employed colloquialisms and unique punctuation to create the working class London accent of the time.
Overall, I wouldn’t recommend this necessarily. I am looking forward to reading more of Maugham’s work but this wasn’t for me.
2 out of 5 stars!
Liza as a character started out interesting, standing out from other women of the time but in order to tell a moralistic tale, Liza became a victim in the story. One of the things I liked about this novel was the writing style. Maugham employed colloquialisms and unique punctuation to create the working class London accent of the time.
Overall, I wouldn’t recommend this necessarily. I am looking forward to reading more of Maugham’s work but this wasn’t for me.
2 out of 5 stars!
Other thoughts/reviews:
Books and Chocolate: http://karensbooksandchocolate.blogspot.be/2015/02/liza-of-lambeth-by-w-somerset-maugham.html
Books and Chocolate: http://karensbooksandchocolate.blogspot.be/2015/02/liza-of-lambeth-by-w-somerset-maugham.html
I didn't have a clue what I was getting into when I picked up this book, but it was quite harrowing to say the least. I think the main theme covered throughout the book is the abuse and inequality women were subjected to (and still are in some cases) in a very patriarchal society, which made for very uncomfortable reading throughout. I think (or hope) that was intentional, and it really tugged at my heartstrings. A very good, thought-provoking book.
I am slightly heartbroken at how this book ended. It was tragic, indeed.
The accents in the book did put me off a bit, but it was nothing too difficult to read. I think Maugham was being a dick by writing like this, but then again, who the fuck am i to say anything.
Good, short book.
The accents in the book did put me off a bit, but it was nothing too difficult to read. I think Maugham was being a dick by writing like this, but then again, who the fuck am i to say anything.
Good, short book.
brilliant, strange, indicting, cruel and comical, pure Maugham