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slrsmith's review against another edition
4.0
Simple idea - of following the twists and turns of 20th century Britain through the eyes of one woman - but beautifully executed.
enoughgaiety's review against another edition
4.0
What tipped me over the edge from like to love was this passage:
He'd been a little thin boy with a head too big for his shoulders and sharp, dark eyes, sharp enough to prick. He was always getting left behind. Liza remembered him running down the street after the other boys, calling, "Wait. Wait for me." But they'd never waited. They'd gone off: to the playground, the river, the slag heap, the sea. And he was left to follow....
...[T]he attack that gave him a bullet in his throat had wiped a battalion out. He'd lain for three days in a shell-hole before he managed to crawl back to the British lines and ask for his regiment, only to be told that they were gone. Almost to a man. Gone. And as he was carried to the dressing station behind the lines perhaps he'd said, Wait. Wait for me.
It's haunted me for years.
He'd been a little thin boy with a head too big for his shoulders and sharp, dark eyes, sharp enough to prick. He was always getting left behind. Liza remembered him running down the street after the other boys, calling, "Wait. Wait for me." But they'd never waited. They'd gone off: to the playground, the river, the slag heap, the sea. And he was left to follow....
...[T]he attack that gave him a bullet in his throat had wiped a battalion out. He'd lain for three days in a shell-hole before he managed to crawl back to the British lines and ask for his regiment, only to be told that they were gone. Almost to a man. Gone. And as he was carried to the dressing station behind the lines perhaps he'd said, Wait. Wait for me.
It's haunted me for years.
bettylooksatbooks's review
4.0
The Pat Barker books I've read have always featured incredibly vivid characters, and Liza's England is no different. The first child in her town born in the twentieth century, eighty-four year old Liza recounts her life to her social worker Stephen. It's been a harsh life, a life of poverty, war, loss, abuse and hard physical labour. Meanwhile, Stephen is facing the challenge of being a social worker in the same area Liza grew up in, where poverty and unemployment is still rife.
Liza's England may be relatively short, but it's densely packed, without being too crowded. It is an undeniably a bleak book, and what happens to the characters is often brutal and grim. However, Pat Barker's writing is stellar and these characters will stay with me for a long time.
Liza's England may be relatively short, but it's densely packed, without being too crowded. It is an undeniably a bleak book, and what happens to the characters is often brutal and grim. However, Pat Barker's writing is stellar and these characters will stay with me for a long time.
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