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3.23 AVERAGE
3.23 AVERAGE
Well-written slice-of-life stories about working class Londoners in the early 60s. I would have liked more local color about the neighborhood (especially since my son currently lives there).
Start to finish in one sitting at work. I just love Nell Dunn's stories. Her characters are so real. Love love loved this one.
No one reads Nell Dunn anymore, and that is a shame. She writes incredibly straightforward, amazing books about working-class London ladies in the 1960's. The stories are simple, unadorned, and fascinating.
Sped through this in one evening, after trying desperately to find something short and easy to attempt to read with my ongoing dizziness.
I like the film of this, it's fun watching London in the 60s. The books isn't quite as good but still a pleasant read written in a series of vignettes about friends who work in factories during the week and go 'Up the Junction' at the weekend to the clubs and pubs and bars. The dialogue is a bit jumbled but overall an okay read.
I like the film of this, it's fun watching London in the 60s. The books isn't quite as good but still a pleasant read written in a series of vignettes about friends who work in factories during the week and go 'Up the Junction' at the weekend to the clubs and pubs and bars. The dialogue is a bit jumbled but overall an okay read.
emotional
hopeful
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
54 minutes - To be honest, I wasn't sure what was happening in this book most of the time, yet it was still fairly enjoyable to read. There was one story in it which has stuck with me, which talks about the harsh reality of abortion in the time period, and that was graphically written to the point of shocking me. If I understood this book more, I may rate it higher, but on the first read, to my best understanding, it wasn't particularly good.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Abortion, Pregnancy
I never thought it would happen / With me and a girl from Clapham
Finding out Nell Dunn was actually posh has taken the sheen off her writing for me, although I know she did actually work in a sweet factory for a bit. A very evocative book, I know these women and I love them.
I’d beg for some forgiveness / But begging’s not my business
Finding out Nell Dunn was actually posh has taken the sheen off her writing for me, although I know she did actually work in a sweet factory for a bit. A very evocative book, I know these women and I love them.
I’d beg for some forgiveness / But begging’s not my business
dark
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Reading "Up the Junction" is like being caught in the midst of a long, disjointed conversation amongst frustrated people with not enough room to live but plenty of enthusiasm for life. Dunn's spare prose (which mostly consists of dialogue) sets out to capture working class London life with a dispassionate eye. This works best in stories that reveal something of their subjects, e.g. sorry Sheila and her thoughtless tormentors in "The Gold Blouse," Dave's assertions in "The Deserted House" that he "don't want a girl who's bin through all what I've been through," Rube's reappearance and emotional rawness in "Wash Night," and everything about Mrs. Hardy in "Death of an Old Scrubber" (not to mention the offhand conversations that take place amongst the living – whether it's better to be buried or cremated, and gossip about that bloke down the street who bought his own gravestone and has it sitting in his back garden, just waiting). These stories are bright points.
Unfortunately, many of the other vignettes seem to be seen through starry eyes. Struck by her new surroundings, Dunn reports with delight the various stages of disrepair of her neighbors' flats, young men bragging about their successful robberies, gossip about the length of prison sentences, and great admiration for the bits of rough she often picks up in dance halls, pubs, and cafes. The trouble here is that Dunn is that the conversations are accurate that they often drift into banality. Dunn appears to amazed by working class people that she's unable or unwilling to give them interior lives. Sometimes this is fine – the slightly rawer people, or the indifferent or awkward like Mrs. Hardy and Dave and Shelia – come through loud and clear, but those who engage in more socially accepted behaviour remain opaque, because Dunn simply reports their surface ("he wore a silver chain," "he reached into his pocket"), without providing any other clues outside the dialogue as to what could possibly be happening with the characters.
What I am trying to say is that sometimes this is lovely and interesting little book, and sometimes it reads like the disjointed impressions of a starry-eyed heiress slumming it in Battersea, awed by all the daring working class people around her. When Dunn's portraiture is on, it's brilliant, but when it's off, it's near insulting.
Unfortunately, many of the other vignettes seem to be seen through starry eyes. Struck by her new surroundings, Dunn reports with delight the various stages of disrepair of her neighbors' flats, young men bragging about their successful robberies, gossip about the length of prison sentences, and great admiration for the bits of rough she often picks up in dance halls, pubs, and cafes. The trouble here is that Dunn is that the conversations are accurate that they often drift into banality. Dunn appears to amazed by working class people that she's unable or unwilling to give them interior lives. Sometimes this is fine – the slightly rawer people, or the indifferent or awkward like Mrs. Hardy and Dave and Shelia – come through loud and clear, but those who engage in more socially accepted behaviour remain opaque, because Dunn simply reports their surface ("he wore a silver chain," "he reached into his pocket"), without providing any other clues outside the dialogue as to what could possibly be happening with the characters.
What I am trying to say is that sometimes this is lovely and interesting little book, and sometimes it reads like the disjointed impressions of a starry-eyed heiress slumming it in Battersea, awed by all the daring working class people around her. When Dunn's portraiture is on, it's brilliant, but when it's off, it's near insulting.
A collection of gritty but vibrant tales of a group of young women in 1960s London. The Second World War still looms in the background, with bomb sites abounding, and the Cold War is in evidence with frequent mentions of the H-bomb, but the stories are all down to earth glimpses of normal life. It's very much of the 60s, but as much as stayed the same as has changed; the stories are filled with pop music, boys, immigration, the influence of American culture, etc.
Painfully bleak at times but overall enjoyable, readable and heartfelt.
Painfully bleak at times but overall enjoyable, readable and heartfelt.