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A review by andrew61
An Experiment in Love by Hilary Mantel
4.0
Carmel and karina grow up in a small North England town and are from similar working class backgrounds, and both struggle with mother's who are respectively demanding on their daughters in different ways. They form an unlikely relationship when both start at the local Catholic primary school before they both obtain a rare scholarship to the grammar school 3 bus rides away.
The book tells us about their childhood but also is a story of what happens when they both start university in London in 1970 and find themselves exposed to very different young women as they live in what appears to be the halls of residence from hell.
Hilary Mantels storytelling is wonderfully evocative of the time and place and particularly the mind of young women developing from children to adults with their preoccupations with sex, food, study, and each other. Her prose is crafted so well and I was drawn into the world with caustic one liners peppering the pages such as her describing her boyfriend 'he looked just what he was and nothing else: a prop forward from a northern grammar school, a family man in the making. In laterblife, I should think he has learnt to carve '.
The book is not however just a bitter sweet coming of age tale and the stories of carmel and her new friends build to a dramatic finale and as with the stark contradiction in carmel and karina's physical changes so much more is occurring within them as individuals.
The book tells us about their childhood but also is a story of what happens when they both start university in London in 1970 and find themselves exposed to very different young women as they live in what appears to be the halls of residence from hell.
Hilary Mantels storytelling is wonderfully evocative of the time and place and particularly the mind of young women developing from children to adults with their preoccupations with sex, food, study, and each other. Her prose is crafted so well and I was drawn into the world with caustic one liners peppering the pages such as her describing her boyfriend 'he looked just what he was and nothing else: a prop forward from a northern grammar school, a family man in the making. In laterblife, I should think he has learnt to carve '.
The book is not however just a bitter sweet coming of age tale and the stories of carmel and her new friends build to a dramatic finale and as with the stark contradiction in carmel and karina's physical changes so much more is occurring within them as individuals.