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A review by torts
London Transports by Maeve Binchy
2.0
I only read "Marble Arch," but there wasn't really an option to review a single short story so I guess I have to settle for the compilation it's from.
The story was decent: well-realized characters and a straightforward narrative which gradually fleshed out their lives (with pointed sympathy toward the protagonist). Her martyrdom was a bit annoying, though. I presumed that it was some sort of feminist critique of working women as being trapped rather than liberated by the supposed freedom to love/nurture/work as they please rather than as dictated in the old-fashioned role of housewife and mother. But reading about a long-suffering, self-sacrificing woman smilingly being alienated from the contented life she has created was kind of a downer. Or rather, it didn't communicate anything other than the fact that the character's life was kind of pathetic. Even though she was compared to some sort of deity.
I liked the details of the story, though. Like the mentions of specific London things. Particularly as I read the story within a month of having walked through Marble Arch and down Oxford Street and all over London, really. It was pretty nifty to read a story set in a place I'd just visited...
The story was decent: well-realized characters and a straightforward narrative which gradually fleshed out their lives (with pointed sympathy toward the protagonist). Her martyrdom was a bit annoying, though. I presumed that it was some sort of feminist critique of working women as being trapped rather than liberated by the supposed freedom to love/nurture/work as they please rather than as dictated in the old-fashioned role of housewife and mother. But reading about a long-suffering, self-sacrificing woman smilingly being alienated from the contented life she has created was kind of a downer. Or rather, it didn't communicate anything other than the fact that the character's life was kind of pathetic. Even though she was compared to some sort of deity.
I liked the details of the story, though. Like the mentions of specific London things. Particularly as I read the story within a month of having walked through Marble Arch and down Oxford Street and all over London, really. It was pretty nifty to read a story set in a place I'd just visited...