Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by apechild
The Country Girls by Edna O'Brien
4.0
This was very good but it has left me feeling rather sad. It's not just the disillushionment of leaving adolescence and first meeting the adult world, which I guess is full of the same things now as it was in the 60s. But also for Caithleen Brady. If she hadn't known Baba, and always been "Baba's tool" as Baba's own father puts it, what would her life of been like? What would she have done with herself?
This book covers about four years in Caithleen's life, from 14 to 18, and from the little rural village where she grew up, to convent school, and on towards Dublin where she takes her first steps into adulthood. It's set in the 1960s in Ireland. She comes from a sad home of rural poverty (although she never goes about feeling sorry for herself or using any of this as an excuse), where daddy drinks away the money on drinking binges and comes home to hit her or her mother. So she day dreams of romantic love and a better type of man, a proper gentleman (does he exist? she'll find out), and in fact everyone refers to the French guy who owns a local house with his wife as Mr Gentleman. A man who leaches after 14 year old girls? Hmmm....
From the village to convent school to Dublin, she is constantly with this "best friend" Baba, who is just vile. She is a little bully and a precocious little narcissist who is lacking in empathy or consideration for anyone. It just made me so sad that she never managed to break away from her, and I suspect she won't for the other two books in this series. I suppose Baba is the real life (no one gives a damn about anyone else, take what you can get) to Caithleen's fairy tale romanticism (there's mention of her buying these delicate little handkerchiefs in Dublin and thinking of wearing them with a bracelet, and them blowing off down the river when she's in a boat with Mr Gentleman, for example). In the village Baba shows Caithleen up, makes fun of her, excludes her and is thoroughly vile. At convent school when Baba has had enough, she makes sure they both get expelled, because somehow she can't do without Caithleen. I suppose she's a parasite. And in Dublin she's out after some earthy, no-strings fun with affluent men, putting Caithleen in situations that appaul her more romantic sensibilities.
I'd not really heard of Edna O'Brien before so I had a brief look online about her. This is her first book and it was banned in Ireland! Banned?! It's really not that shocking at all. But apparently this was a repressive time in Ireland and I guess women weren't supposed to be aware of sex (Caithleen may have the desires, but in all her romantic naivety she has been repressed - she mentions that she didn't think women had babies until they'd been married a while - this when she's 18 and thinking of going away for a week with Mr Gentleman. Preparing to have sex and having no idea what so ever.) I also read that the priest of the parish where Edna comes from burned copies of her book. That speaks volumes.
This book covers about four years in Caithleen's life, from 14 to 18, and from the little rural village where she grew up, to convent school, and on towards Dublin where she takes her first steps into adulthood. It's set in the 1960s in Ireland. She comes from a sad home of rural poverty (although she never goes about feeling sorry for herself or using any of this as an excuse), where daddy drinks away the money on drinking binges and comes home to hit her or her mother. So she day dreams of romantic love and a better type of man, a proper gentleman (does he exist? she'll find out), and in fact everyone refers to the French guy who owns a local house with his wife as Mr Gentleman. A man who leaches after 14 year old girls? Hmmm....
From the village to convent school to Dublin, she is constantly with this "best friend" Baba, who is just vile. She is a little bully and a precocious little narcissist who is lacking in empathy or consideration for anyone. It just made me so sad that she never managed to break away from her, and I suspect she won't for the other two books in this series. I suppose Baba is the real life (no one gives a damn about anyone else, take what you can get) to Caithleen's fairy tale romanticism (there's mention of her buying these delicate little handkerchiefs in Dublin and thinking of wearing them with a bracelet, and them blowing off down the river when she's in a boat with Mr Gentleman, for example). In the village Baba shows Caithleen up, makes fun of her, excludes her and is thoroughly vile. At convent school when Baba has had enough, she makes sure they both get expelled, because somehow she can't do without Caithleen. I suppose she's a parasite. And in Dublin she's out after some earthy, no-strings fun with affluent men, putting Caithleen in situations that appaul her more romantic sensibilities.
I'd not really heard of Edna O'Brien before so I had a brief look online about her. This is her first book and it was banned in Ireland! Banned?! It's really not that shocking at all. But apparently this was a repressive time in Ireland and I guess women weren't supposed to be aware of sex (Caithleen may have the desires, but in all her romantic naivety she has been repressed - she mentions that she didn't think women had babies until they'd been married a while - this when she's 18 and thinking of going away for a week with Mr Gentleman. Preparing to have sex and having no idea what so ever.) I also read that the priest of the parish where Edna comes from burned copies of her book. That speaks volumes.