clc53693 's review for:

Shadows of the Workhouse by Jennifer Worth

2.0

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I loved the first Call the Midwife book but don't think I will even finish this one. I am about a third of the way through but have really lost interest. As others have said, this one doesn't feel like a memoir or even like nonfiction. Worth tells long, elaborate stories about the childhoods of adults she knew in her time as a midwife. Where I really grew frustrated with the book was a story about someone named Jane, who grew up in a workhouse and was regularly in trouble with the Master. In her childhood she was disallowed from going on a summer trip because of her bad behavior. Worth says that "unknown to Jane," the philanthropist who sponsored the vacation noticed on the trip that Jane was not there, and asked about her. The Master's wife made up a lie about her being on holiday with an aunt, and then the Master and his wife privately agreed it was good that she was not there to cause trouble in front of the philanthropist. If this whole exchange was unknown to Jane even (let alone to Worth), it seems impossible that this whole scene could have actually happened. If Worth goes so far as to make up entire events, she should have specified that these chapters were imaginings inspired by real people. She should have made it a fiction book if she really wanted to give people an idea of what it might be like to grow up in a workhouse. Or, she should have stuck to what she observed directly and only cited what people directly told her. This books strikes a weird middle ground, and this just makes it confusing and makes me feel like I can't know what was true and what wasn't.