A review by michaelontheplanet
The Bottle Factory Outing by Beryl Bainbridge

2.0

No deposit, no return: do authors have a sell-by date? I wondered this about Philip Roth recently - whether we need anymore some old white American dude mansplaining the world. A bit of a shock to find it may be the same with La Bainbridge at least as far as The Bottle Factory Outing is concerned. Perhaps it feels so dated not just because of the coyly irritating attitudes of the central characters - good time girl Freda and her plain, timid flatmate Brenda, who seem a less adventurous and funny version of the Liber Birds, but also that it can’t make up its mind: social comedy, mystery or belle lettre, and as a result it’s an odd hybrid that confuses. Perhaps treated as a period piece it fared better, but I’d honestly prefer to drop it in the recycling bank.