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A review by sadie_slater
The Real World by Kathleen Jowitt
challenging
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Kathleen Jowitt's third novel, The Real World, is a sequel to her first, Speak Its Name. It picks up Colette and Lydia's story five years after Speak Its Name, still in Stancester, though their other university friends are scattered around the country. Colette is doing a PhD, while Lydia is working in admin but considering training for ordained ministry in the Church of England - something which will have consequences for Colette and Lydia's relationship, given the Church's stance on same-sex relationships.
The Real World came out last autumn, but I put off reading it as I wasn't sure I was in the right headspace for it given *waves vaguely in the direction of Everything*. I think this was the right decision; it's a brilliant, compelling read, and I was utterly caught up in Colette and Lydia's lives, to the point where I often struggled to put the book down, but it's really not an easy read. Where Speak Its Name made me nostalgic for my university days, The Real World evokes, just as vividly, the difficult few years following graduation, while the tight third-person narrative from Colette's point of view captures the experience of sinking into depression and not recognising it yet far too perfectly to be remotely comfortable for anyone who is as familiar with that feeling as I am.
Jowitt has a real talent for creating characters who really feel like living, breathing, people, flawed and complex and human. She also manages to make the complexities of the Church of England and its selection process for ordination comprehensible to the lay reader, or at least to this atheist, without resorting to heavy infodumps or ever coming across as patronising. I loved The Real World at least as much as I loved her two previous books; it may have been a challenging read, but it was also a hugely rewarding one.
The Real World came out last autumn, but I put off reading it as I wasn't sure I was in the right headspace for it given *waves vaguely in the direction of Everything*. I think this was the right decision; it's a brilliant, compelling read, and I was utterly caught up in Colette and Lydia's lives, to the point where I often struggled to put the book down, but it's really not an easy read. Where Speak Its Name made me nostalgic for my university days, The Real World evokes, just as vividly, the difficult few years following graduation, while the tight third-person narrative from Colette's point of view captures the experience of sinking into depression and not recognising it yet far too perfectly to be remotely comfortable for anyone who is as familiar with that feeling as I am.
Jowitt has a real talent for creating characters who really feel like living, breathing, people, flawed and complex and human. She also manages to make the complexities of the Church of England and its selection process for ordination comprehensible to the lay reader, or at least to this atheist, without resorting to heavy infodumps or ever coming across as patronising. I loved The Real World at least as much as I loved her two previous books; it may have been a challenging read, but it was also a hugely rewarding one.