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A review by liralen
Third Girl from the Left by Martha Southgate
4.0
I read this for a book club -- it's probably not something that I would have picked up on my own, to be honest, but I'm glad it was a book club selection.
It had mixed reviews in book club -- not enough difference in voice, not enough connection between reader and narrator -- but I loved the character arc that spanned not one character, but three. Mildred has dreams but no real hope of realising them; to achieve her dreams, Angela must turn her back on everything she knows; Tamara, although she still has the odds stacked against her, has hopes of realising her dreams and taking her career further than her mother or her grandmother.
The writing runs the gamut from forced to evocative, but overall the book felt like a slice out of a life, or rather a set of lives, that I'll never be able to fully understand.
Lastly -- I can only thank the author for this gem:
Angela frowned. "What's a dyke?"
Sheila stretched. "A dyke is a big, mannish woman who hates men and only sleeps with other big, mannish women. Not like us. We just do it for fun." She looked at Angela intently. "Wanna do it again?"
-page 44
It had mixed reviews in book club -- not enough difference in voice, not enough connection between reader and narrator -- but I loved the character arc that spanned not one character, but three. Mildred has dreams but no real hope of realising them; to achieve her dreams, Angela must turn her back on everything she knows; Tamara, although she still has the odds stacked against her, has hopes of realising her dreams and taking her career further than her mother or her grandmother.
The writing runs the gamut from forced to evocative, but overall the book felt like a slice out of a life, or rather a set of lives, that I'll never be able to fully understand.
Lastly -- I can only thank the author for this gem:
Angela frowned. "What's a dyke?"
Sheila stretched. "A dyke is a big, mannish woman who hates men and only sleeps with other big, mannish women. Not like us. We just do it for fun." She looked at Angela intently. "Wanna do it again?"
-page 44