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gwyneira 's review for:
Diary of an Ordinary Woman
by Margaret Forster
I picked up a used copy of this in the UK (in Blackwell's in Oxford, I think), solely on the basis of having liked [b:Lady's Maid|7039|Tears of the Giraffe (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, #2)|Alexander McCall Smith|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165605623s/7039.jpg|1005422] and Forster's biography of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. I'm glad I picked it up, because it's very good and happened to hit exactly the mood I was in.
The novel is in the form of a diary kept by a woman born in 1901, whose life spans almost the entire twentieth century; Forster writes a long introduction in which she meets Millicent King and agrees to edit her diary for publication. (This is so convincing that apparently some readers haven't realized that the book is fiction rather than non-fiction until they reach the author's note at the very end.) Millicent begins her diary as a teenager, just before WWI, and stays with it through her whole life, until 1995, when she can't physically write any more. The characterization is excellent, of Millicent and also of her friends and family, as seen through her eyes; Forster shows us just how unordinary an "ordinary woman" can be.
The novel is in the form of a diary kept by a woman born in 1901, whose life spans almost the entire twentieth century; Forster writes a long introduction in which she meets Millicent King and agrees to edit her diary for publication. (This is so convincing that apparently some readers haven't realized that the book is fiction rather than non-fiction until they reach the author's note at the very end.) Millicent begins her diary as a teenager, just before WWI, and stays with it through her whole life, until 1995, when she can't physically write any more. The characterization is excellent, of Millicent and also of her friends and family, as seen through her eyes; Forster shows us just how unordinary an "ordinary woman" can be.