Louise Bickford is in her mid-fifties and has just found herself widowed. It was a loveless marriage to her husband, Dudley, but all should be good now. Louise can put her feet up and do what she likes. Then comes the truly terrible news: Dudley has squandered all their money. Rather than enjoying a husband-free retirement, Louise has been thrown into terrible poverty. She has three daughters on whom she becomes dependent: prissy middle-class Miriam, slovenly Ann and emotionally unstable Eva, an actress carrying on an affair with a married man. Louise is shuffled from sister to sister, all putting up with her and not showing much love to their poor, pathetic figure of a mother. In the colder months Louise is shunted off to a run down hotel, where she lives on the charity of the manageress, an old school friend. Fights and disputes break out with her daughters until Louise, almost comically, declares she intends to live independently. Her final living arrangements are so bad that her daughters are mortified with embarrassment, but still don't do much of practical good to help rectify the situation.
Monica Dickens (granddaughter of the great Charles) published this sympathetic and rather darkly comic novel in 1955. She has a superb eye for detail, dialogue and character, and brings to life the horrid three daughters wonderfully. Louise, the mother, is expertly drawn. She's pathetic and hopeless, but you feel for her, and Dickens makes you realise her deficiencies are not her fault, but the box society has put her in. There's a strong vein of humour that bubbles beneath the text and the final scenes, where Louise really hits rock bottom, are hilarious.
An intelligent and yet highly enjoyable novel that dissects the poor economic treatment of women, especially older women. Don't miss it.
The Winds of Heaven, by Monica Dickens. Published by Persephone Books
No comments:
Post a Comment