Carol (2015)
5.0
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Shop girl (Mara) and rich married mother (Blanchett) fall in love and have an affair.
Free Love
9.0
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1967. While London comes alive with the new youth revolution, the suburban Fischer family seems to...
Historical fiction London 1960s
The Second I Saw You: The True Love Story of Rupert Brooke
Book
In 2000 the British Library uncovered a cache of letters and a memoir documenting the previously...
ClareR (5577 KP) rated 73 Dove Street in Books
Sep 12, 2023
Two other women live at number 73: landlady Phyllis, and fellow resident Tommie. When Edie arrives, Phyllis has just finished burning the mattress of a former resident who she’d caught with her husband, along with her husbands remaining belongings.
Tommie is best described as a whirlwind. She works for a Mrs Vee, and she enjoys her nights out. But as with Edie and Phyllis, there’s a lot going on in Tommie’s life.
This is a slow burn, a character driven novel, and has exactly what I enjoy most in a book. I love learning about characters lives, especially lives that are so different from my own. The 1950’s were a time of great change (again!): men back from war, women having to adjust back to traditional roles. These things were incorporated into the stories of Edie, Tommie and Phyllis. The women are drawn together by their secrets, lies and fears, and all three end up making life-changing decisions.
The feel of this book was perfect. I was taken back to the 1950’s with its pea-souper fogs, bars with dancing and super slim skirts (or even the full ones with petticoats!).
73 Dove Street is a very emotional book at times - you’ll need your hanky - and funny too. Overall, a really great read. I thoroughly enjoyed it!
Phyllis is a typical 1950’s/ 60’s housewife, but is she happy in her role as a housewife? She says yes, but I’d guess not, because when the son of a friend comes for dinner, Phyllis ends up making a pass at him, and then becomes obsessed - to the point that she finds out where he lives, goes to return a shirt that he had to change out of and ends up in bed with him. Then she just doesn’t go home.
Phyllis discovers the liberating 1960’s right at the end of the decade (1967), and shrugs off the responsibilities of motherhood and of being Roger’s wife. Instead she moves in with Nicky, has sex all the time and does whatever she wants to.
It felt like I was watching a car crash in slow motion. I could empathise with Phyllis’ need for freedom: her previous life in the suburbs was stifled and grey. I felt sad for her 16 year old daughter Colette, who is essentially dumped by her mother and left with a father who isn’t coping. It’s almost as if Colette becomes the adult, and her mother the carefree teenager.
I enjoyed the 1960’s setting and the contrasts of old and new. The whole story is told from a non-judgemental point of view. That’s left up to the reader to decide, and believe me, this really did prove how scarily judgemental I can be! There’s something to be said about a middle-class woman who decides to live in a filthy bedsit, expecting others who live in it to enjoy their freedom as much as she does (with her cushion of inherited money).
The plot twist at the end was a jaw dropper!
I loved this though. It might not sound like it, but I do love to hate my characters (although that’s a harsh word for the characters in this book, I think). If you feel the same way about unlikeable characters, then this could be the book for you too!
What's Love Got To Do With It? (1993)
8.5
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Based on the life of the legendary soul singer, Tina Turner (Angela Bassett) -- born Anna Mae...