Remarkable

This book is remarkable and sweet.

Full of spirit, humanity and of life.

Definitely worth a listen.

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1 person found this helpful

An evocation of my college days!

Beautifully written and very much as I remember the preoccupations of women of the period in their years at college. A startling ending which will take a while to absorb - what actually happened and why?

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Remembrance of past time

This early Mantel novel published in 1995 is set in 1970 when Carmel McBain, (like Mantel herself) was 18 and studying at London University living in Tunbridge College with a group of girls. It’s very much a period piece covering both Carmel’s Lancashire childhood (similar to Mantel’s own) with her over-ambitious mother with her rigid attitudes, tight morals about what is right and seemly and what is not, forever pushing Carmel to work harder and harder, win a place at the Catholic senior school and be the first woman prime minister. Next door to the McBains is lumpy, overweight Karina who is constantly Carmel’s unbidden shadow following her to the Convent school and then onto Tunbridge College – always manipulative, constantly eating. The childhood and Convent scenes woven in and out of the present day 1970 narrative are brilliant with the oppressive smallness of the social pressures and the abrasive colourful language with the accent reproduced so well by the narrator here.
The cultural contrasts are just part of what Carmel has to navigate in London: the ethereal-seeming intimidating Sophies with their polish, articulacy and cheques from Daddy whilst Carmel ekes out her Grant (students were paid in those days!) to the nearest sixpence. There’s also the tiny meals in hall and the pressures to succeed and feed from the academic opportunities – and ‘feeding’ is appropriate because as sly Karina gets larger with spaghetti cooked on the communal ring, Carmel slowly loses her hold on life and succumbs to anorexia in an attempt to keep control. And of course there’s sex and boyfriends all of whom are shadowy figures (but this is an intensely female story so they’re never made real), and the constant fear and reality of getting pregnant, the pill not yet readily available. The ending is dramatic, if not melodramatic, and Karina is unveiled as even more sinister than she had seemed.
It’s certainly not a flawless novel, but that past era is vividly recreated in detail and the extensive interior life of Carmel portrays the very real tensions, concerns and pressures of young women emerging into the adult world of that time . Well worth returning to after 27 years!

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3 people found this helpful

Possibly a bit too long...

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

Shorter bulk with longer finish... at the end it felt a bit like the author had had a enough

What three words best describe Jane Collingwood’s voice?

ok

You didn’t love this book--but did it have any redeeming qualities?

Thoughtful observations

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2 people found this helpful

Very Dull.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />

Struggled through this just wanting to know the end. it was monolithic. No worth listening to. I will not read another of her books.

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1 person found this helpful