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That's How It Was (1962)

by Maureen Duffy

Other authors: See the other authors section.

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981274,532 (3.75)20
I was just a girl and life offered only things I despised: houses, children, security, housework. I had to pass. I had to. I had to be different.' Paddy is illegitimate, the daughter of another Paddy -- an active member of the IRA who abandons her English mother, Louey, at her birth. This is the story of that mother -- frail, but with an indomitable spirit -- of that daughter -- and of their life together, seen through the clear eyes of Paddy as a child and adolescent. The working class life of wartime England is wonderfully evoked and the subtle changing relationship between Paddy and Louey is movingly conveyed.… (more)
  1. 00
    Mary Olivier: A Life by May Sinclair (fountainoverflows)
    fountainoverflows: Another exploration of a different sort of bond between mother and daughter.
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» See also 20 mentions

An engrossing read about a tubercular single mother's love for her daughter and commitment to her child's escape from poverty through education. Some idiomatic use of English and cultural references as well as occasionally fuzzy writing made a few early parts of the novel challenging. However, once I was a third of the way into the book, I found it hard to put down. Worthwhile. ( )
  fountainoverflows | Mar 17, 2011 |
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Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Duffy, Maureenprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Avery, MiltonCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed

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For G. R. W.
because I said I would
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Lucky for me I was born at all really, I mean she could have decided not to bother.
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I was just a girl and life offered only things I despised: houses, children, security, housework. I had to pass. I had to. I had to be different.' Paddy is illegitimate, the daughter of another Paddy -- an active member of the IRA who abandons her English mother, Louey, at her birth. This is the story of that mother -- frail, but with an indomitable spirit -- of that daughter -- and of their life together, seen through the clear eyes of Paddy as a child and adolescent. The working class life of wartime England is wonderfully evoked and the subtle changing relationship between Paddy and Louey is movingly conveyed.

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'I was just a girl and life offered only things I despised: houses, children, security, housework. I had to pass. I had to. I had to be different.' Set in wartime England, this is the story of Louey, a young working-class woman of unquenchable spirit and her illegitimate daughter Paddy.  The daily hardships of a mother and daughter struggling to maintain their dignity amid the indignities of poverty are vividly conveyed through Paddy's fierce young eyes.  That's How It Was is a special kind of love story about the indissoluble bond between parent and child.
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