Like Mother

A dark novel and, as you would expect from Jenny Diski, it is like nothing you have ever read before. Frances is bought up after the war to wear white petticoats and white gloves with lace trim by an alcoholic mother and a dad who thrived with the black market but struggled when rationing ended. Frances listens to them arguing most evenings as she lies in bed. Outwardly, Frances was the perfect daughter but inside she was rebelling, first swearing under her breath and later making sexual discoveries on a nearby bomb site. Frances teaches herself to not care and her disturbing honesty and detachment makes her stand out as she survives being a teenager experimenting with drugs and shop lifting and through hard graft as a dancer. Her story show more is told by Nony, Frances' baby, born with no sight, no hearing and no brain. This combination could make a depressing novel but Jenny Diski's writing is much better than that and her honest and detached style brings a humanity to conditions that might, at first glance, seem inhuman. A short novel that will haunt you! show less

Frances ontwikkelt als kind achter een façade van volgzaamheid, een verbeten wil om volwassen codes te doorbreken. Het failliet van de relatie tussen haar ouders slaat emotionele wonden. Haar levensverhaal is er één zonder hoop en verwachting en wie kon ze dat beter in de mond leggen dan haar blinde, doofstomme en hersenloze baby, die een levensverwachting heeft van twee jaar. Niemand wou het kind in leven houden, alleen Frances verzette zich tegen de haar opgelegde abortus