In the Ditch by Buchi Emecheta is published by Penguin Modern Classics (£9.99). No matter your social standing, Emecheta insists, you can be a marvellous observer of those around you.Įllen Peirson-Hagger is the assistant culture editor at the New Statesman Its charm comes not only from its basis in fact, but also in its author’s skill for capturing the truest quirks of human character. “They went away feeling very helpful and charitable,” Emecheta writes, as though with a smirk.Įmecheta called this book a “documentary novel”. “The glasses he had on gave him a highly intelligent look,” Adah thinks of the housing manager who finds her a new flat, “but he ruined the effect by keeping his mouth open most of the time.” One day she is visited by two women from the children’s department. Yet for all this weighty social politics, Emecheta writes with an appealingly jocular tone. Still, she insists, “he is a good man and would not dream of staying at home just for more money”.
The intricacies of life in the welfare system are complex, as the case of Mrs O’Brien shows: everyone knows her husband does not work because he earns more claiming benefits. Adah is insistent on bettering herself – hers will not be labelled a “problem” family – and certainly has her own prejudices.
Through the story of one woman, In the Ditch intimately interrogates themes of racism, female independence and class snobbery. Its republication follows that of Second-Class Citizen, a prequel to this book, and The Joys of Motherhood, which is set in colonial Nigeria. More than 50 years after its first publication, In the Ditch remains politically pertinent as well as entertaining, its new status as a Penguin Modern Classic more than apt. She died in London in 2017 and is rightly remembered as a pioneer among Black female novelists. In the following years she wrote more novels, as well as plays and children’s stories, and appeared on Granta’s first best young British novelists list in 1983. It was her experience as a single mother that formed the basis of her first published writing, initially in columns for the New Statesman and then in In the Ditch. At the age of 22, while pregnant with her fifth child, she left her husband, who was violent. Search for: Search Follow Fuldapocalypse Fiction on WordPress.More than 50 years after its first publication, In the Ditch remains politically pertinent as well as entertainingĮmecheta was born in Lagos, Nigeria, in 1944 and moved to the UK with her husband in 1962. Especially since it feels like the wrong kind of thriller for its writing style. But that nature, mixed with its huge amounts of descriptions that don’t even feel like they were intended as padding, isn’t exactly my cup of tea. So I can understand its appeal to a certain kind of reader, and thus its author’s success. It’s like it ended up, either accidentally or deliberately, being the kind of book that checks all the thriller boxes, but without too much adrenaline. The words that came into my mind were “decaf thriller”. FBI Special Agent Atlee Pine has learnt three lessons in life: Some wounds never heal.
#REVIEWS LONG ROAD TO MERCY SERIES#
And the way this is pulled off is-well, something. Number one bestseller Long Road to Mercy is the heart-pounding first novel in the FBI Special Agent Atlee Pine series by bestselling author David Baldacci. Of course, cheap thrillers don’t succeed or fail based on concept. About the only thing distinctive I can say is that instead of the opponents being TERRORISTS! they were instead part of a CONSPIRACY! Wow! It even had a climax featuring the most stale “shocking” item in the genre, a nuclear bomb. I was right (although the action scenes are not gratuitous).Īs the book progressed, it went from the smaller and more personal tale promised in the opening scene to a very, very rote cheap thriller plot. This made me think “this is a justification for her being able to take on bigger men hand to hand”. The second was talking about how built-up and muscular the heroine was. It doesn’t feel like it’s the best for a thriller. The first thing that caught my eye was how dense and well, overdescriptive, for lack of a better word, the writing style is. Long Road to Mercy is the first in his Atlee Pine series of thrillers starring the titular FBI agent. In another one of those “big name authors that are nonetheless novel to me”, I turned my attention to David Baldacci.
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