Customer Reviews

Rough Justice

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Gilda O'Neill's non-fiction work fill half a shelf in my library, and I've greatly enjoyed her insightful, full, and thought provoking treatments of the East End. I was quite disappointed in this novel, which I'd been eager to read based on her historical works. The theme - one who has a tragic background considers herself lucky to have any means of survival, and will take any sort of abuse to keep that intact - indeed reflects situations in which many people find themselves, but it was overdone. Every new page seemed to bring a new major tragedy, right from the gruesome beginning which even Dickens could not have topped for a miserable start to childhood.

The realistic elements - don't interfere in others' business even if they are in danger, for example - certainly have a strong basis in social codes of the time and place. Yet the gore and tragedy are outweighed, if that is possible, by the heroine's total lack of initiative in trying to get out of horrid situations. She cuts off a true and concerned friend, for example, through terror of the offence her friend gave to an abusive common law husband.

There is no real character development. It is just a chronicle of misery, without other dimensions. By contrast, in Gilda's non-fiction work, there is complete honesty about East End conditions and hardships (whether during hop picking times or the blitz), yet a warmth, humour, and gritty realism (ranging from nostalgic images to determined survival). This novel does not capture the very elements which make Gilda's other works so engrossing.