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War Crimes for the Home
`You know what they say about English girls' knickers,' ran the wartime joke, `One Yank and they're off.' When Gloria met Ron, he was an American pilot who thought nothing of getting hit by shrapnel in the cockpit. She was working in a munitions factory in Bristol during the Blitz, but still found time to grab what she wanted. Ciggies. Sex. American soldiers. But war has an effect on people. Gloria did all sorts of things she wouldn't normally do - evil things, some of them - because she might be dead tomorrow. Or someone might. Now, fifty years on, it's payback time. In her old folks' home, Gloria is forced to remember the real truth about her and Ron, and confront the secret at the heart of her dramatic home front story. In a gripping, vibrant evocation of wartime Britain, Liz Jensen explores the dark impulses of women whose war crimes are committed on the home front, in the name of sex, survival, greed, and love .
227 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2002
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About the author
Liz Jensen
25 books226 followersLiz Jensen was born in Oxfordshire, the daughter of a Danish father and an Anglo-Moroccan mother. She spent two years as a journalist in the Far East before joining the BBC, first as a journalist, then as a TV and radio producer. She then moved to France where she worked as a sculptor began her first novel, Egg Dancing, which was published in 1995. Back in London she wrote Ark Baby (1998) which was shortlisted for the Guardian Fiction Award, The Paper Eater (2000), and War Crimes for the Home (2002) which was longlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction. She has two children and shares her life with the Danish essayist, travel writer and novelist Carsten Jensen.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews
June 15, 2016
This was a book I couldn't put down. Jensen's wartime settings seem perfectly authentic but there are no romantic notions about life in that period. I loved Gloria's voice and her eccentric and flawed character. At times she is thoroughly objectionable but the fact that nearly everyone does the dirty on her makes the reader feel great sympathy for her. The book is saved from being just another book about how people survived through WW2 by Jensen's presentation of it in flashback with Gloria now a rather disgusting old lady in a nursing home, an old lady with terrible secrets that even she doesn't allow herself to remember. However her family need to know the truth...
I'm full of admiration for Jensen's writing skills, both in characterisation and settings and in carefully planning the twists of the plot, so that although you gradually begin to guess what happened, the end still comes as a surprise. A brilliant read and I will certainly be looking out for more of her work.
I'm full of admiration for Jensen's writing skills, both in characterisation and settings and in carefully planning the twists of the plot, so that although you gradually begin to guess what happened, the end still comes as a surprise. A brilliant read and I will certainly be looking out for more of her work.
November 2, 2023
Charity shop Bury St Edmunds. Withdrawn from Kirklees Cultural Services
Dedication: For my mother, Valerie Jensen, and in memory of my father, Niels Rosenvinge Jensen
Description: 'You know what they say about English girls' knickers,' ran the wartime joke, `One Yank and they're off.' When Gloria met Ron, he was an American pilot who thought nothing of getting hit by shrapnel in the cockpit. She was working in a munitions factory in Bristol during the Blitz, but still found time to grab what she wanted. Ciggies. Sex. American soldiers. But war has an effect on people. Gloria did all sorts of things she wouldn't normally do - evil things, some of them - because she might be dead tomorrow. Or someone might. Now, fifty years on, it's payback time. In her old folks' home, Gloria is forced to remember the real truth about her and Ron, and confront the secret at the heart of her dramatic home front story. In a gripping, vibrant evocation of wartime Britain, Liz Jensen explores the dark impulses of women whose war crimes are committed on the home front, in the name of sex, survival, greed, and love.
Opening: Here's a good one, Hank told me.
Man goes to the doctor, and the doctor says, I have two pieces of very bad news for you.
OK, fire away, says the man.
Well, says the doctor. The first piece of very bad news is that you have cancer. You are one hundred per cent riddled with it and you are going to die.
Oh, says the man. So what is the second piece of bad news then?
Well, says the doctor. It's this. You are also in the final stages of Alzheimer's disease. Your memory is full of holes.
4* The Rapture
4* The Uninvited
TR Ark Baby
2* My Dirty Little Book of Stolen Time
5* The Ninth Life of Louis Drax
TR The Paper Eater
TR War Crimes for the Home
Trivia: Liz Jensen is married to author Carsten Jensen:
5* We, The Drowned
3* I Have Seen the World Begin
Dedication: For my mother, Valerie Jensen, and in memory of my father, Niels Rosenvinge Jensen
'If you dig deep enough, all our secrets are the same'
- Amos Oz
Description: 'You know what they say about English girls' knickers,' ran the wartime joke, `One Yank and they're off.' When Gloria met Ron, he was an American pilot who thought nothing of getting hit by shrapnel in the cockpit. She was working in a munitions factory in Bristol during the Blitz, but still found time to grab what she wanted. Ciggies. Sex. American soldiers. But war has an effect on people. Gloria did all sorts of things she wouldn't normally do - evil things, some of them - because she might be dead tomorrow. Or someone might. Now, fifty years on, it's payback time. In her old folks' home, Gloria is forced to remember the real truth about her and Ron, and confront the secret at the heart of her dramatic home front story. In a gripping, vibrant evocation of wartime Britain, Liz Jensen explores the dark impulses of women whose war crimes are committed on the home front, in the name of sex, survival, greed, and love.
Opening: Here's a good one, Hank told me.
Man goes to the doctor, and the doctor says, I have two pieces of very bad news for you.
OK, fire away, says the man.
Well, says the doctor. The first piece of very bad news is that you have cancer. You are one hundred per cent riddled with it and you are going to die.
Oh, says the man. So what is the second piece of bad news then?
Well, says the doctor. It's this. You are also in the final stages of Alzheimer's disease. Your memory is full of holes.
4* The Rapture
4* The Uninvited
TR Ark Baby
2* My Dirty Little Book of Stolen Time
5* The Ninth Life of Louis Drax
TR The Paper Eater
TR War Crimes for the Home
Trivia: Liz Jensen is married to author Carsten Jensen:
5* We, The Drowned
3* I Have Seen the World Begin
January 1, 2014
I wanted to give this book 3.5/5 but you can't do half stars.
I was drawn to this book because I have an interest for the home front during WWII (ok - it was a Kindle daily deal as well!). The book is based on Gloria and the story of her life, although it mostly flips between her war years and the present (in a retirement home, with a touch of dementia).
The story starts off well, with Gloria working in a munitions factory during the war, and how she and her sister coped with the war. She meets an American soldier and falls in love with him and this sets the scene for the rest of the story.
The story flips between the past and the present, and this can be confusing as you sometimes have to re-read a paragraph to work out which time period we are talking about. Add to this the way the book is written in the first person by our semi-senile Gloria and it can be a tax taxing at times (which is one reason I didn't rate it higher, without this it would have been a 4.5 star review!)
I don't want to give too much away about the end (although there aren't any huge twists or revelations at the end, as the ending has been hinted at and suggested throughout the book). I will say this book felt quite sad, a tale of relationships that could have been, and lost love. It is worth a read but don't go into it expecting a happy love story with a mushy Disney ending!
I was drawn to this book because I have an interest for the home front during WWII (ok - it was a Kindle daily deal as well!). The book is based on Gloria and the story of her life, although it mostly flips between her war years and the present (in a retirement home, with a touch of dementia).
The story starts off well, with Gloria working in a munitions factory during the war, and how she and her sister coped with the war. She meets an American soldier and falls in love with him and this sets the scene for the rest of the story.
The story flips between the past and the present, and this can be confusing as you sometimes have to re-read a paragraph to work out which time period we are talking about. Add to this the way the book is written in the first person by our semi-senile Gloria and it can be a tax taxing at times (which is one reason I didn't rate it higher, without this it would have been a 4.5 star review!)
I don't want to give too much away about the end (although there aren't any huge twists or revelations at the end, as the ending has been hinted at and suggested throughout the book). I will say this book felt quite sad, a tale of relationships that could have been, and lost love. It is worth a read but don't go into it expecting a happy love story with a mushy Disney ending!
May 25, 2009
Poor Gloria. Has to live through WWII and then her sister nicks her man. And then she grows up to be a crazy old lady in a nursing home with one son she can remember and a daughter she can't. Meanwhile, she keeps seeing the ghost of a drowned little girl and the ghost of her recently departed friend from the nursing home.
Gloria's narrative voice is very much like 9-year-old Louis Drax's in "The Ninth Life of Louis Drax." They both describe things in a similar way, except Gloria has a much dirtier mouth (but who can blame her after where it's been?). She also kinda reminds me of Cotton from "King of the Hill" because she keeps calling her son's wife "Hank's wife."
My favorite scene was when she keeps telling everyone at a funeral that the dead guy "stuck his thingy into my whatsit" and can't understand why everyone is trying to ignore her. Oh, and the part where her son takes her fishing and she beats the crap out of the fish, then wets herself.
"It was the kind of hate you can only get at home, from people you loved."
Gloria's narrative voice is very much like 9-year-old Louis Drax's in "The Ninth Life of Louis Drax." They both describe things in a similar way, except Gloria has a much dirtier mouth (but who can blame her after where it's been?). She also kinda reminds me of Cotton from "King of the Hill" because she keeps calling her son's wife "Hank's wife."
My favorite scene was when she keeps telling everyone at a funeral that the dead guy "stuck his thingy into my whatsit" and can't understand why everyone is trying to ignore her. Oh, and the part where her son takes her fishing and she beats the crap out of the fish, then wets herself.
"It was the kind of hate you can only get at home, from people you loved."
January 8, 2018
I have very much enjoyed most of Liz Jensen's novels to date, and the storyline of War Crimes for the Home would have piqued my interest even if I had not already been acquainted with her work. This is, I believe, my first foray into her historical fiction, and I found it very enjoyable. This takes place on the Home Front in Britain during the Second World War, and the battles fought on British soil, along with the effects which they brought, have been well captured. I liked the use of retrospect, and the memory loss which present-day Gloria suffers with has been handled well. Not at all a nostalgic portrayal of times gone by, War Crimes for the Home is sure to appeal to every fan of historical fiction that likes to be surprised a little in their reading.
April 16, 2020
A tough book to review. I like what the author tried to do with it. The time displacement and the mystery elements are ones I have seldom or never seen before. They are also part of the reason I couldn't rate the book higher than 3 stars.
Dementia is a hard subject to write about. This does try to write the account of someone in early stage dementia and how they perceive the world. Interspersed with her memories from World War 2 it made interesting reading. The problem was that it also was too disjointed to follow at times.
It keeps up a sense of mystery until the final few pages and it isn't an unpleasant experience to get there. No spoilers here but I was wrong with more than one assumption reading it. A curious tale that I would recommend to an older audience.
Dementia is a hard subject to write about. This does try to write the account of someone in early stage dementia and how they perceive the world. Interspersed with her memories from World War 2 it made interesting reading. The problem was that it also was too disjointed to follow at times.
It keeps up a sense of mystery until the final few pages and it isn't an unpleasant experience to get there. No spoilers here but I was wrong with more than one assumption reading it. A curious tale that I would recommend to an older audience.
December 7, 2011
Gloria is in a nursing home, suffering with dementia and time is slowing down for her. It seems, however, that before she leaves, she'll have to deal with some history that she thought she'd buried.
In this cleverly constructed novel, Liz Jensen teases the story out of Gloria in a series of dictated memories and flashbacks as she reveals more and more of what happened when she was young and pert and fell in love with a GI who was "overpaid, oversexed and over here." The memories that emerge in dribs and drabs have consequences for her and for those who love her.
I liked the story itself very much, and especially enjoyed how the relevant details were meted out as we needed to know them, and not a moment before. War Crimes for the Home got three stars from me because of the unnecessary explicitness and crudeness in the descriptions of the sexual behavior of the characters. I'm not uptight about these things, but it was just overkill. I wasn't offended, but rather sort of bored in a "oh, this again?" sort of way. I was interested in getting back to the actual story.
In this cleverly constructed novel, Liz Jensen teases the story out of Gloria in a series of dictated memories and flashbacks as she reveals more and more of what happened when she was young and pert and fell in love with a GI who was "overpaid, oversexed and over here." The memories that emerge in dribs and drabs have consequences for her and for those who love her.
I liked the story itself very much, and especially enjoyed how the relevant details were meted out as we needed to know them, and not a moment before. War Crimes for the Home got three stars from me because of the unnecessary explicitness and crudeness in the descriptions of the sexual behavior of the characters. I'm not uptight about these things, but it was just overkill. I wasn't offended, but rather sort of bored in a "oh, this again?" sort of way. I was interested in getting back to the actual story.
April 24, 2008
A brilliant book with a different view of the WW II.
October 6, 2025
“We’re swaying because we’re a little bit drunk and maybe even then a bit in love, walking through the blackout together. I can’t believe what a dirty mouth he has, but the swear words are different from English ones, they’re right sexy. I’ve told him about the Lousy Nitwit factory, and now he’s telling me about how he got here.”
Gloria worked in munitions factory during WWII. She fell in love with a GI but now, an old woman, is living in a home. Her son Hank visits her with his wife and another lady whom Gloria doesn’t know; she thinks she’s a Jehovah’s Witness. They question her about her past but reminiscence is painful and she struggles to forget.
I didn’t think I’d enjoy it when I started reading but naughty Gloria grew on me. Lots of fun, lies, crime and betrayal but the denouement was satisfying. A lovely book.
Gloria worked in munitions factory during WWII. She fell in love with a GI but now, an old woman, is living in a home. Her son Hank visits her with his wife and another lady whom Gloria doesn’t know; she thinks she’s a Jehovah’s Witness. They question her about her past but reminiscence is painful and she struggles to forget.
I didn’t think I’d enjoy it when I started reading but naughty Gloria grew on me. Lots of fun, lies, crime and betrayal but the denouement was satisfying. A lovely book.
April 12, 2018
At first this book irked me a bit as it seemed a rip off of Angela Carter's Wise Children : bawdy sisters , magic ( via hypnotism) , sexual elderly lady - similar kind of chatty magical realism style , I mean Gloria/Marge are Dora/Nora ... But then somewhere in the middle I was hooked and I read it in two days ( which is a short while when you have a two year old ). Most characters were unlikeable , showing human beings at their hawkish , animalistic worst . Everything from decapitated bomb blasted bodies to sordid affairs show the the human body deconstructed and objectified as just meat and bare bones . Equally at the same time quite a spiritual tale with life , after life , memory and reality all blurred . Funny too . Sorrowfully bizarre which compelled me .
June 7, 2020
Don’t read this book unless you want reader’s whiplash, love cringey dialogue, and horrible sex scenes. I thought it was going to be a wartime romance novel, but boy was I wrong.
1) the scene change in this book is horrible, yah I know the old girl has Alzheimer’s but dang, one minute she in the past and next she is talking about old Mr. what it’s hitting on the caretakers.
2) actual written dialogue from the book:
- You’ll found out soon enough, he says. - She’s coming to pay you a visit. ( why the author isn’t using quotation marks is anyone guess 👀)
3) it’s like a horrible fan fiction written by someone who has never learn human anatomy. The author refers to his penis as his thing 🤷♀️ but maybe it has with the time period it is written for. Wouldn’t recommend this at all!
1) the scene change in this book is horrible, yah I know the old girl has Alzheimer’s but dang, one minute she in the past and next she is talking about old Mr. what it’s hitting on the caretakers.
2) actual written dialogue from the book:
- You’ll found out soon enough, he says. - She’s coming to pay you a visit. ( why the author isn’t using quotation marks is anyone guess 👀)
3) it’s like a horrible fan fiction written by someone who has never learn human anatomy. The author refers to his penis as his thing 🤷♀️ but maybe it has with the time period it is written for. Wouldn’t recommend this at all!
June 4, 2023
En un principio con la voz de una mujer anciana que tiene momentos de lucidez y algunos otros en que se pone histérica, es como se convierte en la narradora de una historia de desamor, de supervivencia, de falta de reglas básicas de moralidad, pues se va al pasado mientras suceden las últimos momentos de la segunda guerra mundial y de nuevo regresa al presente, en que parece que no ha cambiado su manera de vivir la vida y sigue sujeta a sus propias reglas. Mientras tanto, las personas que la rodean pretenden dar fin a lo que su mente retiene y que no ha querido sacar a la luz, por ser algo traumático. Algo que en la personal me dejó con la quijada en el suelo.
August 5, 2025
Oh, boy. Reading this as a non-native English speaker was a hell of a ride. I got confused at times—editing didn’t seem to help much—but I really enjoyed the story, and it still managed to break my heart. I truly felt like I was inside Gloria’s head. The writing was both messy and beautiful, funny and heartbreaking.
P.S. I know she’s English, but I couldn’t help hearing Gloria’s voice with a Southern American accent. It made the whole experience 10 times better.
P.S. I know she’s English, but I couldn’t help hearing Gloria’s voice with a Southern American accent. It made the whole experience 10 times better.
December 24, 2021
Nah… not really for me this one. I was enjoying it as a first person account of slipping into old age / dementia, but when the memory loss was attributed to hypnosis, it got a bit far fetched for me. I don’t think the character needed to be “absolved” of some of her responsibility that way - felt like a contrived attempt to garner more sympathy from the reader.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 26, 2017
I really enjoyed this novel which tells how Gloria coped with living through WW2, how she lives now in a care home and how the two are linked.
November 21, 2017
Loved it! Love all her books actually
August 1, 2021
A bit coarse, but brilliant revelations of story elements kept me reading straight through.
October 21, 2023
I started out disliking and feeling irritated by this book, but ended up enjoying the story!
October 27, 2023
3.5 stars
Very interesting
Very interesting
October 20, 2024
i need a couple work days to process this book. wtf.
November 11, 2025
Didn't enjoy this as much as I thought I would.
February 1, 2022
Gloria and her sister Marje both work in a munition factory and have both lost their Mother and Father. They rub along well until they both go their separate ways but are torn between the same American GI who plays them both and one sister is left alone.
Gloria has a very has a huge sex drive and any man is fair game to her even when she arrives into a care home suffering from dementia brought on by her past life.
Gloria loves to joke and the dirtier the better much to the embarraassment of the care staff and her long lost son and his family.
Skeletons are in Gloria's closet and they are all revealed toward the last few chapters in this book. I did find it hard to grasp as her story goes back and forth from the past to the present but perservered with it until the end.
Gloria has a very has a huge sex drive and any man is fair game to her even when she arrives into a care home suffering from dementia brought on by her past life.
Gloria loves to joke and the dirtier the better much to the embarraassment of the care staff and her long lost son and his family.
Skeletons are in Gloria's closet and they are all revealed toward the last few chapters in this book. I did find it hard to grasp as her story goes back and forth from the past to the present but perservered with it until the end.
April 18, 2010
War Crimes for the Home. Liz Jensen. 2002. Bloomsbury. 225 pages. ISBN 074756146x.
War Crimes for the Home is about foul-mouthed, sensuous young Cockney woman Gloria Winstanley, who works with sister Marje in a munitions factory during World War II and is on the hunt for love. The novel actually spans back and forth from present time, in which Gloria is an Alzheimer's patient in a nursing home to the past during her Blitz experiences. The mystery surrounding the novel has to deal with a chunk of Gloria's memory missing from those Blitz days, and Gloria's son Hank helps her piece things together. The end result is quite surprising.
The writing style of War Crimes for the Home is very unique because not only is the dialogue written without quotation marks, but Liz Jensen incorporates both Cockney and lingo of the 1940s into the novel, creating a more authentic memoir-type reading experience. Although War Crimes for the Home is quite short at 225 pages, I felt Liz Jensen went into a few uninteresting and lulling tangents that should have been avoided altogether. Given the book's length, I felt it would have been more impacting had Jensen added more tidbits focusing specifically on the plot.
I am a fan of Liz Jensen's Egg Dancing, and still have a few of her other titles on standby. Although I found War Crimes for the Home to be unique, I also thought it easily forgettable.
War Crimes for the Home is about foul-mouthed, sensuous young Cockney woman Gloria Winstanley, who works with sister Marje in a munitions factory during World War II and is on the hunt for love. The novel actually spans back and forth from present time, in which Gloria is an Alzheimer's patient in a nursing home to the past during her Blitz experiences. The mystery surrounding the novel has to deal with a chunk of Gloria's memory missing from those Blitz days, and Gloria's son Hank helps her piece things together. The end result is quite surprising.
The writing style of War Crimes for the Home is very unique because not only is the dialogue written without quotation marks, but Liz Jensen incorporates both Cockney and lingo of the 1940s into the novel, creating a more authentic memoir-type reading experience. Although War Crimes for the Home is quite short at 225 pages, I felt Liz Jensen went into a few uninteresting and lulling tangents that should have been avoided altogether. Given the book's length, I felt it would have been more impacting had Jensen added more tidbits focusing specifically on the plot.
I am a fan of Liz Jensen's Egg Dancing, and still have a few of her other titles on standby. Although I found War Crimes for the Home to be unique, I also thought it easily forgettable.
December 16, 2010
i really liked this . although not very long it packs a mighty punch and carries the reader backwards and forwards from the 2nd world war to today . seamlessly through the memories of Gloria a blackhumoured girl who worked in a munitions factory and got up to all sorts in the live now die later turmoil of war .
She is confronted with the past as she lies in a nursing home and it is pretty messy involving GI's , betrayal by her sister , revenge and babies appearing where they shouldn't .
I liked the way the simple excitement of new jobs , new romances , uncertainty and living on the edge that started with the war gave way to the reality of rationing , sudden death , affairs suddenly cut short and a longing for calmness and stability .
Gloria is a laugh a minute until it all goes wrong and the hints of madness and instability filter through her memories as the past is dragged up reluctantly by a well meaning family . She likes telling jokes mostly whistling in the dark . it is a case of laughter at breakfast tears before bedtime . But Gloria is a hard egg and despite her tragic life she never varies in her cynical and disdainful outlook even to a cruel heartless effect . She needs someone to rescue her from herelf .
I loved the war detail although the nursing home and modern scenes are deadly and depressing .
Would make a great film in the right hands .
She is confronted with the past as she lies in a nursing home and it is pretty messy involving GI's , betrayal by her sister , revenge and babies appearing where they shouldn't .
I liked the way the simple excitement of new jobs , new romances , uncertainty and living on the edge that started with the war gave way to the reality of rationing , sudden death , affairs suddenly cut short and a longing for calmness and stability .
Gloria is a laugh a minute until it all goes wrong and the hints of madness and instability filter through her memories as the past is dragged up reluctantly by a well meaning family . She likes telling jokes mostly whistling in the dark . it is a case of laughter at breakfast tears before bedtime . But Gloria is a hard egg and despite her tragic life she never varies in her cynical and disdainful outlook even to a cruel heartless effect . She needs someone to rescue her from herelf .
I loved the war detail although the nursing home and modern scenes are deadly and depressing .
Would make a great film in the right hands .
September 12, 2014
I loved this book. It was very simply written and full of truth about the human condition. None of them were very explicit but they did not need to be. We are all human, we understand. Gloria was just an ordinary girl with the hopes and dreams of many young girls. Yes, she was shallow, a bit common and not very bright, but my heart was breaking for her as it was obvious what the sister was up to. The book made me think about what it was like for our parents in the war. I know my dad's hopes and dreams were shattered because he lost an arm at Nijmegen, but those left behind must have had their lives dramatically changed as well. Like my dad, Gloria made the best of things and managed to have a reasonable life, but one thing that struck me was that everyone in this book experienced loss and unhappiness, even those who came later. I read this book in one great gulp, I thought it was a really good read.
January 16, 2013
A very enjoyable and heart warming read. Gloria is a feisty and sometimes foul mouthed old lady who loves her son and dislikes his wife. After a stroke she finds herself in a care home where her mind wanders occasionally and she struggles to remember the past - or does she?
This story takes us into Gloria's colourful past and back to the present where some startling facts are about to come to light.
Gloria is a fabulous character, full of life and colour but she has her sadnesses. Loves a good joke, not to old for a bit of flirting, says what's on her mind but somewhere deep inside is hidden a deep, dark secret that will shock but make you feel much sympathy for Gloria.
I love Liz Jensen's writing as it makes the story and Gloria in particular very realistic and easy to picture. Full of dark humour and the grittiness of life, this book will enthrall and entertain.
This story takes us into Gloria's colourful past and back to the present where some startling facts are about to come to light.
Gloria is a fabulous character, full of life and colour but she has her sadnesses. Loves a good joke, not to old for a bit of flirting, says what's on her mind but somewhere deep inside is hidden a deep, dark secret that will shock but make you feel much sympathy for Gloria.
I love Liz Jensen's writing as it makes the story and Gloria in particular very realistic and easy to picture. Full of dark humour and the grittiness of life, this book will enthrall and entertain.
July 17, 2010
An old lady suffering from senility in a care home has the secrets of her past coaxed out of her.
This novel is good at evoking war time England, and kudos should be given for having more bawdiness than one normally expects from a book set in that period, but in the end I just felt – so what? The actual revelations are easy to spot and all seem a slender basis for even a short novel of 225 pages. There are lot of chapters here where nothing much happens at all.
When it enjoys its inevitable Radio 4 production as ‘Play of the Day’, it will probably be a painless way to waste ninety minutes, but in its current form it’s far from a compulsive read.
This novel is good at evoking war time England, and kudos should be given for having more bawdiness than one normally expects from a book set in that period, but in the end I just felt – so what? The actual revelations are easy to spot and all seem a slender basis for even a short novel of 225 pages. There are lot of chapters here where nothing much happens at all.
When it enjoys its inevitable Radio 4 production as ‘Play of the Day’, it will probably be a painless way to waste ninety minutes, but in its current form it’s far from a compulsive read.
February 21, 2013
This is a very odd book. It's disjointed, but that's a deliberate choice by the author, who's chosen to write it from the perspective of an elderly woman with dementia. Gloria is in an old people's home and is facing pressure from others to reveal secrets about her past. Gloria, however, is having none of it. Feisty, foul-mouthed and forthright, she doesn't give up her secrets easily.
I did find the format wearing, without the usual indications of speech and no clarity on who's talking.
It's a quick read and an unusual narration, but I can't say that I'd recommend it to anyone.
I did find the format wearing, without the usual indications of speech and no clarity on who's talking.
It's a quick read and an unusual narration, but I can't say that I'd recommend it to anyone.
April 5, 2013
This was alright - readable, well-written and interesting - but I feel sure I'll forget it soon enough. I liked the gritty, grubby attitude of the main character, Gloria, but I also felt a lack of connection with her - maybe because she seemed to have a lack of connection herself with her own life. She talked about love for the GI who betrayed her and love for her son, but it just didn't convince. I don't think this was a story about love for a moment. Just a story about how life can be a bit shit sometimes and you just plough on through...
August 19, 2016
A wonderful telling of a young woman's life and experiences as remembered through the tangled mind of the now elderly, semi-dementia resident of a care home. The beauty of the storytelling is the voice of Gloria; a no holds barred, foul-mouthed septuagenarian, still with a healthy appetite for sex.
I loved how she was shown to have total disregard for anything that didn't suit her (a nightmare to be around, but funny to read.) Although this book is a humorous read, there is a lot of pathos too; life wasn't always good to Gloria. Full marks to Liz Jensen for a great read.
I loved how she was shown to have total disregard for anything that didn't suit her (a nightmare to be around, but funny to read.) Although this book is a humorous read, there is a lot of pathos too; life wasn't always good to Gloria. Full marks to Liz Jensen for a great read.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews