Poor Cow

by Nell Dunn

First published in 1967, this novel tells the story of Joy living amongst the shiftless poor in London. Her life is made tolerable by her love for her child. Nell Dunn is the author of Up the Junction which won the John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize, and the play and film Steaming".

Genres: Fiction, 20th Century, British Literature, Classics, London, Novels, English Literature

160 pages, Paperback

First published April 6, 1967

About the author

Nell Mary Dunn (born 9 June 1936) is an English playwright, screenwriter and author. She is known especially for a volume of short stories, Up the Junction, and a novel, Poor Cow.

Reviews

[Steven Godin · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's no surprise that it was the king of British working class realism, Ken Loach, who ended up adapting this novel for film. It's a gritty slice-of-life narrative focusing on a young mother, Joy, who would not only see her husband go to jail, but also her new lover - whom she started seeing after her husband was sent to the slammer, so she ends up moving in again with her aunt, in another poor urban area of 60s London - dog-ends all over the floor; nappies hanging out to dry over railings; having to bathe in the kitchen sink, that sort of thing. Working as a barmaid and then a lingerie/nude model, Dunn follows the ups and downs, the hopes and dreams of Joy who, after her prison letters enter the novel, is quite clearly illiterate, yet through her rotten bad luck or simply bad decisions, she never plays the victim, is certainly streetwise, and does her best, in the circumstances, for little Jonny, her baby son. The characterization of Joy is done well; she is warm hearted, if a little too foul-mouthed, and is just crying out for someone to love her. What I liked about Dunn's characterization of Joy, was that she wasn't afraid to be completely open when it came to Joy's sexual desires - if she felt like being sexy or wanting sex, she would go out there and get it - and it's quite often. I mean, why not get all the pleasure you can whilst you can, as it might not get any better than this. Despite not being the brightest, she still had standards and a line she simply would not cross - basically, she never once prostituted herself. The novel is a bit rough around the edges, but I'd say I liked it more than I thought I would.

[Toby · Rating 4 out of 5]

'To think when I was a kid I planned to conquer the world and if anyone saw me now they'd say, "She's had a rough night, poor cow."'

From the opening chapters I was enamoured of Nell Dunn's classic of 60s working class London, so much about its portrait of a young under educated girl felt completely perfect and true, even still relevant today. The milieu represented and the forthright manner in which it is represented, complete with emphasis on particular dialects spoken make it an obvious companion to the work of the media created "Angry Young Men" group of "Bright Young Literary Things" of the period.

Joy is a mess of conflicting emotions, thoughts, actions and dreams, a memorable character who treads through the minefield of being female at this particular time in this particular place not with any skill but with a lot of honesty and heart BUT Dunn does tell the story with great skill and affection. Slipping from first person to third person and then in to transcribed letters to demonstrate her state of mind to great effect.

The dialect of the uneducated got more than a little frustrating after a while, especially the poor cow's attempts at writing to her lover and I found myself grateful that the novel was only 140 pages on more than one occasion, but this is a small detraction in what otherwise would be considered a perfect novel.

[Ilona · Rating 2 out of 5]

I kind of gave up on this after about 20 pages. Life's too short to finish a book you're not enjoying. The language and dialect pissed me off and I didn't feel any sympathy for the main characters, only a depressing sense of recognition. Blah.

[Branford Burgundy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good ol Joysy swings her own way! At the same time has very sweet moments with her little boy - - I like this one a lot. Upon seeing a Pepsi advert beckoning Joy to join the new generation, she responds - - 'Fuck that!'

[Troy Alexander · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would. It's a touching portrayal of a single mother, and her love for her young son, struggling to find stability in rough 1960's London. I wish the movie was available to watch.

[Emma · Rating 2 out of 5]

Overrated vignette, with occasional amusing lines and a sweet main character, this story fails to engage emotionally.

[Josephine (Jo) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a shocking but sadly realistic portrait of the life of some of the poorest and most deprived people living in the East End of London in the 1960s. Although women were officially "liberated" and had access to the contraceptive pill it was far from being a perfect world for women. In fact, it seems that although having the pill gave women so-called freedom to be sexually active that does not mean that there were no consequences for their more promiscuous lifestyles. As well as this most of the responsibility for contraception fell upon the woman and if she got into "trouble" then it was her own fault and the man could just say "I thought you were on the pill".
Although Joy is married to Tom he is a thief and spends most of his time in prison, Joy had to give birth to their son Johnny alone and when he was just a week old she had to walk home carrying him and start to be a single parent.
Joy is a dreamer, not a bad person just the victim of her circumstances and the poverty of being, to all intents and purposes, a single mother. She dreams of being loved by someone unconditionally of having her own home, a little cottage in the country with roses round the door. In fact, she ends up sharing a dirty, tiny flat with her Aunt Emm who is herself a lady who at the of fifty, goes out and picks up men both for pleasure and money.
Joy meets Dave, sadly another thief and for a while, she thinks she has found her dream man, they have a small flat, they smoke weed and make love, life is perfect, but then Dave is arrested again and sent to prison. Joy is once more a single mum and she finds it just too hard. She writes love letters to Dave assuring him of her love and faithfulness whilst going out and picking up men for money but she is also enjoying the life. The one constant in her life is her little boy, Johnny, to all intents and purposes she is a good mother, she will do absolutely anything to ensure that Johnny has what he needs, she plays with him and treats him with great tenderness. However, Joy is a loose cannon and with no one to temper her shambolic lifestyle she is in a downward spiral.
Most of the dialogue is written in a sort of Cockney accent and, especially when Joy is writing to Dave in prison it becomes rather irritating.
This is by no means a reflection on the life I remember in the 1960s, I was fortunate I suppose but by the same token, not all poor families living in Battersea turned to theft and prostitution to alleviate their grim circumstances.
If you are offended by bad language then this is a book that you should avoid.

[Stephen Curran · Rating 2 out of 5]

Flipping between first and third person narrative modes, sometimes switching tenses, with semi-literate epistolary passages and pages full of disconnected anecdotes from secondary characters, Poor Cow makes for a disjointed read.

As a 1960s slice of life it has some value - the Battersea it depicts is almost unrecognisable now and the dialect used by its inhabitants seems remote - but its repetitiveness makes reading it an unrewarding slog, even at only 136 pages.

[Sarah Curnow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this. A simple tale which belies the skill with which the author creates the atmosphere of London in the sixties. You occupy Joy's world as a young, single parent for the duration of this book and it's captivating.

[jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh, Joy 💔

[Claire Saunders-Proudlove · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the character of Joy and was invested in her battle to break out of the mundane and boring life of a 1960s housewife. However, the writing style was not for me:

1. Flittering constantly between first and third person narrative is confusing and rather annoying.
2. During dialogue passages, I found it hard to work out which character was speaking... in the end, I stopped caring and just read the words to get through the chapter.
3. The author has written Joy's letters to Dave in the character's style (i.e. poor spelling and grammar). I found these hard to read as I couldn't decipher some of the spelling, and I also noticed no consistently. Sometimes, she could spell certain words, and then in the next sentence, she couldn't.
4. Finding out the author is extremely upper class left a bitter taste in my mouth as it made me feel like the writing style was mocking Joy and the working class. I wish I hadn't known this whilst reading the book as it did impact my enjoyment.

[Silvia Devitofrancesco · Rating 3 out of 5]

Recensione in anteprima presente sul blog www.ragazzainrosso.wordpress.com
Joy, donna dall’aspetto piacevole, ha i capelli tinti di biondo e una finta coda di cavallo che le scende lungo la spalla. In giovane età ha sposato Tom, rapinatore professionista, dal quale ha avuto un figlio. Durante il periodo di detenzione del marito, Joy conosce Dave, anch’egli rapinatore, che ben presto finirà dritto in cella. Sola e senza un soldo, la donna prova a reinventarsi, ma purtroppo il suo destino è segnato.

“Non voglio restare con un pugno di mosche in mano. Devo avere qualcosa. Il piccolo Jonny. Voglio che lui abbia tutto. Voglio qualcuno che mi ami davvero, e che ami il piccolo Jonny. Ma questa cosa non è possibile, gli uomini sono senza cuore.”

Il romanzo fu pubblicato per la prima volta nel 1967, suscitando non poco scalpore.

L’opera è ambientata nella swinging London degli anni’60: la radio trasmetteva hits quali Stand by me e la società era estremamente contradditoria. Ricchi e poveri. Signori e disgraziati.

Joy appartiene a un mondo fatto di disagio e ristrettezze economiche. Vorrebbe cambiare, emanciparsi e s’impegna nel perseguire questi obbiettivi. Cura il proprio look, si trucca, indossa bei vestiti, trova lavoro prima come barista e poi come modella, vorrebbe studiare e imparare a guidare e sogna un futuro a colori per il suo figlioletto. Tuttavia la vita per lei ha in serbo ben altro. Joy comprende quanto ormai la sua esistenza sia segnata e la scarcerazione ne è la prova regina. Per quanto spregiudicata, Joy non è altro che una vittima. Vittima del suo tempo, della società e vittima del mondo maschile che la opprime fino a soffocarla. Tacere e subire è il suo destino.

L’autrice cura magistralmente la prosa di questo romanzo, la cui narrazione avviene attraverso due punti di vista: quello dell’autrice che fa da cornice agli eventi e quello della stessa Joy attraverso il flusso dei propri pensieri e le lettere che indirizza a Dave. Il lessico pertanto risente fortemente della caratterizzazione del personaggio: Joy non è una donna istruita e non ha la padronanza della lingua scritta, infatti nelle sue lettere sono presenti numerosi errori grammaticali, mentre nei pensieri riesce a esprimersi con frasi brevi e abbastanza corrette. Nel complesso, l’intero romanzo è caratterizzato da uno stile semplice e diretto, capace di trasmettere al lettore sentimenti quali il disagio e l’abbandono.

Personalmente, ho sofferto per la povera Joy e questo senso di malinconico malessere mi ha accompagnata fino all’ultima pagina del romanzo, quando non ho potuto fare altro che constatare la sconfitta della protagonista.

Un romanzo che strazia, graffia e fa riflettere. Una lettura intensa. Un doloroso affresco del mondo femminile.

[Busyknitter · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one from my niece`s bookshelves (she was kind enough to give up her room to me for the weekend; the least I can do is highlight that she owns a very respectable book collection for someone a few weeks short of her 18th birthday).

This is a short novel about a young working class woman called Joy, living in London in the mid sixties. It’s supposed to be a story portraying the big hearted, tolerant, grab-your-fun-while-you-can stereotype of the urban poor. But I found it depressing as Joy’s horizons are so limited.

Her life (with the exception of the care she gives to her baby son) has no real purpose, and Joy knows it. Her husband Tom is a thief, in and out of prison, selfish and occasionally violent.

She takes up with his mate, Dave and they enjoy a genuinely happy phase, setting up home and taking camping holidays. But Dave is also a thief and eventually gets banged up for twelve years.

So Joy is left to fend for herself, and slips into a life of giving sexual favours for gifts and sometimes money. I think this is supposed to portray a sexually liberated woman, but it doesn’t come across like that because Joy is continually unhappy.

Nell Dunn came from an upper class background; she and her husband chose to live in a Battersea council estate in the 60s (he wrote “Cathy Come Home”). So I expect the people and events described in “Poor Cow” are grounded in reality. But it’s still depressing.

[Natasha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know what I made of this book. It was...alright? I nearly gave up a few pages in because the writing style was a bit messy and confusing, but I stuck with it and kinda got really into it after about 10 pages...but then it got a bit annoying again. I know the letters that are written from the main character, Joy, to her boyfriend-type-thing in prison are supposed to show how poorly educated she is, but they were kinda unreadable, and it was just a lot of the same thing over and over again. I skimmed over a lot of it because it wasn't very interesting to read. And how Dunn jumps between third person and first person, that irritated me too at first (though I got used to it after a while). I didn't give up reading it but I was very excited to reach the end.

I did feel sorry for Joy though, she's a very believable character and has a lot more depth than she appears to. But the book was really pretty repetitive, just the same thing OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN. Then on the last couple of pages it gets pretty dramatic. And then it ends. A short, sweet read, if you want to read about working class life in '60s London. Not a majorly interesting book, though a couple of times I got hooked...then lost interest again. I'm not tempted to read anything else by Dunn.

[Claire · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the character of Joy, Nell Dunn creates a compelling young woman: a 1960s working class woman in London with her young son Jonny. Both Hoy’s husband and her lover have been imprisoned for theft, and now Joy dreams of her lover’s release while taking up modeling, working as a barmaid, dating many men, and raising her son. Joy’s voice is compelling, but the letters to her lover become monotonous and the novel’s lack of a plot means there’s nothing to drive it forward. It reads like more of a sketch than a novel.

[Eva · Rating 1 out of 5]

Depressing. Central character is stupid, ignorant, and feckless. Book wanders from first to third person apparently at random. The fragmented dialogue is realistic, which renders it grotesquely compelling.

[Marzia Lapadula · Rating 5 out of 5]

I chose this book for my thesis. I found it sad and funny at the same time, the language is full of shades, colours and reflections and quite modern in a sense, considering the East End of London. Extremely poor Italian translation. I would definitely advice it.

[Cat · Rating 5 out of 5]

evocative of a long-lost London - and shocking to think that it is only from 60 years ago!
despite the hard life - no indoor plumbing - it's bearable through the connections of family and neighbours.
Joy is a really vivid character, with authentic internal voice.

[Maureen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the subject matter, although it's a bit insubstantial.

[Steve Higgins · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gritty first class observational look at the life of a working class woman from London. Full on kitchen sink drama that tells it like it is.

[Bob Hilliar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Easy to see how this was turned into a film, there is so much natural dialogue.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excoriating and beautiful. Real lives, real people, real writing. Best thing I read in years.

[Monica · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this, by pure coincidence, immediately after I have finished The Artificial Silk Girl. Although written 30 years before, in Germany, there is very little difference between Joy and Doris (the character in the Artificial Silk Girl). Young working class women looking for some joy (author intended pun) in an otherwise drab and respectable life, making questionable choices, but realising that there must be something in it for women after all. Experimental in writing, and certainly not so shocking nowadays, and certainly not as feminist nowadays, there is enough here to appeal to the female readers, even if they would certainly be considered "old cows" by the young heroines of both these books. Certainly a portrait of its time, 1960s working class London. As such, I preferred 1930s working class Berlin. A 3.25.

[Kirsty · Rating 2 out of 5]

Up the Junction and Poor Cow, both better known works of Nell Dunn’s, have recently been republished by Virago. As there are many elements which the books have in common, and as both share the same author preface, rather than address them separately, I have decided to write about them both together. Nell Dunn’s introduction is like a story in itself, and tells of her life in Battersea from the late 1950s. It includes such details as, ‘There were still a lot bomb sites, and my two-year-old son would be taken by the big girls and boys to play King of the Castle on the mounds of building debris’, ‘The night of Princess Margaret’s wedding everyone got drunk’, and ‘I bought my first pair of tight white jeans off a rail in the market’. This introduction in a sense serves to ground the stories which follow it.

Up the Junction, first published in 1963, is made up of a series of short stories set in South London. It was awarded the John Llewelyn Rhys Memorial Prize, and has also been turned into a film. The tales in the collection are all heavily involved in the sense of a community and the mundanities of life in 1960s London. This is clear from the titles of the stories alone, which range from ‘Out With the Girls’ and ‘Out With the Boys’, to ‘Sunday Morning’ and ‘Wash Night’. The book’s blurb states that the stories ‘are unhibited, spirited vignettes of young women’s lives in South London in the sixties [where] money is scarce and enjoyment must be grabbed while it can’. To further set the scene, one supposes, all of these stories have been told by way of dialect heavy conversations between its characters – for example, ‘It’s me birthday tomorrer’ and ‘It’s better to marry an ugly man what’s got god ways than a good-looker what’s sly’. It is not often clear who is speaking, so in consequence, the reader learns next to nothing about any of the characters who fill its 130 odd pages.

Three protagonists are followed in Up the Junction, Sylvie, Ruby and Lily, all of whom work at a local sweet factory. The entirety of the book, on the surface of it, looks to be heavily involved with sexual politics, but as one reads on, the fixation upon aesthetics becomes clear. Each of the characters seems to place much emphasis upon their own appearances, interrupting even important conversations to ask if their hair looks nice, or if their new item of clothing suits them. Examples of this can be found in sentences such as this one: ‘[Pauline] was pretty in the dirty cafe; full ashtrays and dripping sauce bottles; sugar-bowls with brown clotted lumps in the white sugar’.

The stories are evocative of bygone times – there is lots of dancing, ‘snoggin”, institutionalised racism, National Health glasses, the pawning of furniture when money is tight, illegal abortions and the WVS. Stories take place in the factory where the protagonists work, the local pub, the Old Kent Road, and various dwellings around the area. Whilst interesting enough, these stories are relatively similar, and in consequence, nothing really stands out amongst them. Sadly, the majority also do not feel well-developed enough to have any lasting effect upon the reader. ‘Sunday Morning’, for instance, would have been far better with further explanation of the situation. The illustrations, drawn by Susan Benson, are randomly scattered through the pages and rarely match the writing which surrounds them. It does not feel as though there is much within Up the Junction which the modern reader will be able to identify with. The simplistic writing style also takes away any atmosphere which the stories could feasibly have had.

Poor Cow was first published in 1967, and was Dunn’s second work of fiction. Margaret Drabble, whose introduction to the story has been reprinted in the new edition, calls it ‘Touching, thoughtful and fresh… A tour de force’. In her introduction, Drabble states that after her move to London, Dunn ‘was soon to be writing of the lives of working-class women in a way that struck the same chords as the plays and novels of Sillitoe, Osborne and John Braine… Nell Dunn felt she had discovered a world where women did not depend on male patronage, where they went their own ways, sexually and financially, where there was plenty of work’.

The novella tells the story of Joy, ‘twenty-one, with bleached hair, high suede shoes, and a head full of dreams’. When the story opens, Joy is making her way down Fulham Broadway on her ‘slum-white legs’ with her new baby in tow, ‘his face brick red against his new white bonnet’. ‘Her life seems to be a catalogue of disasters, which follow naturally and inevitably from the first false step of letting herself get pregnant’, Drabble says. She adds that Joy’s husband, Tom, is a thief, ‘which translates her into a nice close-carpeted flat in Ruislip’. Neither Joy nor her husband are content with their lives: ‘He always wanted more out of his life than what he had’. When Tom is caught in a stolen car by the police, he is hauled in and sentenced to four years in prison: ‘… course he had only to do two years out of that you see… But I hadn’t even the heart to sell the furniture, I just walked out and went to live with my Auntie Emm’.

The story is told in a variety of narrative styles, which chop and change at whim. Joy’s own narrative voice is written in a similar dialect to that captured in Up the Junction: ‘Terrible when you ain’t got fuck all, you ain’t got nothing’. As with Up the Junction, it is not always clear here who is speaking. Poor Cow is not overly engaging, and the uncertain style of its writing and narrator let the story down somewhat.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️
For the love of god somebody get Joysy a damn dictionary !!

short & sweet look into the life of a 1960’s woman in London. Constantly wavering between the security of marriage and the freedom of being single.

[Laura Ash · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actually quite a good read. I was sceptical at first but I'm glad I stuck with it. Just sad to not know what happened between her and Dave in the end.

[Róisín Prendergast · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite unflinching, and initially I was unsure about it, but it's heartbreaking by the end. Really want to see the film now.

[Ashraf S · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short enjoyable read about a working class woman in 1960s London. Story is just her navigating through life as young single mother. Joy was a likeable protagonist but the story lacked substance. It never had a sense of direction or a clear structure. The switch between first and third person narrators was also jarring at times because I just felt the third person narrator was v unnecessary!

[Jerry (Libri in pantofole) · Rating 3 out of 5]

http://librinpantofole.blogspot.it/20...

La vita si riduce a questo, in realtà, una lunga sfilza di desideri che non si avverano mai, vero Jonny?
Quando nel 1967 Nell Dunn pubblicò Poor Cow, questo il titolo originale, il romanzo destò scandalo e scalpore. Le avventure o meglio le disavventure di Joy, giovane madre della working class londinese spiazzarono la borghesia benpensante. Joy è povera, ingenua, frivola ma ben decisa a perseguire la propria felicità, a trovare il proprio posto nel mondo. Rivendica un'indipendenza e una libertà, allora ancora sconosciute per una giovane donna. Nessuno può prendermi i miei sogni... se mi ci metto d'impegno. Se mi ci metto sul serio da qualche parte ci arrivo, non ti pare?

Certo c'è sempre qualcosa a frapporsi tra i sogni e la realtà: Tom, Dale, la prigione, le ristrettezze economiche. Eppure, Joy guarda avanti, decisa a dare al suo piccolo Jonny tutto quello che desidera, tutto quello che lei non ha mai avuto. E allora eccola cameriera in un pub, modella per discinte riviste da due soldi, un concentrato di emozioni, pensieri, azioni e progetti.
Del resto sono gli anni della Swinging London, dell'edonismo, della rivoluzione culturale e Joy "oscilla"nel vero senso della parola: sognavo un mucchio di cose... ma già di avere qualcosa, di essere qualcuno. Non voglio vivere sempre in bolletta...
Da una parte il desiderio di una bella casa, un cottage, un'auto, la vita "semplice" delle classi alte in cui puoi sempre cavartela, dall'altra l'indipendenza, l'autoaffermazione che si concretizza nella ribellione e nella libertà sessuale.

Il racconto procede alternando la terza alla prima persona, la voce del narratore onnisciente, e quella della giovane Joy avviluppata tra dubbi e desideri. Particolarmente interessanti sono le lettere che quest'ultima indirizza a Dale in prigione. Un concentrato di sgrammaticature e slang, la voce di quella working class londinese che ispirò anche Ken Loach nel suo adattamento cinematografico.
Certo, Joy è un personaggio magnificamente costruito ma forse a questa analisi delle sfaccettature, a questo fine studio psicologico non fa da contrappeso una forte tensione emotiva, insomma non sono riuscita a sentirmi coinvolta come avrei voluto!
A conquistarmi è stato invece l'affresco della Londra anni '60, Battersea, Chelsea, Fulham e le radio a transistor che trasmettevano i Beatles e le mode di un mondo in fermento: Joy camminava spavalda. «A volte, la musica, mi sembra di starci dentro... me la sento tutta intorno».

Ultima nota, la copertina. Ho apprezzato davvero molto la cover Sonzogno che occhieggia la famosa scena di Carol White e Terence Stamp nell'adattamento cinematografico firmato Ken Loach del 1967.