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Bastards and Broken Things: Here creed or title held no place
A woman's struggle with abandonment, poverty and loneliness during the harsh 1950s in North Western Tasmania wrenched more from Iris than her self-esteem. Every day was a fresh battle for survival but she was a fighter, and when hippies and flower power emerged, she rose triumphant.
Iris was a chameleon, displaying her best side as a barmaid at the Central Hotel in Burnie. The patrons became her salvation, but could this community of eclectic locals save her from herself? Would a lifetime of bitterness cost her another child, and could she claw back all she had destroyed?
Iris was a chameleon, displaying her best side as a barmaid at the Central Hotel in Burnie. The patrons became her salvation, but could this community of eclectic locals save her from herself? Would a lifetime of bitterness cost her another child, and could she claw back all she had destroyed?
289 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 7, 2022
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March 5, 2024
‘‘Why are men such bastards?’ Iris set her mouth into a steely grim line.’
Set mostly in Burnie, Tasmania starting in the 1950s, this is Iris’s story. Abandoned, poor and lonely, Iris battled to survive. She was a fighter, but her focus on herself alienated almost everyone around her.
I was born in Burnie in the 1950s and bought this novel to try to visualise Burnie as it existed when I was a child. And there were plenty of echoes: mention of the Burnie Paper Mill (where my grandfather and other family members worked), mention of the pollution of South Burnie Beach and of the Titan factory turning the coastline red.
But I found Iris herself is impossible to like. Yes, she’s had it tough but the Iris who puts on such a lovely smile for the patrons at the Central Hotel is horrid to her daughter Beth. Iris conceived Beth, her third child, to keep her partner Neville from leaving but the plan did not work. Poor Beth.
But as Neville’s father Sid says:
‘I hate to say this Iris but for the first time I understand why Neville left you! You are a mean-spirited, and very hard woman with zero empathy for anyone and that is not attractive let me tell you!’ Sid stormed out the back door to pack his suitcase.’
While I disliked Iris intensely, I enjoyed the revisiting the Burnie of my childhood, felt sorry for Beth and liked Iris’s friend Shirley who looked out for Beth. I think that Ms Hewitt’s overuse of exclamation marks detracted from the story: there are other ways to convey emotional intensity where necessary.
I have known women like Iris (mostly more likeable) who have struggled hard to survive. I admire their tenacity, their toughness when confronted with difficult choices. Ms Hewitt captures some of these challenges in this novel and reminds the reader that women (especially single mothers) had far fewer options in the past.
If you want to revisit Burnie in the 1950s, as I did, you may find this novel worth considering.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
Set mostly in Burnie, Tasmania starting in the 1950s, this is Iris’s story. Abandoned, poor and lonely, Iris battled to survive. She was a fighter, but her focus on herself alienated almost everyone around her.
I was born in Burnie in the 1950s and bought this novel to try to visualise Burnie as it existed when I was a child. And there were plenty of echoes: mention of the Burnie Paper Mill (where my grandfather and other family members worked), mention of the pollution of South Burnie Beach and of the Titan factory turning the coastline red.
But I found Iris herself is impossible to like. Yes, she’s had it tough but the Iris who puts on such a lovely smile for the patrons at the Central Hotel is horrid to her daughter Beth. Iris conceived Beth, her third child, to keep her partner Neville from leaving but the plan did not work. Poor Beth.
But as Neville’s father Sid says:
‘I hate to say this Iris but for the first time I understand why Neville left you! You are a mean-spirited, and very hard woman with zero empathy for anyone and that is not attractive let me tell you!’ Sid stormed out the back door to pack his suitcase.’
While I disliked Iris intensely, I enjoyed the revisiting the Burnie of my childhood, felt sorry for Beth and liked Iris’s friend Shirley who looked out for Beth. I think that Ms Hewitt’s overuse of exclamation marks detracted from the story: there are other ways to convey emotional intensity where necessary.
I have known women like Iris (mostly more likeable) who have struggled hard to survive. I admire their tenacity, their toughness when confronted with difficult choices. Ms Hewitt captures some of these challenges in this novel and reminds the reader that women (especially single mothers) had far fewer options in the past.
If you want to revisit Burnie in the 1950s, as I did, you may find this novel worth considering.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
Displaying 1 of 1 review