Liza’s England by Pat Barker is a study of the twentieth century in the industrial North of England told through the life of Liza. Liza was born at the dawn of the century and now, in the 1980s, she is old, tired and ill. She lives in a house which is condemned and in an area which is being cleared for rebuilding. Social Worker Stephen visits her regularly with a mission to help her move voluntarily before she is forced into a care home. In the course of his visits Stephen learns about Liza’s life.
This is a sad book and often a hard one to read. Liza doesn’t have it easy from her childhood onwards. She finds herself forced into a life and a marriage which she may not have chosen for herself but which seems like the only option. She fights poverty and domestic violence, and lives with the results of two world wars.
Stephen is gay and idealistic. Liza opens his eyes to how people have lived in the past and to the fact that he has more options than Liza ever had. He also works with troubled teenagers and through that work we realise that there are different problems in this world but that for many who are vulnerable or marginalised things are maybe no better.
The author recognises the strength of women who have kept families together and managed to cope, even when faced with problems mainly caused by men, and also about the solidarity of the working poor but she is clear about how poverty brings suffering and that people need to make the best of what they are given in this world.
These are themes that this author has visited before (see my review of a previous book here) and she explores them well in this reasonably short novel. I thought that this book was interesting and thought provoking.
Anne Is Reading 