Customer Reviews

2 reviews

• Anurag vikram

  This book takes you deep into adolescent tendency and her reaction to the circumstances around her that haunts her frequently, the debauchery of her dad...Truly engaging book from beginning to end!

• William A. Cutting (FRCPE, FRCPH, Retired Paediatrician)

  This is a book worth reading, very interesting in several ways and it has a message for society in the new millennium. First, it effectively describes aspects of life in post-war Glasgow in the middle of the 20th century that will be nostalgic for those who grew up in that period. It describes in moving detail the feelings of a range of characters, but in particular those of Jane, the teenager at the centre of the story. The author really gets into the hearts of different people, and we meet a variety of Glasgow folk.
  
  The story beautifully tells how Jane's immaturity and social isolation develop into pathological anxiety when her widowed father and her favourite teacher become attached. She could not see where or how she would fit in. Ultimately she turned to her little-known extended family for practical help. Jane's emotional situation is wonderfully contrasted in the last chapters with the boisterous family life of the McSporran Clan and her own cousins.
  
  Lifestyle and family structure has changed significantly in the last fifty years. "Millennial" teenagers may be less naive in these days of "social media" but they still have fragile emotions. Many must find it difficult to navigate within "complicated families", different Fathers and Mothers and varieties of step and half siblings. Many children today must suffer even more than Jane the severe stresses of not knowing how to relate to their "parents". This book can remind adults that their actions impinge on the fragility of teenage emotions even in the brash new patterns of "family".

Write a Review