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10th out of 11 books
—
4 voters
Union Street
by
Pat Barker
Vivid, bawdy and bitter' (The Times), Pat Barker's first novel shows the women of Union Street, young and old, meeting the harsh challeges of poverty and survival in a precarious world. There's Kelly, at eleven, neglected and independent, dealing with a squalid rape; Dinah, knocking on sixty and still on the game; Joanne, not yet twenty, not yet married, and already pregna...more
Paperback, 265 pages
Published
1982
by Virago Press (UK)
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Aug 02, 2011
Jo
added it
this was pat barker's first novel and it shows that her writing talent has always been consistent! she conjures up union street through the cleverly interweaving stories of 7 women who live there, each one stands alone as an excellent short story in its own right and they provide a chronology of womanhood, starting with 11 yr old Kelly and going through first pregnancy, third birth, marital problems, issues of sex and money including poverty, rape, prostitution and abortion, until the elderly Al...more
I wasn't expecting this book. Written in 1982 it is perhaps one of the most modern of the Virago modern classics, and completely different in tone and in subject from the rest.
This book is about the residents of Union Street. Seven interlinked stories about seven residents of the working class street located near a cake factory, a railway, an engineering works and a river. I can't say when the book is set, but nowhere is there mention of a television, or radio. No-one owns a car, and baths are m...more
This book is about the residents of Union Street. Seven interlinked stories about seven residents of the working class street located near a cake factory, a railway, an engineering works and a river. I can't say when the book is set, but nowhere is there mention of a television, or radio. No-one owns a car, and baths are m...more
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Aug 08, 2012
Joyce
added it
Union Street is absolute gold. Wikipedia says that Pat Barker shopped this novel around to publishers for 10 years and was rejected by all until she finally sent it to Virago Press who knew the value of an honest book about women. I think the other publishers rejected it because the women and girls in these inter connected stories don't act the way publishers assume we want them to act. A case in point is Iris, who I guess is the character on whom the movie Stanley and Iris is based, but very lo...more
One of my all time favourites read and re-read. Very gritty and extremely atmospheric, it stays in the mind a long time. The themes are very adult and the depiction of hard, working class characters in a deprived industrial area leaves nothing to the imagination. Elements of the story are very disturbing but addressed in a way as to be thought evoking. The 'Union Street' of the title may be the North East (Teesside I guess, around 1972) but this is no Catherine Cookson.
I understand this is Pat...more
I understand this is Pat...more
This is a fantastic book: gritty but sensitive, alarming but also oddly familiar. Organised into seven chapters, each of which deals with a snapshot of the life of a different woman who lives in Union Street (set in the Industrial North East), Pat Barker's book gives a detailed, poignant account of each their struggles. Generally it is quite a depressing read, and some of the scenes describing sexual or physical violence, though brief, can be harrowing: however I could not put this book down as...more
I first read Pat Barker's Regeneration Trilogy, the third book, The Ghost Road, won the Mann Booker Prize. Her descriptions of war should be required reading at the military academies, and for the populous at large. Union Street is her first novel and it is magnificent. It is the story of working class women living on a particular street in industrial England in the 70s. The circumstances and the dialog capture the pain of being just above the lowest of the low. The novel is dark but does offer...more
This was like Dubliners, if Dubliners was written in the 1980s about English women living in poverty in the 1970s, and it didn't suck.
Ahaha, Joyce fans, shoot me now. But there's no love lost between me and James Joyce.
Moving on... it was very interesting structurally. The writing was peppered with some colloquial syntax/diction, but not so much that it overpowered the story - it wasn't like trying to read Trainspotting (which I had to read out loud to myself). But the structure - it told the s...more
Ahaha, Joyce fans, shoot me now. But there's no love lost between me and James Joyce.
Moving on... it was very interesting structurally. The writing was peppered with some colloquial syntax/diction, but not so much that it overpowered the story - it wasn't like trying to read Trainspotting (which I had to read out loud to myself). But the structure - it told the s...more
Another one for book group. Unrelentingly bleak, bit too obviously feminist and now quite dated but I quite enjoyed reading it and was glad to read one of Pat Barker's non-First World War books. Not recommended for light or lovely reading but worth it if you're in the mood for something 80s and gritty!
A book club choice I would not normally choose this type of book to read.
Each chapter introduced a different character from the street and their story. It all felt a bit stage managed and just a little bit outdated, but I suppose it was written in 1974.
Each chapter introduced a different character from the street and their story. It all felt a bit stage managed and just a little bit outdated, but I suppose it was written in 1974.
A well written gritty book telling the story of 7 women who all live in poverty in the same street in the 1970. Each has their own tale to tell starting with a young girl who is brutally raped, each character getting older each time and ending with the sad decline and death of Old Alice, whose impending death and fear of going into a home drives her to take matters into her own hands.
A great read!
A great read!
A very gritty novel with a different woman in the same street telling her story in each chaptor. Fairly bleak and of its time, the story comes full circle in a well-written female perspective on a harsh world.
Jul 14, 2007
Tony
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
If you like Vera Drake movie or are interested in realities of life in C20th industrial England.
I first discovered the works of Pat Barker when reading her Regeneration trilogy which dealt with the difficulties of troops in WW1 suffering from the then unknown problem of shell-shock.
This book is set sometime in the 1950s/60s (I think, it may even be the early 70's) and deals with the harsh realities of surviving in a grim industrial city in the North East of England. It focuses mostly on the women and how they survive and function, keeping both themselves and their families going through on...more
This book is set sometime in the 1950s/60s (I think, it may even be the early 70's) and deals with the harsh realities of surviving in a grim industrial city in the North East of England. It focuses mostly on the women and how they survive and function, keeping both themselves and their families going through on...more
It's grim up north. Certainly for the characters in this set of loosley-linked short stories depicting the 7 ages of woman set in the 1960s (it's certainly pre-1971 and the strike threat and television place later than the 1950s). Brilliant!
The Regeneration trilogy is one of my all time favorites so it was great to read her first book. Not exactly a barrel of laughs, but achingly realistic and very sad.
i first read this collection of short stories in high school and i've been obsessed with them ever since. found a used copy in a secondhand bookstore on charing cross road. came home practically bouncing up and down. it was just as i remembered - incredible, beautifully written stories about hard women in hard circumstances. the first story is just gorgeous. pat barker is an amazing writer. and it's astounding to read these stories after living in england and really learning the difference betwe...more
The lives of several women in the early-mid twentieth century. Captures the spirit accurately.
A book about women who live on the same street and their everyday life.
Bleak and a little dated, but a compelling read.
Loved it! Super-bleak, my kind of book.
Movie - Stanley and Iris
I could not put this book down. The tales of the neighbours in a British working class street, were harrowing at times. Brutal and honest. A must read.
This was an interesting book. Each chapter dealing with a different girl or woman, all living on the same working-class, northern street in the 1970s. They lead lives of deprivation, hardship, poverty, abuse but are shown to be strong despite it all, keeping their families together and providing for them. Many passages of the novel make upsetting and uncomfortable reading. In a different vein to the author's other novels but very realistic and effective.
Bit like watching an episode of Coronation Street.
Powerful, compelling, heartbreaking. Overused words maybe, but trying to do justice to this book is difficult. At times I found this book hard to read because it was so raw and because you just know that women are still living lives like this. The characters are beautifully drawn, grabbing you off the page, and the circular nature of the book was understated yet satisfying. Highly recommended.
I bought this book at the legendary Powell's Book Store in Portland in 2003. Just now read it and loved it. Stories of the very difficult lives of several different women living in poverty and trying to make ends meet and dreaming of raising their standard of living. Not a book to read when you want to feel light and happy! I would like to read more of Barker's books.
I never would have known about this book if I hadn't had to read if for a class my sophomore year of college. It is a book I revisit and re-read often and it still gets to me every time. I might not have liked it as much if we hadn't had wonderful conversations in that class and if I hadn't devoted so much time to writing my final exam paper on it...
Takes a look at the lives of six working-class women, young and old, living on one street in the north-east, probably during the early 1970s. Bleak but not without humour, and both the writing and characterisation are strong.
This is a collection of tales about a group of storng working class women in England. It's dark and gritty and there is a certain amount of depair you feel while reading it but it's really good.
started off a little weird, but got really really good. real life, one of my favorite favorite authors
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Pat Barker was born in Thornaby-on-Tees in 1943. She was educated at the London School of Economics and has been a teacher of history and politics.
Her books include the highly acclaimed Regeneration trilogy Regeneration ; The Eye in the Door , winner of the Guardian Fiction Prize; and The Ghost Road , winner of the Booker Prize; as well as seven other novels. Pat Barker is married and lives in Du...more
More about Pat Barker...
Her books include the highly acclaimed Regeneration trilogy Regeneration ; The Eye in the Door , winner of the Guardian Fiction Prize; and The Ghost Road , winner of the Booker Prize; as well as seven other novels. Pat Barker is married and lives in Du...more
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