Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
What we're reading

Find your new favourite book or recommend one on our Book forum.

Original poster

L Shaped room, a riveting read! Unwed and pregnant in a hovel!

59 replies

Sarahbee3 · 08/05/2010 20:24

I am reading this for my book club and loving it- sounded boring but she meets great unexpected people and has to deal with an old fashion dad who boots her out of the house (Mum's dead). Can't put it down!

OP posts:
New posts on this thread. Refresh page
WhatSheSaid · 18/06/2010 08:22

Ooh, like The Millstone too and various other 1960's Margaret Drabbles, more so than her later ones. Lol at being nudged towards that and L-Shaped Room, was someone trying to prevent you having an unwanted pregnancy?

Spacehoppa · 18/06/2010 08:18

I got this nudged towards me and 'The millstone' as a teenager . All in all its a miracle I ever had kids. Hark! it awakes....

Oumasrusks · 18/06/2010 08:06

I'm about 3/4 of the way throught this book and I cannot put it down. It's fantastic and has shot up to the top of the list of books I've read this year.

MissM · 14/06/2010 08:44

I heard the programme by accident - had to sit in the car outside the house until it finished! What a cool lady. Very old school, very astute and funny. And she was very honest and intelligent about the way she wrote about race in the book. She is still my absolute hero.

bluejeans · 09/06/2010 22:33

Thanks WSS Glad to hear LRB is alive and well! I've never downloaded a podcast before - determined to make this my first

WhatSheSaid · 07/06/2010 22:58

Just bumping this as I was just downloading some podcasts from Radio 4 and I noticed there is a programme with LRB discussing The L-Shaped Room on there. The link to the podcast is here - www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/openbook , I haven't listened to it yet but have never heard an interview with her so am keen to.

elkiedee · 01/06/2010 11:19

I read one of her adult novels from the library, Fair Exchange, a few years ago. I have a children's one which is a sort of sequel to the one about the 6 day war, called Burning Bright. I have to say I'm not quite comfortable with her Israel books - this has always been quite a hot issue in my family (Israel and Palestine not LRB)

FlowerPotWeed · 28/05/2010 20:48

Read this at 17. It was so good that it's still on my book shelf (lots of years later) and didn't go to the charity shop. Thanks for the reminder - it's now on my summer 'read list'!

belgo · 28/05/2010 20:34

and also the misogyny - the shocking way the doctor speaks to her and she loses her job when her employer finds out she is pregnant.

belgo · 28/05/2010 20:32

Effjay my mum also gave this to me to read when I was about 16/17, and I have re read it in the last year and it is still so relevant.

I did notice the casual racism a lot more when I read it this year.

bluejeans · 28/05/2010 20:30

Effjay, 'My Darling Villain' was bought for me by my mum too, when I read it first time round! (about 25 yrs ago).

Effjay · 28/05/2010 19:49

My Mum gave me this to read when I was 16 and it really opened my eyes (I had quite a sheltered childhood in a small Scottish village). It made me think differently about my future and how it may not all fall into place as you hope. Utterly brilliant.

bluejeans · 28/05/2010 19:41

Thanks for the info on 'children at the gate', sounds like my kind of thing!

The other two LRB books I've bought recently I got second hand for 1p (+£2.75 p&p!) from Amazon market place as I think they're out of print, will do same for this one

Lucifera · 26/05/2010 14:11

Elliemental, please let me know what you think of Children at the Gate. Is it still in print??

elliemental · 26/05/2010 11:47

going off to spend a book token on the children at at the gate, thanks! I adored the L-shaped room trilogy as a teenager too. Was half in love with Toby myself!

skybright · 26/05/2010 11:43

One to add the the list.

chesgirlNOTgriffins · 26/05/2010 11:40

Blimey now it comes back to me! What a crap memory I have.

Lucifera · 26/05/2010 08:47

Children at the Gate - the narrator is a Canadian woman who has moved to Israel following a personal tragedy (don't want to spoil story). She's very depressed, on her own, in a mess; she's befriended by an Arab man who persuades her to informally adopt two children. It's so well-written, a real page-turner and heart-rending!

chesgirlNOTgriffins · 25/05/2010 19:49

I have read it. I only have a vague recollection I am afraid but its set in Isreal on a Kibbutz isnt it?

I have it in the loft somewhere. I really should read it again.

bluejeans · 25/05/2010 18:18

Lucifera, what is Children At the Gete about? Can't find any reviews online. Thanks

Lucifera · 25/05/2010 14:54

Has anyone read Children at the Gate? That is my favourite by LRB, have read several times.

AbricotsSecs · 24/05/2010 22:31

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

bluejeans · 24/05/2010 22:29

Just finished re-reading 'My Darling Villain' - brilliant, brilliant book! Are any other LRB books good, apart from the L-shaped Room and its sequels, and The Writing on the Wall? A quick look on Amazon shows that her books are quite varied...

Lulumaam · 16/05/2010 16:48

ah i loved it !! read it millions of years ago.. thikn iwill get it out of the library and re read

BreevandercampLGJ · 16/05/2010 16:47

Fantastic book, read it thirty three years ago last week.

Welllllllllll it feels like last week.

Swipe left for the next trending thread