Florina Kendrick, Monica Bellucci, and Michaela Bercu behind the scenes of Dracula directed by Francis Ford Coppola, 1992
Year: 2009
Length: ~ 340 pages
Language: English
Written by: Fiona Shaw
Story: Lydia Weekes lives with her husband Robert and her son Charlie in a small British village during the 1950s. After her husband leaves her for another woman, she starts to befriend one of the village’s doctors, Jean Markham. The two women fall in love, but Robert tries to prevent that by taking Charlie away from Lydia.
Pros:
- Historical fiction: The book is set during the 1950s and deals with the topic of what it was like for women to be in love with each other. I’m a big fan of historical fiction, so I loved this book a lot. It’s not written with as much detail as Sarah Waters’ novels, but it gives you a good feeling of the time. Lydia, for example, works in a factory where she has to build radios because after WWII they became more and more popular.
- Class differences: The book also addresses the topic of class differences. Lydia is from the working class, albeit a wealthier part. Her father wanted her to marry a somewhat wealthy man who would be able to provide for her, but she married Robert instead. Jean is from the middle class. She was able to go to university and get a degree as a doctor, she lives in a big house, and even drives a car. When Jean offers Lydia the possibility to live with her and look after the house, Lydia is very unhappy because she is well aware that people will never see her as Jean’s partner, only her maid.
- The aesthetic: There is a lot to love about the book where the aesthetic is concerned. Jean lives in this big house, she keeps bees, she makes honey, she takes Lydia and Charlie to a small cottage at the sea side. Lydia cycles everywhere she goes and she loves to read. After finishing the book, you will want to move to a small cottage in the English countryside where you keep bees and maybe a cow in the garden. It just feels very comfortable.
Cons:
- The ending: The big finale of the book is about Robert taking Charlie away from Lydia after he finds out that she is in love with another woman. He doesn’t do this because he wants the best for Charlie but because he wants to hurt Lydia. There is nothing Lydia and Jean can do because although a relationship between two women wasn’t punishable by law – a relationship between two men was – they would still lose everything if Robert were to tell the public about their relationship. In the end, they are only saved because Robert’s niece needs a doctor after performing an abortion and Jean is the one who looks after her. This seems like the easy way out. Without the abortion, Lydia would have lost her son.
- Charlie’s point of view: About one fourth of the book is told from Charlie’s point of view, especially in the beginning. This makes it hard to get into the book, especially because he is a ten-year-old boy and his train of thought isn’t always easy to follow.
Homophobia: 3/10 – There isn’t a lot of homophobia in the book. Both Lydia and Jean wonder sometimes if what they are doing is wrong and they try to keep their relationship a secret, which is especially hard for Lydia. Robert’s sister also spreads rumours about the two, which causes Jean to lose a lot of patients. But when Robert takes Charlie away, he doesn’t do it because he’s homophobic but because he wants to hurt his ex-wife.
Violence: 0/10 – There is no physical violence against characters because of their sexual orientation.
Ending: Jean and Lydia get Charlie back and the three of them move to Italy to start a new life there. The last chapter is set 20 years later: Charlie comes back to the village to visit his father and tells him that Jean and Lydia are still a couple and still live happily in Italy.
Sexual orientation: Jean, most likely, is a lesbian. She was engaged to a man once, but she wasn’t in love with him or attracted to him, so she broke off the engagement. Until she meets Lydia and falls in love with her, she never considers that she could be attracted to women. She definitely isn’t interested in men though. Lydia is bisexual. She had a boyfriend before meeting Robert and she was also in love with Robert at the beginning of their marriage. She is attracted to men, but when she meets Jean, she also recognises her attraction to another woman. It is even Lydia who initiates their first kiss.
