Review: London Road: Linked Stories
London Road is a collection of shorts all tried to the inhabitants of a boarding house in London. The collection starts and ends with Janice, a woman newly released from prison after serving five years for the murder (in self-defense) of her husband. On a recommendation of a friend who was released two weeks prior, Janice arrives at a boarding house... And so the collection begins.
The individual stories are short but give an intimate view into the lives of the women who live there. Starting with Janice's quest for self-worth, we are then taken into the mind of a young girl on parole, one lift from jail, before watching a woman deal with an uncertain relationship, a child with her own need to be wanted, and then an older woman dealing with her feelings of rejection in a mind plagued by inner-demons.
All of these stories are relatable, and the added touch of subtle British colloquialisms give it a feeling that problems are international, at least from a reader on the American side of the pond. The darkness is there, but with hope threaded through, making these enjoyable and thought-provoking.
The one negative that I really have to say about this book is that the narrative is sometimes a little confusing. Each chapter/story if told about a different person, and yet sometimes it's told in first-person narrative and sometimes in third-person. This is a little disconcerting. I would have also enjoyed a longer book, but as the actual events take place over one day I can understand why it is so short.
I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.
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