Pieces of Molly by Judith Gurney
Pieces of Molly is a memoir with a difference. Told in the first and third person, it offers a perspective on the self not often found in autobiographies. Molly can be seen as 'everychild' - the author and the reader too - showing the everyday pains and difficulties encountered in all our lives. Molly's journey starts as everyone's does, in the womb. In most memoirs the first ten years are swiftly passed over, but here Judith shows us development from conception onwards as Molly begins to grow up in a tiny village on the east coast of England, which we see through her eyes; the eyes of a child born at the end of the Second World War. Pieces of Molly is a map of one small girl's mind, as the barely subdued ordinary terrors of childhood lurk around her world, a girl surrounded by the vibrant life of a working farm at a time when rapid developments are forcing that world to change. Molly is a curious little detective, keen to find out more about life and love. For her, the shadows behind the doors only make sense in hindsight, and buried family secrets come to light as she struggles with the problem of how and who to be in the world. Judith Gurney's unusual approach offers a multi-faceted piecing together of a life in which she acknowledges the unreliability of memory, and examines how we recreate ourselves to fit in with others' hopes and desires as well as our own. Pieces of Molly is a compelling story about the boundaries between memory and imagination, hope and illusion, as we construct our identities.
'A subtle and allusive picture of an uneasy childhood, a troublesome mother, and a rural England that has long since vanished' -- Al Alvarez 'Written with lovely clarity' -- Ian Jack 'The writing is sublime and the observation astonishingly rich, Heaney-esque evenI hope it will be submitted for literary awards.' -- Richard Meier winner of Picador's Poetry Award 2010 'I've just finished 'Pieces of Molly', and have read it with great enjoyment and admiration. It's so well written, not just at the level of the sentences, but in the way the perspective shifts. It's constantly engaging. It's also very evocative for me. Having grown up in the same period, though in a different setting (London suburbs), so much of what she describes is familiar - both the world of things, and the way relationships were handled (by silence). It really ought to have a mainstream publisher, so that it gets a higher profile.' -- Carole Satyamurti
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781780881232 |
| ISBN 10 | 1780881231 |
| Title | Pieces of Molly |
| Author | Judith Gurney |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Troubador Publishing |
| Year published | 2012-02-16 |
| Number of pages | 224 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |