{"product_id":"working-mother-book-agnes-owens-9781968671372","title":"A Working Mother","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e“A hidden treasure of Scottish literature, read this and then read all her other works.” —Douglas Stuart\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e\n\n\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA mordant, cautionary tale about a working-class woman hemmed in on all sides, written by “the most unfairly neglected of all Scottish authors” (Alasdair Gray, author of \u003ci\u003ePoor Things\u003c\/i\u003e).\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003e“I’ve got a job,” I told Adam.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003e\n\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003e“Good for you. I can now relinquish all responsibility for this household then?”\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003e“And I can save up for a divorce.”\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003ci\u003e“So, let’s celebrate,” said Adam.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eDiscovered by three of Scotland’s most celebrated writers, Alasdair Gray, James Kelman, and Liz Lochhead, when they were visiting a local writers’ workshop in the late 1970s, Agnes Owens—then in her 50s—claimed she’d joined the group just to “get out of the house.” She had grown up in a working-class family outside Glasgow, done badly at school, and had worked in factories, as a cleaner, and as an occasional typist. When she published her highly acclaimed first novel at the age of 58, it launched a most unexpected literary career.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eNowhere is Owens’s black humor and attention to the surreal banalities and frustrations of ordinary existence better showcased than in her third novel, \u003ci\u003eA Working Mother\u003c\/i\u003e. Our beleaguered heroine is Betty, beset by her depressed, alcoholic war-vet husband Adam and their smart-mouthed kids. Neither an affair with Adam’s attractive friend Brendan (a disappointment), nor her new job as a typist (for a leerer with roving hands) can lift her out of the rut. Is it any wonder she’s taken to the bottle now too?\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eAs Megan Nolan writes in the foreword to this new edition, in a “shrewd and ironic style” that is all Owens’s own, A Working Mother proves that “any given life rewards intelligent attention when it is as fine and as funny and incandescent as hers.”\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ BOOKAZINE","offer_id":54604415074577,"sku":"NBZ9781968671372","price":17.59,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":54719323734289,"sku":"NIN9781968671372","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781968671372.jpg?v=1788947177","url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/products\/working-mother-book-agnes-owens-9781968671372","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}