Admirably Enjoyable, But Not in A Relaxing Way

A review on Pat Barker’s Union Street

‘… But even when he had succeeded in forcing her hand to close around the smelly purple toadstool, it wasn’t enough. He forced her down and spread himself over her, his breath smelling strongly of peppermint and decay. At first her tight skin resisted him, and he swore at her until he found the way in...’

Terrified, shocked and swept. Nobody would ever forget those lines when Kelly Brown, the first character introduced by Pat Barker in this novel, is being occupied by the man. Terrified, yes, for Barker described the episodes with a smooth, terrifying and emotionally-throbbing plot with a very descriptive language that suck our mind into it. Shocked, certainly, for she had successfully managed to create a nice flowing story where we keep questioning about Kelly’s mind and her next fate, which make us decide to keep on following that little girl wherever she go in order to peek right into every single action that she did, and guessing on what would probably happen to her. And yes, as we got the result, still we got that striking shocking sensation for Barker had managed to frame and play with that cliché episode carefully so it doesn’t come out to be cliché at all. And for sure yes we got swept, for the author had made our mind so engaged with the character that we even beg and wish unconsciously when it has come to the line when we finally made our guess that yes, that man is going to rape her, that no, we wish so bad that it is not happening. We wished as if we were Kelly, as if we were thinking as she did, and feel the same fear as she was.

Probably those descriptions might sound a little bit too exaggerated. There’s no way a writer could create such superb sensation, well at least not on her FIRST NOVEL, right? And by the way, what the hell is this about anyway? She called it a novel but she had made it as if it is a collection of short story with titled the main character’s name each. Is it because she hadn’t been able to develop a full and long story just like a novel supposed to be so she decided to divided into several shorter stories describing each character’s life? And who’s the main character of this novel anyway? If she decided to tell every single inches of each character’s life, then which one did she meant to be the bold one just like a main character supposed to be?

Questions, questions, questions. And yes, to be able to answer those you definitely need to read this book. It’s a fun searching though, you will find yourself enjoy your trip on searching for the answer of those questions, but probably it is not enjoyable as in relaxing and cheering kind of way, for this novel is deep, almost depressing.

It is a novel which tells a story about a street, called Union Street, where people from working class lived and died. There are people living in that street, and each character has their own stories, their own suffers, their own masks, and yet their own happiness, or escapes. And as you read the story one by one, character per character, yes you’ll get the sensation of being terrified, shocked and swept at once for these stories are alive and stayed in our minds even after we finish reading it. Just like we won’t forget Kelly’s pain and anger, we will feel Joanne Wilson’s fear and dilemmas, Lisa Goddard’s burden, Muriel Scaife’s sorrow, and so on and so on. Barker uses a very strong and descriptive language, as well as a nice flowing yet hard-to-predict plot which really contributes in her success in creating such sense. She zooms up close to a significant or emblematic detail to magnify the scene for the reader. Depending on the detail she chooses, the effect can be vivid, moving, shocking.

Furthermore you’ll see then, that Union Street is not a collection of short stories, each story of each character are united by a thin red line, the street, the fact that they live in the same street allocated for the working class people, Union Street. This fact shows that even though they carve up different problems and tales, they share one similarity; they are living poorly and are all working-class women, who try to survive. Barker’s trying to picture this condition of working-class life, and she chose women as the characters that she wants to explore and emphasize to portrait their struggle towards the disheartening situations.

And in this novel, every character is the main character, for she believed that every eye has it own vision and every heart has its own beats. The women in this novel are the main character of their own life, and every single inch of their life is meaningful and poignant. All of their stories contribute and strengthen the same idea, that life is a battle for the survivor.

So if you’re looking for a fluffy lovey fairy tale with lots of beautiful dreams and sweet tingling sensations, here’s a suggestion; find another book, for this is the kind of book that will always pat in you in the head in every single line you read to remind you the reality of the life. If you the kind of person who reads for fun to escape from your already tough daily stressful work, you won’t find this book relaxing. Well, probably not at all scenes, there is still a humorous section with a bit of sexual content in Blonde Dinah’s chapter, you can skip the entire chapter and read that one. It is still quite depressing and touching in a way to find out or to guess her real miserable life or feeling, but there’s still the funny sexual content, you might enjoy that. But yes, if you’re looking for a good book with an admirable exploration on languages which carry your emotion deeply and keep your feet on the ground, you will definitely enjoy this one.