Foxash
1934. Worn down by poverty, Lettie Radley arrives in Foxash, Essex, to join her out-of-work miner husband, Tommy. Their new smallholding may well be the ‘fairy-tale home’ the (Land Settlement) Association promised, but she has trouble accepting the new neighbours, Jean and Adam Dell. A farmer’s life is hard to adapt to, for city folks. Lettie relies on Jean for advice yet resents it and feels humiliated.
The characters have distinct personalities right from page one. The friendship between Lettie and Jean is multi-layered and interesting, and there’s more to it than meets the eye. Lettie has secrets, but so does Jean. The two women collide over what they each want more than anything.
It is narrated from Lettie’s point of view, in first-person present tense. The initial backstory is told in past-perfect tense, which I find awkward, with some cryptic references to ‘our own rottenness’ and ‘what I’d done’ (we find out what on p.125). We finally get a hint as to why Lettie is shy of the Association taking photos of them. Strangers come knocking at the gate, threatening the delicate balance of the two couples’ lives.
The details of Lettie’s farmer’s-wife lifestyle are often tedious, but they speak to her hardships, her determination to thrive amid diversity, and her diligence and hard work. So much detail is given about the everyday things, but the unordinary things are left unsaid. Eventually, enough is said that we do guess. The outcome of this quadrangle relationship Lettie/Tommy/Jean/Adam will amaze you.
I loved the metaphors comparing Lettie’s pregnancy with the growing of vegetables. The descriptions of pregnancy and childbirth are the best and most heart-breaking I’ve ever read.
