Our Spoons Came from Woolworths

The main character in this book struggled so much with a husband who didn't want to find a job and didn't like having children. It was mostly a sad story, but there was always hope, and the main character never gave up on finding happiness.

While its no where even near the brilliance of Sisters By A River. Her first book. Its still an excellent little book. What interested me about this book is how bohemians never change. Even in 1930 they are living a precarious life. No money, no food but plenty of well...interesting friends. What also fascinated me was how accepted it was in the the 30's that men's life goals and needs were more important than women's. Kind of infuriating. And being responsible is optional. The shocking attitude to children is just as harrowing in this book. Its supposed to be fiction but I have no doubt Barbara Comyns plundered her first hand experience to write this tawdry descent into poverty. There could be no other way. And anyway, she had succeeded so will with just describing events and circumstances in Sister By A River. So a semi auto biographical take on love, marriage and children is just an extension. A quick look at the real circumstances of her life support my view that she writes pretty much how her life unfolded.

This novel tells the partly autobiographical story of the author's first marriage. She freely admits she was a silly young woman with more passion than sense when she married but that is perhaps the charm of her writing. Throughout it all she maintains a romantic view of life and the world despite the grim reality of having the gas cut off or barely being able to feed yourself and your child.The only better portrayal of poverty in literature that I can think of is the work of George Orwell but Orwell never had this romance and passion for life, this charming effervescence in the face of grim reality.The writing style reminds me of W. Somerset Maugham or perhaps Graham Greene. Plain English, well written without excessive flair. It is very easy to read and the pages just fly by.I had never heard of this author until now but after reading this I would happily read anything else she has written.

Torn between weird and ok. It is written in a narrative but comes across as personal diary. Main character is child like at times, annoying at times and seems to be very immature. Not sure if I found the book enjoyable or not.

at once the voice captivates the reader. and all the while the delivery is plain and simple, but the details of the narrative are odd and yet we are lulled into feeling all is well because the voice is so accepting of the circumstances, we are, too. eventually reality kicks in and one finds oneself taken aback by what has all transpired (or what has not). mesmerizing...? this is her second book i've read and i feel sort of addicted to the way she writes. part of me loves that and a part of me feels hypnotized (hence 4 stars instead of 5, because i can't shake the book when it is done. but really, wouldn't that merit 5 stars, then?) i am reminded of pym when i read her books.

I recently read about Comyns in the TLS weekly- her books are quirky, original- sometimes disturbing and other times hilarious!I’ve read about 5 of them and highly recommend her!

A bit of a drama of being young, married early, quite poor in London. Young love turns very bleak and tragic until life pauses to become ordinary for a time, more peaceful. Spring arrives with new hope and a handsome fellow.

The writing is original and superb, both.

Makes you realise that there is usually an upside amongst the undulations of life!Very good read though quite sombre

A book about poverty but a book of acceptance, innocence and hope. Delightful. Well worth a read.

There's something of a mystery about this book and its origins, because it reads like an autobiography with such wonderful detail - and in fact many of the events described mirror Barbara Comyns' life. It is, anyway, such a delightful book, with the personality and character of the author inscribed so indelibly on the page that it reads like a true story. Sophia Fairclough's life with her first husband Charles is mostly a disaster, not aided by the reaction to the marriage of Charles's parents. Charles is a painter, but not a very good one. He hardly ever sells anything and as long as he has his cigarettes and his painting materials he is blind to whatever else is going on around him. He carelessly eats whatever is in the house - once a cake Sophia was saving for their baby Sandor's first birthday. When funds are too low to support them He tries to persuade Sophia to send Sandor away to an orphanage, which she resists. Any money coming into the household is earned by Sophia, posing for various artists, one of whom seduces her with disastrous consequences. Sophia loves animals - even a newt she keeps in a bowl, and later, when she has freed herself from Charles and obtained a housekeeper's job, a fox cub found in the garden of her employer. There are several deaths, including her second child, and the wife of her employer but these are not dwelt on. The description of the birth of Sandor is remarkable for the brutality with which women had to deal in those days - though dates are not mentioned, it feels like the 1920s, especially going by Ms Comyns' portrait with two dogs on the cover. This book has a wonderfully happy ending which I will leave readers to discover for themselves. Packed with incident and accident, very much a bohemian life, this book is an enchanting read.

Barbara Comyns is a new writer to me but I intend to seek out more of her work. If anyone doubts the value of the Welfare State, the Abortion Act, and the Sexual Discrimination Act, they would do well to read this book and to discover what life in the 1930s could be like for a naive young woman who is introduced to its realities the hard way. Comyns writes in a very distinctive first person voice that I've not encountered elsewhere and the detached, unadorned tone only serves to underline her heroine's vulnerability and to make her story more affecting. Yes, she is foolish and few assertive modern women would be likely to make the same mistakes, but it's hard not to be caught up in her problems and to be happy for her when they're resolved. This is an original piece of fiction that deserves to be better known.

Read this book after hearing how the author had been under recognised. A story that ambles along, though it’s funny in parts it’s also quite brutal and sad. Written in a quirky, conversational style that evokes well images of 1930’s Britain. Overall, not a book that I’ll remember.