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Sto caricando le informazioni... Ridley Road (edizione 2015)di Jo Bloom (Autore)
Informazioni sull'operaRidley Road di Jo Bloom
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Iscriviti per consentire a LibraryThing di scoprire se ti piacerà questo libro. Attualmente non vi sono conversazioni su questo libro. Jo Bloom's first novel puts a fictional spin on a dark chapter of the swinging sixties - the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement and the riots between the group, formed by Colin Jordan, and Jewish demonstrators. Despite a lightweight 'chick lit' feel - young hairdresser Vivien Epstein uproots from Manchester to London after her father's death in search of a new life with her mysterious boyfriend Jack Fox, and instantly finds a safe home, good job, supportive friends and a devoted swain - the story is well-paced and, on the factual side, informative if slightly (but perhaps necessarily) clunky in places. Jack is one of the 'paid informers' that the anti-fascist 62 Group actually sent into the ranks of Jordan's ugly cabal, and the effects of keeping up a front are very believable. Stevie, the young lad who develops a crush on Vivien and pays the price for interfering, is less so. A quick but eye-opening read. ( ) When I first saw the cover of Ridley Road, I was hooked. I loved how the title looked like a street sign and the clearly 1960s photograph. So it sounded like a good choice to start my Audible membership with. Harriet Carmichael does a great job of narrating the story and she manages to make each character sound slightly different. The story, however, was a little jumpy for me. The content, covering the rise of fascist movement in London in 1960s, was great. I knew nothing about that period and I find that reading fiction based around actual events improves my knowledge greatly. But the story moves from being about Vivien, a hairdresser who moves to London after her father dies to look for a lost love to a political thriller. Poor old Vivien, cutting away happily, gets pushed into the corner while Jack, her lover takes over. Jack is a newspaper man who has gone undercover to investigate the fascist group that is planning to make a comeback. They’re vandalising Jewish businesses and places of worship and printing out propaganda. As Jack gets more involved with Vivien (who is Jewish), he struggles to maintain his cover and composure. Will he make it out to file his story? I think the first half of this book is dramatically different to the second part, which is why it didn’t work so well for me. Vivien’s story is a romance/coming of age one, with her trying to find Jack in London and making new friends. She’s also trying to avoid the attentions of Stevie, a boy who thinks she’s just great. I went from feeling sorry for Stevie with his slave like devotion to Vivien to just being annoyed when he was around. He’s rather immature with a knack for getting in trouble. Plus the way he followed Vivien and Jack around town was more stalker-ish than cute. When Jack makes his reappearance, things move to being from his point of view. We hear more about the things he’s involved and the danger he’s facing. This part had more of a thriller feel and less of the charm of Vivien’s story. I think if I’d been more prepared that the story was going to change tone dramatically, I would have enjoyed things more. As Vivien reappears in what is now Jack’s story, it’s obvious that this young lady from Manchester has grown up. Gone is her naivety, replaced with a composure and grace to help the man she loves. She’s also calm in the face of a radical group trying to destroy her faith. Jack too undergoes a revelation as tensions between the fascists and anti-fascists heat up. He realises that he isn’t Superman and that is what brings he and Vivien even closer. While the history was fascinating for me, the change in pace and focus in this book didn’t work overly well for me. I would be interested to read more by Jo Bloom, as she has a great ability to bring history to life. http://samstillreading.wordpress.com nessuna recensione | aggiungi una recensione
Premi e riconoscimenti
Summer, 1962. Twenty-year-old Vivien Epstein, a Jewish hairdresser from Manchester, arrives in London following the death of her father. She has travelled to the city to make a new start, and quickly finds herself swept up in a city buzzing with life. Landing a job at Oscar's salon, she thrives amid the vibrant cafe culture of Soho and the warm camaraderie of the other hairdressers. But beneath the surface, Vivien is desperate to find Jack Fox, a man she had a brief but intense romance with some months before. Her search leads to confront the dark resurgence of fascism, countered by the Jewish community in street battles around Ridley Road in the East End of London. Amid the growing tensions, can her love survive? Non sono state trovate descrizioni di biblioteche |
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