Reviewed by: Keith Nixon
Genre: General Fiction/Coming of Age
Approximate word count: 45-50,000 words
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Author:
Kate Rigby studied
psychology although she is no longer able to work due to ill health. She has
been writing for more than thirty years. Most of her works have been published
over this time. Flamingo Circus,
originally published in 1988, has been brought back into circulation.
You can
learn more about the author on her blog.
Description:
Flamingo Circus is written as a first person diary
starting when Lauren Schanzer is seven in 1968, it sporadically follows her
growth through childhood, teenage rebellion and maturity in 1983.
Lauren
hasn’t had the best start in life - abject poverty, a large and growing family
and an abusive father – she struggles to make her mark in life. Until punk
arrives. Lauren marches out into the world…
Appraisal:
I
thoroughly enjoyed Flamingo Circus. It
is largely set in the 1970’s and 1980’s, when punk swept through the UK. I was
nine years old then so I remember some of it, however Rigby captures the punk
subculture, and in particular Lauren’s own feeling of release from her
restrictive upbringing, very well. It’s one of the strong points of the story.
At times,
the descriptive writing was excellent. The characters are generally strong, in
particular Lauren herself and her domineering father. Many other characters
come and go, sometimes lightly painted, sometimes deeper depending upon their
involvement in Lauren’s life at the time. The sense of place is also very good,
particularly when stuck with an abusive boyfriend and in a squat. It was a
compelling story and made me want to keep turning the pages. I finished Flamingo Circus in a couple of sittings.
Flamingo Circus also captures Lauren’s experiences
of a poor upbringing as part of a large and ever expanding family, her
domineering father and the lack of prospects that comes from a wasted
education. It’s bleak stuff.
An example
of some of the writing:
Inside it’s less gloomy than the
blackened dried-blood brick world outside. This is a typical bedsit. All the
flats in this house have the same gaudy repetitive wallpaper over the
kitchenette. I have glimpsed inside them all. The carpet is psychedelic too.
Looks as if it’s crawling with insects when it’s really your brain making the
patterns dance.
And:
I like the wet street. The green and
red and white traffic and car lights all run into each other, like a child’s
painting.
As a result
of her father Lauren struggles with relationships. The couple of boyfriends she
has are much like him, there’s an inevitability of a downward spiral towards
domestic violence. For example:
I can’t bear him to sleep so easily
when I’m so restless. I bounce and pinch and scratch and shriek. I put the
kitchen taps on full pelt til he wakes. He has started to hit me. I knew he
would – it was just a question of when. I expect him to. I know now that he
cares about me.
Lauren
thankfully manages to escape her abusive relationship, sneaking out at night. I
really felt with her as she crept out of the bedsit and started another phase
of her life.
I also
liked that as Lauren developed so did her spelling and prose. As a seven year
old it was unsurprisingly poor. Her education wasn’t great so neither was her
sentence construction. However, as she moves out into the world, reads and
experiences new people, books and music her writing becomes smoother. This was
another very good way of putting over Lauren’s background.
My only
issue with the book, and it’s a small one, was the ending. It just sort
of…happened. Lauren’s life didn’t seem resolved in any way. However, I guess
diaries do just do that, one day you’re writing one, the other you’re not.
This, though, is a personal view. I like stories to close off.
A really
good read, in particular for people who have memories of the era.
FYI:
Some adult situations.
Format/Typo Issues:
None.
Rating: **** Four Stars
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