Once Upon A Time In England - Pick Of The Week
The Age
Saturday June 7, 2008
Once Upon a Time in England
Helen Walsh Canongate, $29.95HELEN WALSH STIRRED the pot a few years back with her drug-fuelled debut, Brass. Her second novel follows the fortunes of an interracial family from an underprivileged housing estate. Robbie is an illiterate factory worker who falls for Susheela. But having a Malaysian wife in the late '70s in Robbie's neck of the woods is bound to arouse hostility. When Susheela is subjected to a horrific racist attack, the young family moves, courtesy of Robbie's fine singing voice, to a more affluent suburb. There it is Robbie who doesn't belong, while Susheela copies her class-conscious neighbours. As the years roll by, their children grow up and a new round of ostracism begins. Once Upon a Time in England presents a family ground down by hardship and intolerance. Its portraits of misspent youth are edgy and real, and the novel contains astute and sometimes comic observations. But the examination of prejudice - on the basis of race, class and sexuality - is heavily wrought and can occlude the domestic drama.
© 2008 The Age