Barker surpases herself with this novel. This novel never reiceived as much acclaim as her price winning REGENERATION trilogy, and, to some extent, I agree the trilogy is more erudite than this gem called UNION STREET, but in terms of human feelings, this novel by far surpasses most of the books I have ever read. It very powerful moving. Barker shows a lot of feeling. Beware though, this book is very painful. I just had to put it aside on a couple of occasions. If you like it, try BLOW YOUR HOUSE DOWN, also by Barker.

very interesting novel which explores the living standards of middle class women. I found the life of each woman very exciting. I am studying this novel as part of my coursework and would be happy to hear anybodys view on this book

Pat Barker's _Union Street_ and _Blow Your House Down_ are hard-hitting, gritty novels about the lives of working-class women in northeast England (_Union Street_) and prostitutes living in fear of a serial prostitute murderer (_Blow Your House Down_). These novels are not for anyone already taking Prozac; _Union Street_ in particular is unrelentingly depressing, with rape, physical abuse, unwanted pregnancies, and other unpleasantness. Both novels contain scenes that are deeply, shockingly horrible.

So why read these two novels? Barker skillfully makes the lives of these women come alive for the reader: the tedium of their jobs, all the sensory attributes of their homes, the nature of their relationships with their husbands, boyfriends, children, and women friends. She allows us to look in at defining moments in these women's lives: moments that shape their lives, moments where they are forced to make choices, moments where they come to terms with their circumstances.

Neither of these novels are exactly what you'd call fun reads, but they are thought-provoking, absorbing, well-achieved, and memorable. I prefer _Blow Your House Down_ to _Union Street_, perhaps because it is a bit more unified. The accumulation of different horrible circumstances in _Union Street_ can be a bit overwhelming. Both books impress you with these women's ability to survive despite extraordinary hardships, but neither book ever waltzes into the potentially mawkish territory of triumph over circumstances. These women are survivors, not victors.
Pat Barker is one of the greatest contemporary British writers. If you are a fan of her better-known later work, I recommend this volume.

I have read 5 books by Ms. Barker recently. Reading a number of works in succession by a writer that is new to me is a frequent event. There was a recurring problem within what could have been a very good book that made this the weakest book of Ms. Barker's I have read. In fairness, had I read this first, my opinion would have been different, but then her later books would have suffered the same repeated flaw.

The story began with a charming premise, a young male social worker, meets an 84 year old woman who must be moved from her home, where she has experienced the greater part of her life. She is virtually the last occupant in this neighborhood of memories and wraiths. Her memories are all she has left of what has been a long and painful life. Her sole companion is an eccentric Parrot, which again could have been an interesting facet/a nice aside to the story. The social worker Stephen is characterized as being gay, unlike the World War I trilogy when a main character's lifestyle was a central part of the story, a character trait that was a large part of what defined him, in this book it was meaningless. If it had merit it was far too subtle for me to grasp.

The book's failing is that many stories within the book, or metaphors that are memorable, not only appeared here, they also appeared verbatim in the other books I had read, or were so slightly changed as to be nearly indistinguishable. World War I experiences are related here and then in the trilogy, metaphors that are memorable, again appear here and again in the trilogy. It does not happen once or even 5 times, but many times. The result is this reader kept thinking about the other books I had given such high marks to, but I now know I was reading recycled ideas from an earlier work.

The exposition of Liza's life, and the shifting back and forth to present day, and the life that is Stephen's is clumsy at best. Far from being seamless, they are incongruous, jarring, and prevent any sort of cadence from developing for the reader.

Stephen's relationship with Liza pretended to be the Grandmother to this young man who had come into her life to serve bad news, but became someone she was fond of in spite of the change he represented, as Grandmothers tend to do. However, the end of the book while not predictable, makes a mockery of all that has gone before, destroys the structure of what had been written, and is so out of character with the balance of the book as to be absurd. The actual event will leave you with strong feelings about many people and issues, but none that would bring you back to Ms. Barker's work, were this the first you had read.

This is book number 5 for me, and the first 4 I still enthusiastically recommend.

On this one, pass.

This was my first Pat Barker novel and I have to admit, that while I found it quite uneven, I did find parts of it quite charming as well.

Barker seems intent on investigating the end of a woman's life in The Century's Daughter and, in this respect, she does an admirable job. Set in working-class northern England, The Century's Daughter is not a provincial book, however, but seeks to embrace the grand tradition of political fiction instead.

Set in 1984-85, the book deals with the final year in the life of its protagonist, Liza Wright, who is the same age as the century, almost to the second. In this sense, The Century's Daughter is reminiscent of Salman Rushdie's Mignight's Children, a book that follows the lives of a group of babies born at the stroke of midnight on the day of India's independence. While Midnight's Children, however, focused on the politics of Indira Ghandi, The Century's Daughter focuses on the politics of Margaret Thatcher, a woman Liza is vehemently trying to forget.

One of the things I found most charming about this otherwise flawed book was the fact that Barker wisely eschewed any attempt at glamour, fast-paced adventure, wealth, adultery and all the other trappings that many readers of today's "commercial" fiction seem to demand. This is a book about the beauty inherent in everyday life, and that is, to its enormous credit, one of the story's strongest points.

Liza, who is now eighty-four, lives with her old parrot, Nelson, a mere four miles from where she was born, in the ramshackle row house she has occupied since 1922. Decrepit, unsafe and surrounded by the squalid Clagg Lane housing project, Liza's home is now scheduled to be torn down. This sets the stage for the entrance of Stephen, a twenty-nine year old social worker who is sent to persuade the very reluctant Liza to move into a nursing home.

The conflict centers on Liza's recalcitrance. When Stephen tells her she would have other elderly people around her in the nursing home, Liza tartly tells him that people her age don't make friends.

Predictably, Liza remains in her row house and she and Stephen become the best of friends. Liza's story is engrossing and it does reflect the century's own misfortunes. Liza Wright has lived an English working woman's life with all its attendant restrictions and woes. The daughter of an angry mother who bore a total of fifteen children, Liza seeks an early escape from her life at the age of seventeen. It is an escape, however, that doesn't lead exactly where she expects it to.

Although Liza, herself, can, at times, be a persnickety but charming elderly woman, The Century's Daughter is more often than not filled with dreary stuff: babies being born into misery and squalor; elderly people dying alone and in filth; the all-pervading dampness so redolent in northern England; the endless cups of tea meant to ward off the chill. To her enormous credit, Barker tells her story with vibrancy, optimism and life. So much so, that Liza, despite her precarious health and dreary circumstances, is a much more optimistic character than is Stephen, who is really not fully-fleshed out.

Despite his rather wooden quality, it is Stephen who is bestowed with the book's most poignant moment as he attempts to find a working phone when his father, Walter, is hospitalized.

I found the writing in The Century's Daughter to be rather uneven at best and jarring at worst. At times, Barker seemed to be rushing her story and at other times she seemed to gloss over things we wanted to know more about. Many of the book's scenes are arbitrary and the ending, in particular, is totally out of keeping with what went before.

The Century's Daughter has its moments, few though they are, and the best thing about it, I think, is the author's unbridled energy and enthusiasm. While I would not really recommend this particular book, I definitely would not write Barker off. She is obviously a woman with talent.