Review
Bardwell’s debut was ahead of its time, asserts Sarah Lapsley.
- Girl on a Bicycle
- Liberties
Emergency
This reissue of Bardwell’s first novel illustrates just how far ahead of her time the inestimable author really was.
Readers of last year’s autobiography will be struck by the echoes of Bardwell’s real life that are present here, not least in the character of the sister; an accomplished horsewoman who overshadows the young heroine in the eyes of her parents. The main character, young Julie De Vraie is restless and unhappy with her constrained life in 1940’s Ireland. Against the backdrop of the ‘Emergency’ she tries to forge her own way in the world and gain a measure of freedom through work and love. Freedom for a young woman of her background in this era necessitates becoming a virtual outcast and Julie flirts with scandal, if not outright ruin. This is a heartbreaking evocation of the harsh realities of sexual politics in the 1940s and 50s where women are the ones with everything to lose, especially in the sort of proscribed relationships that Julie inevitably finds herself embroiled in. The writing is spare and dialogue heavy with a sparse poetry that is evocative of longing – for love, for acceptance and belonging. A beautiful novel tracing a young woman’s coming of age in a hostile world.
Sarah Lapsley