The L-Shaped Room

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What do you need the room to do? Is it just a living room? Does it need dining space, or an office space? Do you want a snug area? Who and how many people are going to use the room regularly? girl in the film) and takes her home again, all forgiven. In the book her aunt Addy has died and left her quite a lot of money (convenient, that) but her relationship with Toby is left Th e clever twist in the film is that Toby, visiting Jane in hospital after the baby is born, has written a short story called - of course - 'The L-Shaped Room'.

a b "The L-shaped Room (1962)". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 28 February 2016. Though The L-Shaped Room had a much more sordid setting, it was more fairy tale-ish in its conclusions. From my remembrance, The Millstone was more humorous, yet more realistic. Characteristically, I prefer the latter.

11th Annual Canadian Book Challenge

The L-Shaped Room - Jane is young, middle-class, single - and pregnant. Thrown out by her parents, she rents a squalid bedsit, where she struggles to overcome both her own prejudices and those of 1950s society. Starring Lynne Seymour as Jane, with John McAndrew as Toby. Here is the scene in the film, where for some strange reason the names of the two prostitutes have been switched For Jane now faces a familiar situation. It is her father she is running away from, a distant, awkward man, who, like most English males of his generation, has survived Depression and two World Wars without ever expressing his feelings. The combination of confessing her plight to him and the situation surrounding her own birth invoke emotions in Jane too terrible to bear. the house by her father due to the aforementioned pregnancy, who has to find lodgings and ends up in the l-shaped room. The book opens with this scene:

She had been an actress, with a touring company, and she was doing well. She didn’t have much money, but she managed, she was happy doing what she wanted to do with her life. But Jane got on the wrong side of a difficult actor, and was ‘let go’. Jane is a brave character who decides to bring up the baby by herself, after her father throws her out. But her feelings are mixed, and as almost a punishment to herself she rents a grubby L-shaped room at the top of a run- down boarding house in Fulham. Who Shall I Run To? - Sally recalls how she and ex-husband Jeremy celebrated their 35th wedding anniversary with a romantic trip to Paris. Read by Siân Phillips. Jane feels an overwhelming sense of shame when she understands the full extent of the public’s opinion of her: “I was right in the middle of a moment of truth, and it was still and quiet and empty in there, as it is supposed to be in the heart of a tornado.” However, the novel is certainly not all bleak as she also experiences wonderful moments of sympathy and kindness from strangers, a friend and another family member. Nor are doctors all bad once she manages to find a sensible one. It’s encouraging to read a story about someone who can survive and thrive despite the social stigma which has been attached to her – much in the same way as Joyce Carol Oates portrayed in her novel “We Were the Mulvaneys.” Where Reid Banks’ novel really excels is the complex way she shows how Jane can overcome her own self-loathing about her situation and transform it into a source of strength. I'm looking forward to going to the reading group and considering the parallels and differences between Jean Rhys' writing and Reid Banks'.Early on in the novel when she was working within an acting troupe she describes her antagonistic relationship with a gay actor who fancies her boyfriend Terry. She and Terry make out in front of this gay man to show him that they are “normal” and that he is not. Later on she visits a curry house and remarks how the Indians who serve her smile “in an enigmatic Eastern way.” It’s interesting thinking how progressive it must have been at the time to portray homosexuals and racial minorities in any way within a novel. However, no one could write such descriptions now without being considered bigoted. But, in a way, I’m glad that Jane’s provincial point of view is so blatant as it highlights her unconscious prejudices and how they contrast so sharply against the prejudice she receives as an unmarried pregnant woman in this time. She’s sympathetic and friendly with the racial and sexual minorities that she meets in the novel, but she was probably totally naïve about the way her attitude denigrated these people. Interestingly she seems more conscious of the effect her ex-boyfriend Terry’s anti-Semitic attitude has on her Jewish neighbour Toby. But I can’t get rid of this copy. Maybe one day I’ll have to buy another, if this one gets too fragile to hold, but I love it too much to throw or give it away. Not because of the design or feel, but because it has been with me for so long, and was one of the first adult novels I loved.