213 used & new from £0.01

Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
 
Room for a Single Lady
 
 

Room for a Single Lady (Paperback)

by Clare Boylan (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

Available from these sellers.


11 new from £0.01 200 used from £0.01 2 collectible from £0.01

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Home Rule

Home Rule

by Clare Boylan
Holy Pictures

Holy Pictures

by Clare Boylan
Black Baby

Black Baby

by Clare Boylan
Beloved Stranger

Beloved Stranger

by Clare Boylan
5.0 out of 5 stars (5)  £6.99
Friday Nights

Friday Nights

by Joanna Trollope
2.5 out of 5 stars (26)  £4.78
Explore similar items

Product details

  • Paperback: 378 pages
  • Publisher: Abacus; New edition edition (20 Aug 1998)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 034910901X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0349109015
  • Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.4 x 2.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 140,892 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #2 in  Books > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > B > Boylan, Clare

Product Description

Review

'A sharp eye for detail that makes reading Boylan's work such a pleasure' SUNDAY TIMES 'This enchanting book, so evocative of the moods and sensations of childhood has the bite of pure gold' DAILY TELEGRAPH 'Witty ... beautifully written' MAIL ON SUNDAY 'Boylan writes like an angel, but an angel with a knowing eye' DAILY MAIL 'Love, pain and Dickensian dottiness. As ever, Boylan is like the sun coming out.' SPEACTATOR 'An enormously entertaining and involving novel.' IRISH TIMES 'This is lemon-eyed and luscious writing, subtle, oblique, poetic, hilarious, absolutely original. But the talent for local colour, that vivid image, the quirky ear, the olfactory evocativeness, is merely how she approaches the proper concern of the top-class prose writer- an intesne and insatiable curiosity about the lives of other people.' SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY 'As 1950s Dublin slowly moves away from ghastly fashions, tight perms and rigid conduct towards a brighter, freer society, Boylan's prose captures the transition perfectly.' NEW WOMAN 'Boylan has captured the harsh process of growing up- its misunderstandings and sense of irredeemably arrested development- with deadly accuracy.' TIME OUT 'Boylan spins her fable with graceful realism, and is painfully good on the horrors and resiliences of loneliness.' GUARDIAN


DAILY TELEGRAPH

'This enchanting book, so evocative of the moods and sensations of childhood has the bite of pure gold'

Inside This Book (Learn More)
Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Search inside this book:

Tag this product

 (What's this?)
Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items.
Your tags: Add your first tag
 

 

Customer Reviews

3 Reviews
5 star:
 (3)
4 star:    (0)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
5.0 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting and original premise for a book, 7 Aug 2001
By A Customer
Set in Ireland. With overbearing Father out of work and overburdened Mother struggling to cope, the three daughters grapple with their teenage growing pains within the constraints of a strict sheltered upbringing.With no money for food, Father decides he will have to rent out the spare room, but only to single females, the sisters observe with fascination as a stream of lodgers follow - each with very different personalities,lives and varying amounts of influence over the three girls.The whole family become very attached to,and intertwined with some of them, and the story also follows the fortunes of some after they have gone on their way.

Father will not let go of his strict moral code throughout and his views that 'women don't work' or 'go to university' and are there to 'look after husband and home', whilst long-suffering Mother will not abandon her adamance that a woman should retain finer pursuits such as art,that keep her spirit alive.

An enjoyable gentle book about ordinary lives and struggles - written in a quaint style with a certain kind of charm and innocence.I liked it immensely.So many books do not live up to their back-cover synopses,or reviews, and leave you a little drained or depressed.This book seemed just right - being uplifting in its honesty and innocence.

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Room For a Singla Lady, 7 Aug 2005
By Mrs. M. E. Cotterill "cotters" (caterham, surrey United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Loved it! I cried when I finished it as I wanted it to go on and on. A simple story of innocence in 50's Ireland but one that everyone can aquaint with whatever age they are. It tells the story of a girl and her family who have hit hard times and of the lodgers that they are forced to take in to earn money to survive. These lodgers shape their lives and their destinys. A fantastic book. I sm now going to read her others.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
5.0 out of 5 stars GROWING PAINS REMEMBERED, 26 Oct 2008
By B. McCanna "Barry McCanna" (Normandy, France) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Room for a Single Lady (Hardcover)
Take Dublin in the early fifties, add a family of three growing girls, mix in a procession of eccentric lodgers, whose purpose is to fend off the parents' poverty, and you have a recipe for a finely observed drama of lives crossing and colliding. All this is told by the youngest daughter, who observes and reports upon the goings-on around her. It's written in an easy flowing style that wraps you up and carries you with it. I was laughing out loud as I turned the pages and lurched, like the family, from one minor crisis to another. I was sorry when I'd finished it, and will be looking out for more by this author.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Only search this product's reviews



Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
   
Related forums


Listmania!


Look for similar items by category


Look for similar items by subject









i.e., each product must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...

Feedback

Ad

Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.