- Paperback: 270 pages
- Publisher: Millivres-Prowler Group Ltd (31 Mar 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1873741804
- ISBN-13: 978-1873741801
- Product Dimensions: 20.3 x 13.3 x 2.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 131,868 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Big Issue, April 2003
v.G. Lee has succeeded in creating an amusing dramatic lesbian romance.
Time Out, March 2003
Lee's writing is always entertaining...especially when dealing with bitter sweet basic human frailties...
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
V G Lee demonstrates here, as in her previous novel 'The Comedienne' , a great talent for comedy. This is evident not only in the many witty one-liners, but particularly in the wide range of dotty but entirely believable characters she creates - including the rabbit, Alfred the Great, to whom the stolid next-door neighbour is so devoted.
The central character and narrator, Lorna Tree, draws us into her world from the start, when she first sights 'the woman in beige' on a train, and keeps us in suspense about this mysterious person who flits in and out of her life from then on. But although this is ostensibly the main story-line , the interest of the book for me lay chiefly in Lorna's family life, and the episodes she relates from her childhood.. She describes appalling parents, so absorbed in each other that they have little interest in their two children and leave them to be brought up by their grandmother, but swoop down on them occasionally, mainly to criticise and disrupt their lives. They are still doing this in the present, and the author depicts the relationship between the two parents, between the parents and their now grown-up children, and between Lorna and her brother with great subtlety and, perhaps surprisingly, with compassion.
The story is firmly rooted in Stoke Newington, and having lived there myself I can vouch for the authenticity of the setting. The descriptions of the crowded multi-cultural High Street, of the walk in Springfield Park, ( which fails to delight the woman in beige), and of the hilarious guided tour of Abney Park Cemetery at 4.30 am to hear the dawn chorus, are full of significant details, and all contribute to the plausibility of the story. The area is described as being full of counsellors and the counselled, and of course lesbians. We are introduced to several of these in their various and fluctuating relationships, and they are portrayed with humour and insight. Lorna too is searching for love, and thinks she may have found it with the woman in beige, but she knows it is likely to end in tears. Read the book, to find out whether her fears prove groundless!
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I enjoyed the dry humour of V.G. Lee's 'The Woman In Beige'and thought the central character of Lorna Tree to be an astute and comic voice. Lorna surrounds herself with some truly terrible people and notes their failings with wry resignation. I loved the E. family and their giant rabbit Alfred the Great. The novel is full of insight and ultimately warm and optimistic.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I heard V G Lee at the lesbian literary night at our local library, and reading aloud, dead pan, she was a scream.
This is a shaggy dog story of a love story with a happy streak. It is also particularly good on the absurdities of a childhood being brought up by a single granny, and choosing your best clothes from the local jumble sale, much to the humiliation of your errant army parents.
This book should not be read by David Cameron as it is an account of someone who lives on benefits (plus an on the side paper round) in order to write epic narrative poetry. On the other hand, our hero Lorna Tree is surely part of the Big Society (living in what was her grandmother's house in Stoke Newington, with the house divided between her brother and herself, knowing every neighbour and most of the lesbians in Stoke Newington and providing intermittent care to a large rabbit called Alfred the Great).
This is a shaggy dog story of a love story with a happy streak. It is also particularly good on the absurdities of a childhood being brought up by a single granny, and choosing your best clothes from the local jumble sale, much to the humiliation of your errant army parents.
This book should not be read by David Cameron as it is an account of someone who lives on benefits (plus an on the side paper round) in order to write epic narrative poetry. On the other hand, our hero Lorna Tree is surely part of the Big Society (living in what was her grandmother's house in Stoke Newington, with the house divided between her brother and herself, knowing every neighbour and most of the lesbians in Stoke Newington and providing intermittent care to a large rabbit called Alfred the Great).
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Packed with wonderful characters and quirky humour
V. G. Lee has a phenomenal talent for bringing the small stuff of life to the surface and revealing the tiny, hilarious things that people do and say. Read more
Published 10 months ago by FShelling
What do Lesbians Do?
Our very own Alison Bechdale (Dykes to Watch Out For)without the graphics. I defy you not to recognise bits of someone you know in Lee's characters. Dry wit.
Published on 10 Jun 2003 by L S Myers
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