Two Women (20-20 Special Edition) [Paperback]

Sue Dalston is a fantastic characterisation - I don't doubt there are plenty of real life Sue Dalston's out there. Martina writes about her with such clarity and realism that I really feel she must personally know a Sue Dalston. You get drawn into Sue's life and realise how she is trapped. You really end up understanding why she behaves as she does.

One more slight criticism of this otherwise five star read is that all through the book Sue's mother is a total scumbag, yet towards the end of the book she miraculously discovers maternal feelings. It's as though Martina wants to tie up all the loose ends nicely and provide a nice happy ending. The family party towards the end of the book - with all the family members getting along and enjoying themselves together just seems unreal and spoils it a bit. Memo to Martina : your books are based on realism, real life doesn't have happy endings all the time.

The book is definately a page turner and Martina knows how to work the reader. Agripping read to the end and you won't be disapointed by the twist in the tale as you really feel that it could happen. Very cleverly written.

But this is an uncompromisingly violent and unpleasant observation of life in London’s East End covering a forty-year time span and focusing principally on Susan Dalston, at first the unattractively plump pubescent daughter of an underworld gangster/paedophile, later the wife of another underworld gangster/paedophile, and ends up as the devoted mother of four children who become the centre of her life. As the title suggests there are in fact two women, but the second one, Matilda ‘Matty’ Enderby, is really no more significant a character within the novel than any of the dozen or so other females (good and bad) who feature along the way. I think this book should really gave been called One Woman, because Susan is the undoubted heroine and the main bad-guy in the tale is her extremely dislikeable husband. Since it is written on the back cover, I am giving nothing away by mentioning the fact that Susan clubs him over the head with a hammer and her resulting imprisonment brings about her meeting with ‘the other woman’, Matty which, we are led to believe in the back-cover summary, will bring unforeseeable consequences upon Susan. To be honest this is a build-up that never fulfils such a premise, but it matters little because the 400-odd pages preceding this prison-cell meeting are so relentlessly full of emotion and tragedy that there is more than enough to satisfy the soap-opera-loving reader. It’s very vaguely like TV’s ‘EastEnders’ on steroids and consequently it is immensely more entertaining and realistic.

The language is profane throughout but necessarily so to achieve any sense of credibility. The sexual activity is depressing from the outset, limited almost exclusively to father/daughter rape, prostitution, abortion, miscarriages and sexually transmitted diseases. There is a love vacuum throughout as far as marital relations are concerned, with most of the key husbands or male partners being aggressive, violent and verbally humiliating.

Character development is one of Martina Cole’s strengths along with her ability to pull on the heartstrings of her readers. The vocabulary is generally simplistic but no less powerful for that, and there can be little doubt that the author has a genuine take on the lifestyles she portrays and gives me the impression that she might have been close to living such experiences herself in times past.

It would be easy to pick holes in the authenticity of this tale (such as the willingness of the police to turn a blind eye to extreme violence and even murder within this sub-culture) but for me I buy books for entertainment and Martina Cole delivers that many times over. I’ve already bought another of her books and I expect to build up a collection – she’s good!