the place where dreams fail., 3 Dec 2003

By	S. Hapgood "www.sjhstrangetales.com" - See all my reviews

For the first time in her life Julia experiences freedom. She is a career woman, working as a buyer for a top-class boutique. She loves her new life, and then finds it stymied once more when the war ends and her husband returns home. She enters into an affair with a hopelessly romantic young man, who one night recklessly attacks Julia's husband in the street, fatally injuring him. Both he and Julia are arrested for murder, and a sensational trial ensues.

It's not giving anything away to reveal that they are both found guilty and hanged, as this is the essence of the story. F Tennyson Jesse was a respected true crime writer, who covered most of the famous murder trials of her time, and she brings an emotional commitment to this story, showing that this isn't a cold-bloodied killer they are hanging, but simply a hopelessly romantic young woman whose biggest fault was her foolishness.

Whatever your personal feelings about the death penalty it is hard not to be emotionally drawn into the final chapters, when Julia is awaiting her fate in the condemned cell. It is where she realises that she can no longer dream, that all that is left is cold reality. There is a poetry about the writing here, contrasting the putting-to-death of two young people, with the day-to-day life of London going on outside the prison walls. In those final pages you reall do see that life is indeed sweet.

 Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? (Report this)