kate_pill's review against another edition
3.0
I didn’t enjoy this one as much as the first book but still interesting.
swanin's review against another edition
2.0
Är besviken på denna boken. Den handlar inte alls om hur det är att vara barnmorska under 50talet som den första boken gjorde. Men har en bra historia som Jennifer Worth har upplevt.
bcbartuska's review against another edition
4.0
I enjoyed the first one better, but only because the stories in book two are so sad! Looking forward to finishing up with book three soon.
shahrun's review against another edition
4.0
Having recently enjoyed Call The Midwife, it left me craving a bit more depth and what happened next? to each of the people mentioned. This book addresses that by focusing on 3 things - rather than dipping in and out of many peoples stories - with much more detail, brilliant! We follow the heart breaking story of siblings Frank & Peggy, find out a bit more about Sister Monica Joan and meet the wonderful Jospeh Collett (I’m so jealous of the friendship Jennifer was able to strike up with him, I would have dearly loved to do the same). The only trouble is, I didn’t believe the stories were actually true. I felt this book was as made up. And I don’t know why, as I enjoyed it a lot. Maybe it’s just because it flowed so well? The narrative was very engaging, entertaining, heartbreaking, fascinating and educating. For instance, who knew workhouses still existed until the 1930s (and beyond really as the book explained)? I always pictured them as a Victorian 1800s problem. On a personal note of interest, I love hearing about nursing in the 1950s as that when both my grandmother and mother-in-law (yes they are the same age) trained as nurses. I’m looking forward to see what the next instalment in this series has in store for me - just waiting for its delivery.
welldonesir's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
4.25
avrilhj's review against another edition
3.0
I didn't find this as good as the first book in the series. Perhaps that's because it only tells three stories and two of them, the stories of the workhouse children Jane, Frank and Peggy, and the story of the old soldier Joe Collett, are stories that the author was told, rather than things she experienced herself. This book lacked the immediacy of the first. But it's still an interesting and moving read, and a great argument for the National Health and the Welfare State.
meredith_mccaskey's review against another edition
5.0
I listened to the audiobook because I realized that this book was too hard for me to read– as in, emotionally, too gut-wrenching to sit down and actively move my eyes across the words on the page. I don't know why listening is a little easier; it's probably because I could listen while doing something else– dishes or laundry or something with my hands.
I still had to skip the part where the little girl, Jane, is beaten half to death by the workhouse master. I wonder with other readers, exactly how Jennifer Worth could know all the details, and I've concluded that she did her research, heard the stories of people, and filled in the gaps with fictionalized bits– and yet still, we know that children were beaten till the blood ran, and the very evil of it makes the doctrine of Hell almost a welcome thing. Because– because– someone who would beat a child almost to death, we cannot accept that he goes his whole life and dies and gets away with it. Something deep within us revolts.
Something on which I'm still reflecting is the incredible community that the people in the Poplar tenements had. I think it is a kind of community that someone like me, an upper-middle-class white American, can't begin to fathom. Yes, the tenements were dirty. They were unsanitary. They were infested with vermin. Far too many people were crowded into far too small a space. Yes, people had to worry about preventable diseases. They had to work incredibly hard every day, just to eat and have clothes to wear and beds to sleep in. Yet I truly wonder if we are better off, in our sanitized, enormous, middle class suburban homes, in which we are literally dying of loneliness, where mental illness has skyrocketed, where we are so safe that we have to invent anxieties for ourselves (just look at any mom forum). When the tenements are demolished and the hundreds of thousands of people who have lived for generations in them are moved, Sister Julienne remarks to Jenny that "I am well aware of the fact that most of the old people who are being moved will not be able to adjust to the new surroundings, and that many of them will die as a consequence." And later, visiting her friend Mr. Collet in his new home at a sterile "care home", Jenny realizes that what is so terrible for him is not the gray surroundings– it's the loneliness. The British government has recently appointed a "Minister for Loneliness" because of the incredible percentage of the British population that experience loneliness and all the emotional and physical toll that goes with it.
I honestly think that we are paying the price for our safe, comfortable, sanitary suburban lives. We can close our doors and lower our garage doors and hide in our fenced-in back yards from our neighbors. We can block people on social media who have different political or philosophical or child-rearing views, we can choose exactly whom we engage with and on what grounds– and suicide rates are going up. Mental illness is rampant. People are afraid to even answer their doors. It's more common to talk to someone via text or social media than it is to sit down over a cup of tea together in the same room.
I wonder what the generations of tenement families would think of our modern day suburban living. I wonder what they would think of the privacy. I wonder if they would think it was strange, or even unhealthy. I think of human history and how for millennia people have worked and lived in daily community with their neighbors and extended family.
Life has never been so easy and it has never been so lonely.
I still had to skip the part where the little girl, Jane, is beaten half to death by the workhouse master. I wonder with other readers, exactly how Jennifer Worth could know all the details, and I've concluded that she did her research, heard the stories of people, and filled in the gaps with fictionalized bits– and yet still, we know that children were beaten till the blood ran, and the very evil of it makes the doctrine of Hell almost a welcome thing. Because– because– someone who would beat a child almost to death, we cannot accept that he goes his whole life and dies and gets away with it. Something deep within us revolts.
Something on which I'm still reflecting is the incredible community that the people in the Poplar tenements had. I think it is a kind of community that someone like me, an upper-middle-class white American, can't begin to fathom. Yes, the tenements were dirty. They were unsanitary. They were infested with vermin. Far too many people were crowded into far too small a space. Yes, people had to worry about preventable diseases. They had to work incredibly hard every day, just to eat and have clothes to wear and beds to sleep in. Yet I truly wonder if we are better off, in our sanitized, enormous, middle class suburban homes, in which we are literally dying of loneliness, where mental illness has skyrocketed, where we are so safe that we have to invent anxieties for ourselves (just look at any mom forum). When the tenements are demolished and the hundreds of thousands of people who have lived for generations in them are moved, Sister Julienne remarks to Jenny that "I am well aware of the fact that most of the old people who are being moved will not be able to adjust to the new surroundings, and that many of them will die as a consequence." And later, visiting her friend Mr. Collet in his new home at a sterile "care home", Jenny realizes that what is so terrible for him is not the gray surroundings– it's the loneliness. The British government has recently appointed a "Minister for Loneliness" because of the incredible percentage of the British population that experience loneliness and all the emotional and physical toll that goes with it.
I honestly think that we are paying the price for our safe, comfortable, sanitary suburban lives. We can close our doors and lower our garage doors and hide in our fenced-in back yards from our neighbors. We can block people on social media who have different political or philosophical or child-rearing views, we can choose exactly whom we engage with and on what grounds– and suicide rates are going up. Mental illness is rampant. People are afraid to even answer their doors. It's more common to talk to someone via text or social media than it is to sit down over a cup of tea together in the same room.
I wonder what the generations of tenement families would think of our modern day suburban living. I wonder what they would think of the privacy. I wonder if they would think it was strange, or even unhealthy. I think of human history and how for millennia people have worked and lived in daily community with their neighbors and extended family.
Life has never been so easy and it has never been so lonely.
herlifewithbooks's review against another edition
3.0
Less baby-birthing than volume 1, more Interesting Characters Around Town stories.
kingfan30's review against another edition
3.0
This book is split into three parts, the first being about three people who had spent their time in workhouses and how it affected their lives. This was horrific reading at times, but interesting.
The second is about the trial of a nun who the author worked with, which I found quite tedious at times.
The third part was about an elderly gentleman that the author treated which was an interesting story and he reminded me of my father-in-law.
Overall an interesting read but with not a huge amount of workhouse details, I guess thats where the shadow comes from in the title!
The second is about the trial of a nun who the author worked with, which I found quite tedious at times.
The third part was about an elderly gentleman that the author treated which was an interesting story and he reminded me of my father-in-law.
Overall an interesting read but with not a huge amount of workhouse details, I guess thats where the shadow comes from in the title!