Bookish Ally's Reviews > Birdcage Walk

I don't know why this would ever be reviewed at less than 4 stars, I feel compelled to give it 5 full stars.

Set in Bristol, England at the end of the 18th century, during the French Revolution, we are introduced to the cast of characters in Helen Dumore's memorable book, of small people with great ideas.

I don't know if I've ever read a book that has such a deep character study on the protagonist, Lizzie, and her supporting players. In my opinion, her writing is nothing short of a wonder in the way that I connected, viscerally, with the characters and storyline she has so masterfully created.

Her mother dies giving birth and the scene is set us for us meticulously. Lizzie's busy numbness of grief, the smells of blood, and infection. I am transported into a room I would never wish to be in, but how could I not admire such writing?

Also of worthy note, Lizzie takes her mother's child, Thomas, to care for him on her own after the wet nurse he is given into the care of, neglects him and he "fails to thrive" in addition to developing scabs and infections due to "being left in his own dirt" in the care of an 8 year old child. The feeling that was imparted to me as a reader was tender, miraculous even. I have no children, and I am not maternal, and yet, while reading this book I felt so connected to this baby. He was not idealized , and the author even uses descriptives such as smelling like sour milk and urine, but when she speaks of his eyes searching for her and of how his "damp" body snuggles into her, mewling, I feel the ache of his absence in my own arms.

Lizzie is married to a builder, one her family does not like, and there is a sense of oppression, sexual obsession, and dread in the relationship between them. In gothic style, these feelings build one upon another, until even the house and the cliff it sit's atop, become beautiful yet gloomy harbingers of an unnamed doom.

In the afterword, Ms. Dunsmore notes that, at the end of the writing of this book ,she discovered she was very ill, and that she really did feel her characters and their lives more deeply than any other writing experience she had previously. During it's writing she was diagnosed with cancer, subsequently dying. While I have not read her other writings, I can say that it is clear that she poured herself, body and soul, into this book. If you are a fan of historic fiction, with a twist of gothic, I urge you to read this book, and I hope that you enjoy it ever bit as much as I did.