Set over a period of 12 months, from October to the following September, Victoria Park focuses on the lives of 12 of the Park’s residents amid the changing seasons. Beginning and ending with the enduring love story of Wolfie and Mona, married for 65 years – Mona is suffering from Alzheimers and barely remembers people in her present whilst being increasingly confused with those from her past.
Each character has a story of their own – it could be momentous or quite mundane and unfolds as a series of vignettes documenting the lives of the inhabitants of Victoria Park, each one being connected to another in some way and moving the timeline forward. A pivotal reference point in the book seems to be a recent acid attack on a young boy in the park, and which remains unsolved. This causes much unease and speculation.
With often harsh and honest insight and observations, there is also something incredibly moving and poignant about some of the narratives. We see thoughts and emotions as people’s individual situations are disclosed – from the mother and businesswoman who has lived here for many years but illegally, the young housebreaker who finds the unexpected, the female couple undertaking IVF treatment, and the bitter old woman no longer able to live independently.
The community was such a diverse one and each individual story held my interest; I enjoyed seeing how the stories flowed into one another and discovering things about the characters from another perspective. There were some chapters that I wished had been a bit longer as I wanted to know more, and occasionally I would have liked to have seen more of a reaction to certain events instead of something just being mentioned in passing. Nonetheless this was an extraordinary debut novel, a superbly crafted character driven study of a community.
Each character has a story of their own – it could be momentous or quite mundane and unfolds as a series of vignettes documenting the lives of the inhabitants of Victoria Park, each one being connected to another in some way and moving the timeline forward. A pivotal reference point in the book seems to be a recent acid attack on a young boy in the park, and which remains unsolved. This causes much unease and speculation.
With often harsh and honest insight and observations, there is also something incredibly moving and poignant about some of the narratives. We see thoughts and emotions as people’s individual situations are disclosed – from the mother and businesswoman who has lived here for many years but illegally, the young housebreaker who finds the unexpected, the female couple undertaking IVF treatment, and the bitter old woman no longer able to live independently.
The community was such a diverse one and each individual story held my interest; I enjoyed seeing how the stories flowed into one another and discovering things about the characters from another perspective. There were some chapters that I wished had been a bit longer as I wanted to know more, and occasionally I would have liked to have seen more of a reaction to certain events instead of something just being mentioned in passing. Nonetheless this was an extraordinary debut novel, a superbly crafted character driven study of a community.