Not So Average After All

'Diary of an Ordinary Woman'
Author: Margaret Forster


Format: Paperback
Published: Vintage; 2003
Pages: 416
Genre: Historical Fiction
Rating: B
Source: Personal Copy


Synopsis: The extraordinary story of an extraordinary woman living in extraordinary times, told through the simple literary device of a personal journal. Millicent King is born in 1901 and begins her diary when she is 13 and Europe is on the cusp of the Great War. From wartime Britain the narrative moves to Rome in the 1920s and war again in the 1930s. There is love, loss and personal tragedy, all reflected in events in the wider world of contemporary politics. Millicent's story ends with her death in 1995, leaving behind an account of a life that is intended in various ways to mirror the life of everywoman in the 20th century. The publisher promises a marketing campaign that will exploit the ambiguous fictional status of this novel/memoir/autobiography.


My Take: I'm not going to go into any pre-tense with this one as to why I read this one. I picked this novel up at a book sale and it was so different than anything I've ever read before that I am fascinated at my reaction to it. I suppose maybe the fact that it clearly states ‘fiction’ on the binding of the book should have tipped me off to the fact that while it says 'Diary of an Ordinary Woman' and the author in the Forward says she was sent a letter a couple of years ago asking her to transcribe the diary of one woman, by the name of Millicent King into whatever form she might think fit I shouldn't have been so duped. Yet I refused to believe that Millicent couldn't be real.  I know I am gullible but still. It is just that, while it is an ordinary story of a woman, the lives of women who have lived in the past century faced extraordinary times. Your heart leaps when Millicent’s does and breaks when hers does and so to have to be a fictional character, well, it breaks my heart. I guess that I believed until the very end points to the fact that it was so well written and researched. I didn’t want to believe that I could have been duped.

I read this story slowly. It got me through a really bad cold. It was someone’s life. I couldn’t just callously rush through it and it was worth it. And then I got to the very last page and was crushed. Oh no, Millicent is not real. Crap.

Millicent starts her diary in 1914 but she was born in 1901, yep that's right so she is a young girl in WWI and a modern woman in WWII. She catalogs a lot of fascinating events that happen to both her, her family and her friends throughout all of these major events as they hit Europe and affect the rest of the world. After WWII her life has been altered dramatically and we see how in her 40s now she reacts to 'modern' times. 

I myself am not a diary keeper. This may shock you since I religiously keep this blog but I tried as a little girl to keep a diary, probably around the same age Millicent herself first picked up pen and paper and found that I bored myself with my own musings and it was too much of a chore. However, Millicent’s is fascinating and spirited. As far as I know, no one I am close with religiously keeps a diary but is this something they would readily share with you because I do feel like it’s a very private thing.

After doing a little research on this book, I quickly discovered that I am not the only one who was shocked to discover that Millicent was not real! Some people even refused to believe it :) So yeah, if you are in for a little twist on history from one woman's perspective I would definitely recommend this one!

Cover Lust: I think this cover is just perfect. It fit the whole mystique that it is was from a real person having actual photos on the cover!