LOVE CHANGES EVERYTHING (Two Women - Martina Cole)

Member Name: Fantasybeliever

Product:	Two Women - Martina Cole
Date:	23/11/04 (327 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Gripping storyline, Strong characterisation

Disadvantages: Violence, Bad language

Having been so impressed by my first Martina Cole experience it’s hardly surprising that I’ve picked up another book by the same author so soon. It looks as if Martina Cole’s central theme is “strong” East End women, who demonstrate unconditional love for their children and are expert at overcoming adversity. Two Women is written in the same vein.

Susan is a plain ordinary girl, child of an alcoholic, violent father and an abusive, distant, promiscuous mother. This book IS Susan’s story from her violent, abusive, adolescent childhood through to her journey into the adult world.

Cole has a talent for drawing the reader in and making them feel empathy for her characters. This child/woman (she’s often treated as a woman at the tender age of 14, because she has large breasts!) is a deep, thoughtful girl who shows a love of books, and aspires to better herself. However, after the condescending behaviour of a teacher and abuse at the hands of her father, Susan runs straight into a violent, abusive marriage, heavily pregnant at just 16.

Susan ends up with four children (after having many others “beaten out of her”) who are her life, whom she loves unconditionally and who she is determined will have a better start in life than she had. She does this through the true love of a mother and she is rewarded with the adoration and unconditional love of her children. Her husband is a violent, drunken lout who really just took the place of her father, bullying and manipulative and undermining Susan at every opportunity, through beatings, rape and promiscuity.

There is nothing Susan will not do to protect her children. This story is about the extent to which Susan will go to protect her children from harm and keep them safe.
After one particularly life changing incident, Susan forms a friendship with the unlikeliest ally – her husband’s lover. The “two women” become the best of friends, forming a deep, lasting and unbreakable friendship that ends up lasting a lifetime. It could be said that this book is testament to the strength and depth of some female friendships.

To say any more about the story itself would be to give the plot away, and I don’t intend to do that. This book is worthy of reading the story for yourself.

My opinion of the book is that I was initially disappointed, as I felt that the overall quality of writing was not as good as my first Martina Cole experience of reading “The Know”.

The first half of the book in my opinion is too long. I can see what the author has tried to achieve here; I think she has tried to set the scene for the most significant aspect of the story. She paints hideously violent domestic situations over and over and over again. The language is designed to shock and it does with the *F* word being common place two or three times in every sentence. The story at this point in the book is not “articulated” well, but having now finished the book I begin to understand why, although I still believe that this could have been achieved more concisely, not to mention articulately.

What Cole achieves through the use of colloquial language and speech is the drawing in of the reader into the lifestyle, environment and personalities of the central characters. The second half of the book moves out of the East End family environment into one where a different class, culture and lifestyle are evident and this is supported by a “sharper” story telling style.

Another thing that Martina Cole does well is tie up loose ends in a storyline. Everything is tidied up, loose threads trimmed, “packages” boxed and conclusions reached, so the reader is left in no doubt that this is the end of the story. I have mixed feelings about this personally. I like it and yet I end up yearning for that feeling of “wanting to know more”.

Men are not given a particularly good press in any of the Cole novels that I’ve read so far. They have a tendency to be weak, violent bullies with a fondness for alcohol. However, I found I liked some male characters in “The Know”, but there were definitely no likeable rogues on this occasion!

On the whole, another sensational, thrilling, compelling offering from this author. The read definitely draws you in and at points you do not want to put the book down. At other times, the violence had me putting the book down in disgust; but that could be my over active imagination!

As I moved into the second half of the book, I found it harder to put down, and recovered from the initial disappointment as the story then started moving at a much faster pace.

I certainly enjoyed this book, although I doubt if I would read this particular one again. However, it has indeed confirmed that I’ll be looking out for other Martina Cole offerings in the future.

Thanks for reading.

Cheers

© Christina ;-) x

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