A fabulous account of a harrowing childhood (Ugly - Constance Briscoe)

Member Name: SmithSJ01

Product:	Ugly - Constance Briscoe
Date:	18/06/06 (1102 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to read and will make you reflect on you as a person

Disadvantages: I would like to know a little about Constance as an adult.

I picked this book up from the book clubs that go round workplaces. I hadn’t heard of the book but it looked interesting – this was purely from the front cover, and as usual, there are always special offers available. I thought to myself, if it isn’t a good read it hasn’t cost me a lot of money. How wrong could I be? A good read? This was an amazing read and well worth any amount of money.

The blurb on the back cover didn’t upset me, it just make me interested in finding out more about the mother of Constance Briscoe (or Clare as she was known throughout the novel). Without trying to sound harsh, you know what to expect when you pick up a book of this nature, and in some cases they do reach out to you, disturb you and stimulate your thoughts. This book was no exception and more so that some I have read. I actually read this over 2 days – something I can only do if I am so involved in the characters’ lives and in this case I was, especially with the relationship between Constance and her teacher ‘Miss K’.

For those unaware of how the book is compiled, Constance Briscoe provides an account of her childhood (up to 18 years of age). I liked the way it was written from her perspective, not addressing the abuse from her now adult eyes, but saying how it was then and it feels like the present tense. The family life was an interesting set up, the images I had of her mother were of a big, vibrant Jamaican woman (Carmen) and I had an image of her father (George) being quite intimidated by Carmen and this may have been the initial attraction. The way she describes her mother as being ‘slim and stunningly beautiful’ is quite intriguing, with regards how further down the page she simply states ‘ugly’, because this is how has been told she is.

By not being called Constance in the novel, and being called ‘Clear, Clearie and Clare’ it is no wonder she became confused as to who she was. Especially in light of how the brothers had such an easy life within the family. The brothers are very rarely mentioned and it is easy to forget how many people actually lived in the house and it soon became a story of Constance and her two sisters. It was interesting to see the relationship the children had with Denise, an adopted sister, especially as she was deemed to be the outsider of the family by the father (who wouldn’t acknowledge her) when in fact it was Constance who was made to feel like the outsider.

Reading her own interpretation of her childhood was thought provoking, making me stop and think about myself, what I would do if I saw a child present him/herself to me in some of the states Constance did. I realised, especially as a teacher, it can all too often just be easier to ignore what you see – as many of the teachers at her school did as they did not want to get a ‘bad reputation’ for the school. Miss K, her teacher was different – and Constance gained so much from this relationship, as did Miss K. Had this been a fiction book the author could have explored Miss K more, but it isn’t and instead I felt I read a wonderful piece of writing that never came across as her feeling sorry for herself or writing it for a specific purpose.

I would have liked to have read another 1 or 2 chapters where I could have found out a little about the adult Constance, although this may have prevented it from being such a wonderfully written account of how the child Constance saw the actions of the adults and other children around her.

An amazing book, one that should be read even if you do not normally like or entertain novels of this nature.

Summary: Go get it now! A compelling read.