Donna recommends:
Bad Attitudes is a perfect duet of novellas. The title story – Bad Attitudes – revolves around a dysfunctional family who have been re-housed when the row of terraced houses they used to live in is slated for demolition, their nosy neighbour who doesn’t like noise, a man with mental health problems who refuses to leave the condemned street, a social worker, an adulterous councillor. Their interactions and intersections set off a chain of events that lead to…well, some not very good things. The second novella – Jen’s Party – is the story of mousy teenager Jen who lives with her dull, uptight mother and her definitely not dull, definitely not uptight Aunt Belle. Jen has no friends and her Aunt Belle decides that Jen needs a birthday party. All well and good except that Aunt Belle is louche, embarrassing and a shoplifter.
Agnes Owens’ writing is sparse, simple and down-to-earth, but with so much going on beneath the surface. She is great at portraying characters whose realities are slightly skewed, but who could quite easily be the people who live next door. Her characters are ordinary, working-class people just trying to get on with things They don’t philosophise or moralise or ask the big questions – they’re too busy concentrating on the humdrum.Agnes Owens peels back the layers of their lives with a wicked glee, lots of dark humour and a touching humanity. She is proof that you can show the complexity of human nature without complicated prose or fancy flourishes.
