Margaret Forster Diary of an Ordinary Woman

Reviewed by PAT BASKETT

This novel begins with a deceit - that of Forster being approached by the niece of a 98-year-old woman who has kept a diary since she was 13. The niece wants to know what she should do with the diaries after her Aunt Millicent's death, and is pleased when Forster agrees to edit them.

But no 13-year-old ever wrote like Forster. For her fans, this will cause no problem - they will sink into the day-by-day accounts of a young girl growing up during World War I, of her struggles to achieve an education and then find work. Millicent's various love affairs will absorb them and they will identify with her decision, after World War II, to bring up her sister's orphaned young twins. Later, they'll be moved by the growing collision of two generations, and the failure of Millicent and her niece and nephew to communicate.

My problem is with the flat nature of Forster's prose, and with the effect of this on character. Millicent sounds nice enough as a person - intelligent, literate - so I felt it was a pity Forster couldn't do her justice. Enliven her with a bit of poetry, perhaps, or have her use a word with more than two syllables occasionally?

Chatto & Windus, $64.95