Our London Lives by Christine Dwyer Hickey
An epic yet intimate tale of immigration, Christine Dwyer Hickey's Our London Lives is a beautiful mediation on the everyday
Focusing on the lives of two Irish incomers to London, Christine Dwyer Hickey’s Our London Lives is a novel which manages to be epic yet intimate. It opens in 1979 with a young Milly arriving in the city pregnant and alone. Dependent on the kindness of strangers, she is fortunate to find shelter and support in the form of Trish and the enigmatic Mrs Oak, and the East End pub they run. From behind the bar she finds herself imperceptibly attracted to promising boxer Pip. What follows is a beautifully written conversation which unfolds between chapters and over the years.
In the past, events unfold for Milly as she loves, loses, and tries to survive as a woman who thinks the best of people even though they continue to let her down. Pip’s chapters see him reflecting back from 2017 on what his alcoholism, and other demons, have cost him. Newly sober, and determined to make amends – or at least apologise – to those he has hurt, he tries to find his way back to Milly and the promise of salvation she seems to offer. Offering no easy answers or neat conclusions, this is a very honest and perceptive depiction of relationships, with an understanding of the drama of the everyday. With Our London Lives, Christine Dwyer Hickey has written a novel full of heart and humanity, flirting with stereotypes to look at the truth behind them.