Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #176283 in Books
• Published on: 1998-06-18
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

Synopsis
Sybil Ross has been brought up by her Jewish furrier father and style-obsessed mother to be an empty-headed fashion plate. But on the worst night of Liverpool's blitz she uncovers a secret that leaves her disorientated and eventually leads her to the very edge of America and a final choice.

From the Publisher
Remarkable prize-winning tale of fashion and communism
Sybil Ross has been brought up by her Jewish furrier father and style-obsessed mother as an empty-headed fashion plate. Only on the worst night of Liverpool's Blitz does she uncover a secret that leaves her disoriented, belonging nowhere. When the war is over, Sybil embarks on a voyage that takes her from Liverpool to New York City, through fashion, jazz, Communism, McCarthyism and love, and ultimately to the furthest coast of the continent and a final choice. The Cast Iron Shore is a beautiful evocation of one woman's journey from the 1930s to the 1990s, combining the personal and political in an outstanding first novel. Winner of the David Higham Award, shortlisted for the Guardian Fiction Prize. "In Sibyl Ross, Grant has given us a female protagonist to match the end of the twentieth century" Lisa Jardine; "A remarkable chronicle of the second half of the twentieth century...Grant offers us big ideas and a clever plot, along with some truly fine writing" Daily Telegraph

Customer Reviews

Disappointing pastiche
There is nothing guaranteed to make you question your sanity more than a mediocre novel whose dustjacket is strewn with gushing superlatives, but this is one of those experiences. What is the point of this book? Written in a very pedestrian style, and from a boringly retrospective, 'memoirist' position, it lacks any sort of narrative pace or force. The preface was promising but it soon descended into the most unmemorable kind of cliche, as though the author had written an academic thesis on the subject then decided to trouser a bit of cash by fleshing fact out with a few shallow fictive characters (none of whom come convincingly alive). There must be better novels about the American communist experience than this.

Times Remembered
I feel strange to write this about the Cast Iron Shore having just finished When I Lived in Modern Times. Yet the pleasure I received from that triggered off recollections of the other.
I do think a comparison with Philip Roth is valid. There is a similar sense of an exploration of the political and historical, through the development of a personal narrative which acts as a trigger for personal development.
I cant recommend this, (which first intrigued me because the heroine's father, like my own, was a furrier) and When I Lived in Modern Times, highly enough.

"an eery and very moving American odyssey
A year on from first reading this novel, I'm amazed at how I still find myself unsettled by its impact. Linda Grant's heroine is the ultimate exile. Her odyssey twists the cliches of modern American fiction: She makes the journey out West -- but never gets to California. As a British born, Jewish Communist she views the American dream through the wrong side of a mirror. Having read a great deal of African American fiction I found Grant's portrayal of the relationship with the callow Black intellectual boyfriend fascinating. This novel isn't afraid to tackle the cruelty that lurks in human beings, even when supposedly dedicated to a great cause. And it's not afraid to be bleak about people who realise they may have dedicated their life to a pointless cause. The more "great" American literature you've read, the more I think you'll be surprised at how fresh and original this novel is. by the way.. that cover photo of the glamour girl by the 50s convertible is either totally ironic or very misleading. But I can't recommend this highly enough.