12 1/2 PLYMOUTH STREET

by Ruth Parks ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 23, 1950

Report repeated from 10/1/50 bulletin when scheduled for December publication, under the title Poor Man's Orange, as follows: ""A pinpoint reportage of Plymouth Street, Surry Hills, the slum section of Sydney, explores the grubby to grimly humorous events in the life of the Darcy family whose Irish heritage is the leaven for their subhuman existence. There is Hugh, whose last flare of passion for a callous whore almost breaks Mumma's heart; Mumma, who fights medical care dementedly; Roie, whose marriage to part-Negro Charlie is all happiness; and Dolour, whose pangs of growing up are intensified by a bad skin and worse eyes which force her to leave school. They evade and ignore the chance to leave their filthy house with its rampant animal life; they practice the careless charity of the poor in housing a vagrant; Roie dies and Mumma copes with her two children; Dolour has terrifying experiences in the shop where she works with hothanded boys; but the Darcys cling to their hovel, defying betterment. A vivid print of one section of the Australian metropolis, this, while realistic is not deeply penetrating.

Pub Date: Jan. 23, 1950

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Houghton, Mifflin

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1950

Categories: FICTION