There is Alice, now seventy, born the illegitimate child of a servant in England. Alice recounts to a researcher her full life story - the orphanage, a servant girl in New Zealand and her marriage. Parallel with Alice's tale, her daughter Joy narrates her story of a life with its disappointments and particularly the grief at having her contact with the long lost child. The stories make great reading, each woman striving against the odds to make the best of a life that society has imposed on them. Each generation has its own challenges and these women are survivors.
Men appear but briefly in the story.
They are for the most part quickly sketched, stereotyped males - good, bad and indifferent. This is a story of how the women feel and react. Each woman has her own clearly drawn personality, and her chance to say her piece. There are subtle individual interpretations of events and family members, and this gives a lot of reality to the story. My only criticism would be that I feel the novel lacks humour.