Michelle Gallen

Eighteen year old Maeve Murray has her future planned out. Waiting for her A-level results to be published, she decides to take a summer job in a shirt factory with her closest friends Aoife and Caroline to earn some money before she moves to London to pursue higher education with the intention of embarking on a career in journalism. She can’t wait to get out of her Northern Ireland town and start a new life. Her first step towards independence is getting a summer job (despite the fact that she has to deal with an unpleasant boss whose treatment of his female employees is disrespectful to say the least) and renting a flat with her friend Caroline near her (temporary) workplace. Over the next few months, we follow Maeve as she adjusts to life as a factory worker, meets new people and makes new friends all the while hoping for a better future.

Michelle Gallen’s Factory Girls is an entertaining novel. Maeve is spirited (a bit brash at times) and resourceful. She observes and learns from her experiences, not all of which are pleasant. Set in the summer of 1994, in a small town in Northern Ireland during the last years of the Troubles, this novel gives us a vivid picture of the social and political landscape during those turbulent years. The author touches upon themes of divisiveness between the factions (more political than religious), sectarianism, bias, conflict, sexism and economic hardship, through an engaging narrative and a protagonist you keep rooting for. The narrative is shared from Maeve’s perspectives and we get to know more about her from her memories, which are presented to us through flashbacks. Maeve’s experiences in the factory in a mixed group of people which she considers to be a learning experience that will help her when she moves to London. A likeable protagonist, a cast of interesting characters, a good dose of humor and wit, and the historical context is what works for this novel. However, it took a bit of time to get into the story and I felt that the initial fifty percent of the novel suffers from minor repetitiveness. It also took a while to get used to the dialect. Despite some minor flaws, I did enjoy Michelle Galen’s Factory Girls. I can’t help wonder if we will get more stories from the author featuring Maeve, as she embarks on a new life.

Many thanks to Michelle Gallen, Algonquin Books and NetGalley for the advance copy of this novel. All opinions expressed in this review are my own. This novel is due to be released in the USA on November 29, 2022.

My Rating : 3.5⭐️

#FactoryGirls… (meer)

What a relief not to be 27 year old Majella O'Neill of the miserable small town of Aghybogey, N. Ireland, near the Free State border, a place just as awful as its name sounds. Working in A Salt and Battered!, a chipper (fast food /fried fish shop) and observing its patrons endlessly to the tune of "Wha can I get chew?", Majella's beloved Gran has been robbed, beaten, and has died from an assault, her Ma is an alcoholic, and her Da disappeared after his cousin died during the Troubles. Now there's a shaky peace, but Majella is stuck, with few friends and little to look forward to. Somewhat paralyzed by her inertia and her obsessive-compulsive, self-soothing habits, even a trip to a bigger town to buy a new comforter requires a major decision and a dreaded excursion. For all that's negative, there's something about Majella that is admirable and sympathetic, mostly her sense of humor and her hilariously brutal analysis of the foibles of her neighbors. For an American reader, poring through the unfamiliar slang, the casual cruelty, the sex and gossip, is like being exposed to an entirely new world – completely enjoyable to visit but relief that it isn’t your home. But, as is told, joy could come in the morning.… (meer)