Poor Cow - Nell Dunn

POOR COW – NELL DUNN

My only problem with Nell Dunn is that she was upper middle class writing about the working class and this has never sat comfortably with me because I've always believed the working class should be writing about themselves, not having it done by others. That said, with Nell Dunn all is forgiven because essentially she was an observer and her observations are very truthful. Unlike most other writers from different backgrounds writing about the working class, she's neither condescending, patronising, mocking or critical but rather supportive, sympathetic and participatory.

Poor Cow was Nell Dunn's second book following the success of her début, Up The Junction. It was published in 1967 and with that in mind it's a surprise in just how adult it is in its subject matter and how ribald the language is.

Actually, the subject matter isn't so much 'adult' just unexpectedly honest, open and unflinching. There's no pretension, no coyness, no shame and no agenda just a refreshing transparency in saying how it is whether it's regarding sex or crime or the nuts and bolts of everyday living.

Poor Cow is a series of snapshots of a young girl's life, living in London and bringing up a baby alone. Life, however, is never a straightforward narrative from A to B but more like a ball being flipped around a pinball machine with the bells and the buzzers and the flashing lights adding not only to the delight but to the frustration.

Poor Cow is a patchwork quilt of monologues, plain storytelling, letters (complete with spelling mistakes), snippets of songs, anecdotes and memories. The whole creating a tapestry of working class life described by one of the characters as having one foot in the grave and the other in the gutter.

All that the main character wants is that which she only deserves but life is a perpetual struggle so happiness when it comes is grabbed at with both hands only for it to always slip through her fingers like sand. Her only constant source of joy is from that which she never asked for – her child.

On the one hand, Poor Cow is a depressing tale though on the other hand it contains a lot of humour ('Every bloke I've been with has bin very, very clean that's my main interest – if someone doesn't look clean I won't have anything to do with him – well I'll give him a wank, I'm not that selfish.') and the kind of lust for life that can only come from those with the odds stacked against them. Laughter in the face of adversity is a tool for survival used not only to smite the high and mighty but also wife beater husbands, men in general, nosey neighbours, and anyone really who might be the cause of grief. Tellingly, the main character uses laughter constantly against herself from start to finish.

Nell Dunn isn't what you might call a brilliant writer as such but she is a brilliant observer and Poor Cow is a very good example of this as is Up The Junction. Poor Cow is like the book form equivalent of having the words 'love' and 'hate' tattooed onto a pair of knuckles...

John Serpico