Crooked Seeds by Karen Jennings

This is one of the most depressing books I have read for a long time, so don't for goodness sake buy it for anyone as a gift. The quality of writing is fine but the subject matter is grim and and the main character, Deirdre, is the most self centred, selfish and grubby individual you will ever hope to come across in a novel. The book is longlisted for this year's Women's Prize and I can only think it got there because it describes a female character that the judges couldn't help but find memorable.

Deirdre is a white woman living in South Africa, and after an explosion at her family home in her late teens, one of her legs was injured so badly that she had to have it amputated at the knee. She was offered a prosthetic leg, but didn't get on with it, so continues to use crutches and seems to prefer the more obvious evidence of her disability.

If all this sounds a bit harsh on a person who has had part of her leg amputated, then I'm sorry about that, but just reading the first ten pages will be enough to convince you that some people are just nasty - disability or not. Deirdre doesn't wash herself, her flat is a hovel and she shamelessly plays on her disability to get neighbours to help her out with things she just can't be bothered to do herself. In many ways she is a victim but whenever she has the opportunity to improve her circumstances, all she ever does is make them worse. There really is no helping some people and maybe that is the point the book is making.

Deirdre has been made to relocate to a block of flats after the authorities took over the dilapidated group of houses where her family lived. By the time the possession order came, her father had died and her elderly mother has had to go into a home because her mind was never the same after the trauma of the explosion. Her brother disappeared after being blamed for the blast and now, ten years later, the police want to talk to Deirdre as some potentially criminal evidence has been discovered buried in the rubble under her old house.

This book is in no way an easy read but the author has tackled some pretty difficult subjects here, and horrible as it is, I did read it to the end and I don't suppose I will forget it in a hurry.

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