Do you think a place can have a transformative power over its occupant? Aside from simply being a shelter it can give a sense of security and a feeling of comfort. At the beginning of Lynne Reid Banks's The L-Shaped Room, however, the L-shaped room that Jane Graham rents is nothing more than a pathetic, squalid space that is more a punishment for her sins than the place of refuge it will eventually become. Published in 1960 The L-Shaped Room offers an unflinching look at one young woman who refuses to live according to society's narrow strictures when she becomes pregnant. In the opening pages, she's a prickly, angry woman who is always at the ready to give criticism, but by the end of the story will know and understand herself and those around her better and be a much stronger woman for it.
"There wasn't much to be said for the place, really, but it had a roof over it and a door which locked from the inside, which was all I cared about just then. I didn't even bother to take in the details; they were pretty sordid, but I didn't notice them so they didn't depress me--perhaps because I was already at rock-bottom."
Already in her mid-twenties Jane isn't particularly young when she discovers she's pregnant, but she is alone, which is an unacceptable position to be in ca. 1959. She even waited to have a love affair, and when it did happen it wasn't the happy experience she was expecting. As a young actress she lives a bohemian existence--cobbling together meals with her fellow actors, sharing a flat and getting by with little money, but what she does she does well. When an encounter with a jealous actor leaves her unemployed she refuses to return home before her father expects her. If anything she is proud and self-reliant, so when she begins working in a cafe and gossiping customers come in for the show--the show being actress Jane and her undignified exit from the theater, she manages very well despite the stares and talk. Her stoniness will serve her well later when she really needs courage and composure.
Although not particularly close to her father, who raised her on his own, Jane returns home and to a respectable job in a hotel. If her father could imagine the most terrible thing Jane could do, it would be to take to drink, but when she tells him she's pregnant he's horrified and angry. Jane had manufactured a trip to France with one idea in mind, which was to cross paths with a former fellow actor she had been friends with. The friendship turns into something more during her holiday, but it proves to be a disappointment in more ways than one. Romance doesn't bloom and when she realizes later the condition she is in, she doesn't try and seek him out. Instead she leaves home, her father's harsh words at her back and ends up in a sad, bedbug-infested rooming house.
She immediately laments her choice--dingy, dirty and cramped. The L-shaped room is what's leftover when another room has been carved out of a larger space to make two flats. Why hadn't she chosen somewhere bright and clean, but perhaps this is punishment for her sins--her surroundings matching her emotional state and feelings of despair. Although she will come to doubt her decisions, from the very beginning she plans on having the baby and having him by herself and what's more--keeping him, but it's a secret she keeps closely guarded and away from the rest of the boarders at the rooming house, or at least hopes to for as long as she can. As a matter of fact she doesn't plan on interacting with anyone else if she can manage it. And managing it all is the problem. Can she keep her job? Unlikely as the months progress. How will she pay for herself and the baby? How can she live alone and with a child.
It isn't until she begins to get past her anger and begins accepting the overtures of friendship from her neighbors does her life start to come together in a way that will make her happy. It will be a bumpy road, however, as she determines which friendships are true, one even blossoming into a romance based on something other than infatuation and lust. Whereas the squalid room at the beginning of the story reflected her inner turmoil, as she becomes more certain, so too does her room begin its own transformation. The L-shaped room becomes a sort of sanctuary until she reaches a point where she can stand on her own and it will not be needed.
"There was a strange, out-of-this-world moment when I understood with absolute clarity why I'd run away to the L-shaped room. I can't recapture it now, quite, but it was something to do with mirrors. It was as if I had hated my own face and wanted to escape from the mirrors which reflected it . . . only the mirrors turned into people, and it wasn't my face that was ugly, but me, as a person. No that was changed somehow, and the L-shaped room had served its purpose--as a mirrorless house would no longer be needed by someone whose blemish has gone."
I really enjoyed The L-Shaped Room. Lynne Reid Banks is a wonderful storyteller; I was wrapped up in Jane's life from the first page. She is an interesting character, blemishes and all, who changes and grows and matures by the end of the story. She wasn't particularly likable at the start but she redeems herself very worthily. There are two sequels to the novel, The Backward Shadow, and Two is Lonely. At the end of the story Jane feels a sense of contentedness with her life, even if it's not what you might call a spectacularly happy ending. I'm curious to see what happens next in Jane's life, but at the same time I found this such a satisfying read I'm not sure I'm willing to risk not liking the next book as much. In any case this is one worth keeping an eye out for.