Book Review: Factory Girls by Michelle Galen

Author: Michelle Galen
Title: Factory Girls
Narrator: Amy Molloy
Publication Info: Hachette Audio, 2022
Summary/Review:

Set in a small town in the north of Ireland in the summer of 1994, Factory Girls is the story of 18-year-old Maeve Murray.  While waiting for her exam results, Maeve joins her friends working at the local shirt factory, hoping at the end of the summer she’ll be able to leave for London to study journalism.  Sharp-witted and outspoken, Maeve finds herself side-by-side with Protestants for the first time as well as in the middle of the class conflict between university-bound people like herself and the working class people who make their living at the factory. But the events of the novel lead to increasing solidarity among the workers against “Handy Andy” Strawbridge, the unscrupulous English factory owner, who Maeve nevertheless finds herself attracted to.

The setting of young women in the 1990s trying to go about their everyday lives and figure out their futures against the existential threat of The Troubles brings to mind immediate comparisons to Derry Girls.  And there are similarities, but the humor in Factory Girls feels more grounded in real life than the goofiness of Derry Girls. It also can be more serious in tone, dealing with issues such as the death of her older sister and other heartbreaks.  And a flashback scene in which Maeve’s mother has to wash shattered glass off her children following a bombing is memorable for the matter-of-fact way she knows how to deal with what should be an extraordinary circumstance.  The ending has a dark twist, but remains hopeful.

Recommended books:
Rating: ***1/2

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