Book Review By Mirror CK

Like a double helix, Mirror Mirror on the Wall winds twisted turns through the evolution of Britain's society and meanders along its development of norms through seven recent decades. Family dialogues introduce contentious topics of stratification and privilege in Britain. They trigger somber analyses, with additional dialogues supporting arguments in a refreshing and suspenseful writing style. Boyle untangles the effects of the liberation from the economic constraints suffered during and after World War II on a class-driven populace that, at long last, recovers its respected, even influential and dominating place in the world. In parallel strands of development, class structures crumble ever so slowly, often at the expense of persons and matters foreign, while women strive against the odds to enter realms and freedoms outside of the hearth and home domain persistently assigned to them. Often as unaware victims, determined guardians of the crusty class construct confront such progression while grudgingly acknowledging downsides of British rule over large swaths of the globe. Racism and xenophobia sprout, as does misogyny in these decades, culminating in strands of the helix dissolving and families disintegrating as innate notions of the societal pyramid fail them. Boyle embraces the maturing of the nation in its affiliation with Europe from which it ultimately grows estranged. As Britain turns inward, new oddities in politics and economics strike the author as self-inflicted wounds, and in later decades Boyle reveals in dialogues and scrutiny sentiments touching on personal emotions - arguably incompatible with the national norm characterized by the stiff upper lip. The resulting thread from fact-driven opening to a fraying finish invites the reader to compassionately discover the soul of the nation as well as its effects on its constituent components: men, women, family.

Clemens Kochinke, Washington, DC

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