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Foreign PartsAuthor: Janice Galloway British Literature Series September 1995 262 pages, 5.5 x 8.5 Paperback, 1-56478-082-1 Retail Paperback Price: Our Paperback Price: $10.36 
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Book Description
When it was first published in Great Britain, Foreign Parts was described as "a road movie for feminists . . . a funny, sharp and gutsy portrayal of female friendship," and "a painstakingly crafted, multilayered investigation of contemporary female experience." What begins as a driving holiday in Northern France for two Scotswomen turns into a caustic and funny account of dysfunctional relationships—both between men and women and between women friends.
Cassie and Rona—in their late thirties, both single and childless—are on each other's nerves from the moment they cross the Channel: Cassie is testy and cynical, Rona patient and plodding. Both are self-conscious of the fact that they seem to fit the stereotype of two spinsters linked by loneliness, and consequently rebel against the notion that a woman needs a man to feel complete. Faced with the dilemma of "fancying men and not liking them very much," the women ponder alternatives as they endure one tourist nightmare after another.
About the Author
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Janice Galloway was born in 1956 in Saltcoats, Scotland. In 1994 she was awarded the E. M. Forster Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She wrote Blood (1991), a collection of short stories named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and novels such as The Trick is To Keep Breathing (1989), Foreign Parts (1994), and Clara (2002). She has one son and lives and works in Glasgow, Scotland. |
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Praise
"It's funny, rich and quite brilliantly observed . . . The insight into female friendship in the book is unsurpassed in recent literature."—Catherine Lockerbie, Scotsman"Overwhelmingly this novel bursts with the sense of lives unfolding; each vivid paragraph, each fresh page engaging the reader in real lives lived . . . Foreign Parts glints with flecks of brilliance, the ore of magic. Her best book yet."—Tom Adair
"In Foreign Parts, Janice Galloway has ventured further into her established territory of language, gender, power and dependency. That this enjoyable novel wears its complexity and depth so lightly is an indication of her ambition, control and remarkable craft."—Lavinia Greenlaw, Times Literary Supplement
"Every detail . . . is described with the accuracy of an X-ray and the urgency of poetry."—Penelope Mortimer, Daily Telegraph (London)
"Unsentimental, caustic, brilliantly observed and often very funny, it is a constantly changing delight to read."—Lisa Tuttle, Time Out
"Travel is a backdrop for a sharp, funny, tender but never maudlin dissection of what it means to be friends."—Publishers Weekly