Meet Maeve Murray. In Michelle Gallen’s novel Factory Girls, it is 1994 and Maeve lives in a small town in Northern Ireland. She has just graduated from high school, and is anxiously awaiting her exam results. Maeve has big dreams to escape her small town, move to London, and study journalism at university.
But before she can do all that, Maeve needs to find a job. She, along with her best mates, Caroline and Aoife, gets a summer job at the local shirt factory. Maeve’s job is hardly glamorous, and it’s a million miles away from a career in journalism. Maeve is going to be ironing shirts at the factory all day. But she’s happy to make some money, and soon she and Caroline get their very own flat.
At the helm of the shirt factory is the very posh Andy Strawbridge. You know he’s posh because he drives a fancy Jag. Being Irish and Catholic, Maeve is a bit leery of the British and Protestant Andy. Plus, Andy has a bit of a reputation for being a total letch.
Andy seems to find some promise in Maeve, or maybe he’s just trying to get into her knickers. He does gift her with the Dale Carnegie classic book, How to Win Friends and Influence People. Maeve takes the book. Maybe Andy wants to mentor her. But at the same time she wonders if he has lasciviousness designs on her.
Working at the shirt factory is the first time Maeve finds herself working and conversing with Protestants. She has always lived among Catholics and went to Catholic schools. Protestants might as well have been from Mars according to Maeve. Remember. This is 1990s Northern Ireland. The Troubles were still brewing, and Catholics and Protestants often kept among themselves. And violence was a regular occurrence. So one can’t blame Maeve for being a bit wary of her Protestant co-workers. Though it isn’t long before Maeve realizes she has more in common with these Protestants than she originally thought, and they may have to join forces when things come a bit upended at the shirt factory.
And then there is the Murray family. Maeve and her family are still mourning the tragic death of Deidre, Maeve’s older sister who committed suicide. Deeply saddened, Maeve’s Mam (mother) and Da (father) are also racked by a serious lack of money, and they aren’t exactly supportive of Maeve’s ambition.
During this summer, Maeve starts to grow up a bit and she starts to see there is a lot o grey when it comes to the strict black and white between Catholics and Protestants, and the Irish and the English. She begins the notices the class differences between herself and her friend, Aoife, who comes from a much more well to do family. Maeve deals with family strife, unrequited love, and workplace shenanigans. quite a lot for someone who is still a teenager.
And then there is Maeve’s eagerly awaited exam results. Will her results be favorable and she’ll end up at university? Or will her results me dismal and she’ll be stuck in her small town working a shite job with no future. Scary how so much is dependent on these exam results.
Maeve Murray is an interesting lass with a lot of layers. One moment she’s a partying teenager, drinking to much and cussing up a storm. And then she’s a struggling young woman who seems to have the whole world on her shoulders. But still she’s a protagonist one roots for.
Now one warning. There is a lot of Irish slang is this book that I wasn’t too familiar with. So thanks to O’Lord McGoogle, I was able to look up some Irish slang. FYI-craic means “a good time,” Prods are Protestants and Taigs are Catholics, and weans are children. Also, if you’re not familiar of the Troubles, I highly recommend doing so research.
Factory Girls takes place in 1994, but I can’t help but wonder where Maeve Murray and her mates are nearly thirty years later. Is Maeve a globe-trotting journalist? Is she still friends with Caroline and Aoife? Is Maeve married? Does she have children? I do think a sequel is necessary.
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