![]() ![]() She didn't offer to put the kettle on or make toast, nor did she start rummaging through Perdita's vegetables, exclaiming with delight or horror at what she found. Janey had taken on the appearance of a rabbit in thrall to a stoat. How are you?'Greg and Janey nodded stiffly, but didn't speak. The disappearance of the boob chart was the ultimate symbol of the end of Enzo's regime: an evil dictator had dethroned him.Aware that she had become the focus of attention, and that the evil dictator was wearing a very familiar scowl, Perdita decided to pretend everything was as normal. The person with the most cock-ups - usually Enzo - brought in some lagers to be drunk after service on Saturday night. As had the fat string of garlic, brought over from France by someone, the chilli peppers, too hot to use but so cheerful and the 'boob chart', a list of the mistakes made over the week. The large pots of fresh herbs, grown by Perdita, had disappeared from the windowsill. In its place was a smart white board and marker pen without so much as a smiley face to relieve its blankness. ![]() Janey, the young sous-chef, who looked about seventeen, had tried to confine her Pre-Raphaelite hair under a white cap but, like its owner, Perdita suspected, it was desperately trying to escape.The grease-spattered, doodled-on calendar, marked with everyone's holidays and birthdays, no longer hung by the telephone. Instead of a pair of brightly coloured cotton trousers, be-sloganed sweatshirt and a striped apron in one case, and a pair of ripped jeans and grubby T shirt, in the other, the they wore white overalls and chef's trousers. In fact no one seemed to be doing anything.The other two occupants of the kitchen were still justrecognisable, but looked completely different. ![]() No one was singing, swearing, or clattering pots and pans. The noise and clutter had all gone, as had the cheery hum of Radio One, a Greek chorus to the hubbub of the kitchen. The friendly, busy place she had been delivering veg to for five years had metamorphosed into something akin to an operating theatre. She had an impression of a strange whiteness. ![]() The rest of the kitchen had been affected too. How the hell should I know?'Perdita suddenly became aware that it wasn't only Enzo that had undergone a hideous transformation. Where's Enzo?''Fucked off to sunny Napoli, I expect. 'No.''So you've got bolshi in your old age, have you? You always were difficult.''I'm not at all difficult. How could short, plump, amiable and easy-going Enzo have, almost overnight, turned into the tall, black-browed monster she had divorced ten years before? Somehow she got herself across the threshold.'And take off those bloody gumboots! This is a professional kitchen, not a farmyard!'Perdita looked down at her feet and noticed that the floor was a lot cleaner than usual. Throughout this appalling story, we are shown and told of Lucas’ bullying behaviours- which are all forgiven and acceptable- since he is a talented chef….'Well? Are you going to come in? Or just stand in the doorway with your trug, looking picturesque?'Perdita was almost paralysed with shock and confusion. Furthermore- the heroine and her feisty godmother reflect on her inexperience as the reason for her husband’s (Lucas)infidelity. This novel does not portray this paradigm as wrong but rather sets out the heroine’s hapless, pathetic and excessive use of denial as good qualities! At one point, we are told that the heroine being young and inept in daily skills was why her husband had an affair with an older woman. This story depicts bullying and betrayal in a marriage as acceptable The main protagonist is a young woman with very poor self esteem who is taken advantage of by men. ![]()
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