Hope Farm

Members of my reading group have read and loved this book. Here are some of their thoughts below:

'absolutely loved this book and have whizzed through it in 2 sittings’

'a unique story on lives you would never normally hear about and a soul searching look into how events can change the course of your life’.

'Silver and her mother are both so strong and yet so broken in equal measure and the descriptions of both of them were beautifully and sincerely written'

'It was a heart breakingly positive story and I'm pleased it told the story all the way through to the end so we could see the inevitable conclusions.'

A very interesting discussion of this book’s characters, plot and writing took place in our meeting. Some members of the group felt that the plot was predictable with one finding it a stunted storyline and boring. All agreed that the book was well written with some flashes of excellent description: our introduction to Jindi, the physicality of Miller and his initial hold over Ishtar and the Ruth Rendellesque depiction of Silver’s clandestine observation of Ian at his “trap” being some examples of this excellence. Certain characters and environments, it was agreed, were very well developed so that readers had clear images of dimensionality. Ian and the commune, at the ironically named Hope Farm, were particularly well evoked.

The major contentions within the group were: was Ishtar a good mother and why didn’t she take up Dan’s offer to leave the commune and go with him to America? It was interesting that the men in the group thought Ishtar was a bad mother, with one finding her behaviour toward Silver to border on child abuse. The females in the group were more forgiving, defending Ishtar, finding that the author had shown, through the coldness of Ishtar’s own parents’ style of parenting, why she behaved as she did.

Not leaving with Dan also divided members, with a man seeing it as a foolish act as leaving would have given her and her daughter a better life. The women felt that, by not going with Dan, Ishtar was breaking the habits of her past and seeking independence, something that she claimed to want.

Hope Farm may have had an ending that was a little too obvious – something bad would happen readers knew and it was too easy to guess what, but the book was an easy read (indicative of good writing, for one member of the group) and, for most group members, an entertaining read.

Hope Farm By Peggy Frew

On starting to read this book, I was very much aware that the topic and context were outside my comfort zone and it took me a while to get ‘into’ it. Although I grew up in the 60s I somehow missed the whole ‘hippy’ thing, and the thought of children being moved chaotically here and there somewhat upsets me.However, I pressed on and I’m so glad I did.

The double story running through the book, that of Ishtar and Silver, poignantly shows how little connection there was between mother and daughter, after the first few months of Silver’s life. There is not one section where each other’s version of events matches, particularly in the impact that events had on those two people.

The voice of Silver is solid, responsible, thoughtful and remarkable. The tenacity of this young child is quite amazing and shows how resourceful little human beings can be if required. However, her later hardening towards her mother is distressing to the reader, who knows what Ishtar went through in order to keep her as a baby in the first place. Seen from Silver’s perspective, her life was intolerable, and her mother ought to have seen and remedied this, with security and protection. But is Ishtar selfish, brave or irresponsible?

Her narrative commences after the conception of Silver, and shows how strong an individual she had to be to survive with unsupportive conservative parents (mother especially) and a heartless judgmental system, which condemned girls in her situation. The social worker at the hospital accused Ishtar of being selfish for keeping her baby, when needy childless couples were offering ‘good’ homes. Her action in keeping Silver and turning to the Path, kick started a rollercoaster life of repeated relationships, patters of behavior and an inevitable downward spiral.

At no time after the first few months of Silver’s life did Ishtar appear to put the child’s needs before her own. Although hardworking, Ishtar seemed oblivious to the emotional and physical need of her child, and always put herself first.

When stability ever entered Ishtar’s life she seemed to repel it, as in when she met the ‘piano player’ and Dan at Hope Farm. Perhaps neither would have been ideal partners but her reaction was to distance herself from safe and stable relationships, and this perhaps mirrored the rejection she felt of her parents.

The light at the end of the tunnel is Linda. Dependable, sensible, responsible and willing to take in a child (adolescent at that) she had only just met, let alone knew about. Linda appears to be everything that Ishtar is not, and is the perfect ‘landing’ for Silver after the trauma at Hope Farm.

Finding her mother’s notebooks, posthumously, does not ‘solve’ the lifelong impact of Silver’s relationship with her mother. Maybe it made her see some purpose to her mothers actions, but the narrative does nothing to address the lack of protection she felt she needed throughout her young years, or the knowledge that her mother simply did not carry her daughters concerns alongside her own.

The relationship with Ian is interesting and provides further insight into what Silver had learnt through living this itinerant life. She is accepting of his foibles and works out in a mature way his proclivity, and he in return was solid and dependable when the time came. I liked the fact that he became an actor and flourished in that profession.

So, my feeling after reading the book is that although a parent should seldom think of giving away a child, perhaps the social worker was right (but for the wrong reasons) that Ishtar was selfish in not giving her baby the ‘best’ start in life by giving her for adoption. Her subsequent actions throughout the life of this story certainly show her as self-absorbed and selfish. However, who is to say that living in the chaotic environment of Hope Farm (and places that preceded it) didn’t give Silver her tenacity, making her resilient and a very special individual?

I’d recommend this book to anyone!

Chrissie Bailey