Peerless Flats

Esther Freud’s second novel ‘Peerless Flats’ focuses on teenager Lisa who is studying drama at a sixth form college and who, with her bohemian mother and younger brother, lives in a rundown council flat in London. Her beautiful, unconventional older sister, Ruby, whom Lisa both envies ad adores, hangs out with drug-pushers and drop-outs and soon becomes addicted to hard drugs herself. Lisa, anxious about her mother and little brother (who appears to be on the autistic spectrum), tries to navigate the problems of adolescence, including her attraction to a boy who is fixated on her older sister, alongside worrying terribly about Ruby (who ends up being hospitalised for her addiction) - all of which results in Lisa suffering from acute anxiety and anorexia.As always, Esther Freud sets her scenes well and her descriptions of Lisa’s rackety life in London and her relationships with those around her, make for involving reading. However, (like Kate Hopkins, another reviewer here on Amazon) I have to mention that Lisa’s passivity (and also to a certain extent that of her mother’s) irritated me somewhat and although, considering their lifestyle and the choices available to them, I could sympathise with their lack of control in their lives, I still found it a little frustrating the way they seemed to drift along without considering the consequences of some of their actions. That said, I’m sure that life for those in their situation is most probably much harder than I can even imagine, and Esther Freud is only trying to tell it how it is for some people - however, I was pleased when finally it appeared that life was beginning to look a little more optimistic for Lisa and ended the book feeling glad to have read it.4 Stars.