The Boldness of Betty
Summary:
This book is set in Dublin in 1913, where Betty Rafferty is fourteen and has just had to finish school and begins her first job in a local tearoom. Betty is an intelligent and funny young woman, who loves reading and writing, and is already writing her memoir, the story of her life. The book is Betty’s memoir and diary, and despite being an ordinary girl, Betty’s story proves everyone’s voice and experience is important. Betty begins to see how unjust the world is, and she is troubled by how her friends and colleagues are treated. When she hears about a workers’ rights union from a woman she works with, she joins up too and soon finds herself at the middle of an important moment in Irish history.
Edited by: Dublin City University
Comment:
The novel deftly explores workers’ rights, women’s rights, and the rights of young people, and the intersection of these concerns. Though only fourteen, Betty is depicted as a powerful societal actor who can effect change and make a difference. Fair play, justice, and solidarity are key issues throughout and Betty enacts these issues through her own life. It is also a powerful coming-of-age story as Betty navigates many hardships and finds her voice on a personal and political level. Strong female friendships are a central concern, and through her best friend Samira, she is exposed to the complexities of Samira’s experience of race, and the injustices she experiences because of it, while simultaneously drawing the reader’s attention to the fact that Ireland has a longer multicultural history than is widely acknowledged. The portrayal of girls and women’s voices being important throughout history is emphasised through the many intertextual references to contemporary classics by and about women’s lives, which provide frames of reference for Betty, and through which she also learns that her own story is important.