The bottle factory outing door Beryl Bainbridge

Titel The Bottle Factory Outing About the author Beryl Bainbridge was born in Liverpool in 1934. She first worked as an actress playing young girls. After that she considered a career as a writer when she gave up acting because she was going to have a baby. She always puts some autobiographical elements in her books and things she have heard about or read in newspapers. (She worked in the bottle factory herself) She was a candidate for the 'Booker Prize' in 1996 but eventually she won the '
Whitbread Award for Fiction'. About the book Publisher Wolters Noordhoff Date of publication 1997 Date of first publication 1974 Title explanation Freda and Brenda work in a bottle factory, owned by Mr. Paganotti. Almost the whole story takes place on the day of the work's outing. On that day Freda wants to capture the heart of Vittorio. Brenda is trying to stay out of Rossi's clutches. Eventually Freda is found dead in the woods. Summary Brenda has left her husband Stanley in Yorkshire and moved to London. All alone she meets Freda and become friends with her. They decide to live together. They both work in a bottle factory. Freda is determined to capture the heart of Vittorio, an Italian colleague of her. Brenda is constantly trying to avoid her manager Rossi, who wants her to be intimate with him. She dislikes him but she doesn't say she doesn't like him because she is afraid of losing her job. Vottorio arrives at their place to offer his condolences for the 'death' of Freda's mother, which is made up by Brenda as excuse to not be intimate with Rossi, with Patrick, a colleague who is going to repair there toilet. Then Brenda's mother-in-law appears with a gun to shoot Brenda for what she has done to her son. She misses and the police arrives. On the Sunday of the Outing the van which had been ordered doesn't arrive. Most of the men go home, but Rossi, Freda, Brenda and Vittorio leave in Rossi's car, followed by some others in a red mini. They go to a place near Windsor Castle. At Windsor most things are closed. Rossi is trying to become intimate with Brenda. When Freda is alone with Vittorio Patrick disturbs them and she hates him for that. During their picnic Freda is attacked by somebody throwing stones at her in the wood. She throws back a big stone. Patrick is gone all the time. Brenda and Freda are having an argue and so are Rossi and Vittorio. Freda runs into the woods. When Brenda is going in the woods to find her she sees Freda laying dead with a broken neck. They decide to not tell the police. It is not sure who killed her. It could be Patrick or Rossi. They put her down at the 1st floor of the factory before putting her into a barrel of sherry, which will be thrown overboard at see. Then Rossi explains what happened: when he wanted to touch her she stepped back, fell and broke her neck. And so Brenda is all alone again without her husband and Freda. Character description / development Freda is the type of girl that just says what's on her mind. So she takes Brenda's part against Rossi and just say to him that if he didn't quit she will tell Mr. Paganotti. She's not very quiet and says what she wants. After the incident with Brenda's mother-in-law she becomes more quiet and subdued till the Outing-day. Then she is a little bit agitated by Patrick interference. After the argument with Brenda, she goes into the woods. She doesn't want Rossi to touch her and she brakes her neck by falling. Brenda is a soft person. She is surprised by actions of people and then she doesn't say something like Freda does. She doesn't really react. (Like her problem with Rossi) Because she doesn't say anything these things always happens to her. As she says in the story she 'attracts problems'. Brenda was alone after she left her husband Stanley Haddon. Then Brenda and Freda decided to live together so she wasn't alone anymore. But after Freda's death Brenda is alone again, no husband and friend.
Setting The story takes place at their apartment and Mr. Paganotti's bottle factory in London, at Windsor Castle and at a field and a wood near Windsor Castle. The whole story takes about a week in October. Especially at the outing's day and a couple of days before it. I think it has happened somewhere in sixties or seventies when the woman were more emancipated as before. Woman were 'allowed' to have a job then. And men 'didn't' look down at woman anymore like before. It also should be this period because the red, mini that goes with them to the place of the outing, is produced in the sixties. I think it couldn't be the eighties because the factory has not got many machines. Most work is done by hand. Point of view The story is written in the 3rd person by an omniscient author. Theme The story is about two girls who live together because they were alone. Freda dies and now Brenda is alone again. Genre The story is a psychological novel. Literary period The book is written after World War II in the modern period. (1945-…) Opinion (dutch) Ik vind het op zich wel een apart verhaal vanwege de onverwachte dood van Freda. Je denkt dan gelijk dat ze vermoord is, omdat ze niet diep in de put zat of iets dergelijks. Later blijkt dan dat het haar 'eigen' fout was. Wat ik verder nog raar vind is het idee om het niet aan de politie te vertellen, maar haar te laten verdwijnen door haar in een hele grote sherryvat te stoppen. Die wordt waarschijnlijk over boord gegooid op zee als ze erop zetten dat het onbruikbaar is voor verder gebruik. Het is raar dat Brenda er zo overheen kan stappen alsof het niets is. Het lijkt alsof ze er met niemand over hoeft te praten en het zelf gemakkelijk kan verwerken. Alsof het haar niets kan schelen. Soms vind ik dat er wel wat saaie stukken zijn, die niet aanlokken om snel, geboeid verder te lezen. De schrijver kan je aandacht er dus niet altijd bij houden. Verder vind ik het boek goed geschreven. Het is duidelijk geschreven. Wat ook erg leuk is, is dat de schrijver precies zo schrijft zoals die Italianen, die daar nog niet zo lang wonen, echt praten. Als ze iets zeggen is het steeds in gebrekkig Engels. Ze vergeten de verleden tijd toe te passen etc. Dat geeft wel een apart effect aan de tekst en is het ook niet zo saai om te lezen. Je zit in het begin wel even vreemd te kijken, maar het is wel apart. Het nadeel van het boek vind ik dat het af en toe wel erg langdradig is. Bijvoorbeeld de passage waarbij ze naar Windsor Castle rijden. Deze passage duurt ongeveer 10 bladzijden. En echt interessant is het zeker niet. Meer een beschrijving van de route en wat gepraat. Een passage die me is bijgebleven is de passage waarin Brenda's schoonmoeder langskomt. (Blz. 46) Het lijkt een normaal bezoek en ik verwachtte dan ook totaal niet dat ze een pistool zou trekken om op haar te schieten. Het is ook raar omdat je daarvoor ook niet zo veel over Brenda's man en haar relatie met hem gelezen hebt. Het voorval komt dan een beetje uit de lucht vallen en heeft niet zo veel met het verhaal te maken. De passage waarin Freda werd 'aangevallen' in het bos door een man die stenen naar haar gooide, is me ook bijgebleven. Het is geheel onduidelijk wie het is geweest. Als Freda dan ook nog eens dood aangetroffen wordt, denk je dat die passage er alles mee heeft te maken. Het zet je op een dwaalspoor, want je denkt dat Patrick het dan heeft gedaan. Hij had namelijk een wond op z'n hoofd van die steen die Freda teruggooide. Uiteindelijk blijkt Patrick niet met opzet naar haar te hebben gegooid maar naar vogeltjes.