SOURCE: “Rebelling against Jam and Duty,” in Spectator, No. 2985, October 21, 2000, pp. 48–49.

In the following review, Egerton offers a positive assessment of The Gingerbread Woman.

Like its beautifully written predecessor, Two Moons, Jennifer Johnston's latest novel [The Gingerbread Woman] is set in the village of Dalkey, just south of Dublin. There are shared themes too. Adult children wrestle with identity under the shadow of their parents, that of their mothers especially. Tragic events are repressed with varying degrees of success. Mental breakdown is an imminent, if at times surprisingly comic, threat. But the world she creates here is all its own: powerfully drawn characters extend the familiar in new ways, leading to an exploration of contemporary values, in both the South and the North of Ireland.

Clara is a lecturer in modern Irish literature who has discovered that the world is ‘full of universities’ delighted to offer her short-term...