Lily works as a cleaner. She moves through houses in inner-city Melbourne, unseen, scrubbing away the daily residue of other people’s privilege. Her partner Janks works the line in a local food factory. With every pay cheque they inch further away from their former world of poverty and addiction.
Lily and Janks are determined that their daughter Jewelee will have a different life. She’ll have a career, not a dead-end job. She’ll have savings, not debt. But precarious lives are easily upended. One wrong move throws the family into a situation in which the lines between right and wrong, hope and disappointment, are blurred.
Other Houses is a masterful and tender story about people who live from payday to payday. Acutely observed and lyrical, Paddy O’Reilly’s novel paints a haunting picture of class, aspiration and the boundaries we will cross for love.
Paddy O’Reilly is an award-winning Australian author of novels and short stories including The Fine Colour of Rust and The Wonders. Her latest novel, Other Houses is an impressive read which takes you right into the heart of inner-city Melbourne, locations which will be familiar to many readers. It’s a beautifully local story, in which Lily and Janks struggle to make ends meet for their daughter Jewelee, and struggle to hold their relationship together.
Told from Lily and Janks’ alternating perspectives, Lily takes us into the houses she cleans across Melbourne, from the McMansions in the suburbs to the homes of the wealthiest people who will never trust the cleaner. Lily’s insight into their homes, lives and more makes for fascinating reading. O’Reilly deftly touches on relevant themes of class and economic divides.
O’Reilly’s style is wonderfully sparse – this is another novel that forgoes quotation marks. The narration and dialogue are both amusing and touching, with a small but charming cast of characters. I highly recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys interesting local stories that vividly paint characters and settings.
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