Two young women somehow get together and get themselves a job in a factory that bottles wine. The factory is run by Italians and all the other workers are Italian.

Freda is 26 and is tall and "plump"—something like 5'10" and 225 lbs. She thinks of herself as an aspiring actress and carries herself as such. She never succeeds in any auditions, so needs some kind of other work to make ends meet. She's brash and bossy.

Brenda is about 35 and was once married to a brute who took her off to the country where they lived with his nasty mother. He spent his time out drinking with his buds. Eventually Brenda couldn't take it and ran away. She's very shy and will do almost anything to avoid open conflict.

Freda and Brenda join forces and take a bed-sit together. They need money, so they get a job working at a wine bottling factory run my an Italian, Mr. Paganotti. Virtually everyone else working at the factory is Italian, with the exception of Patrick, who is the van driver. Mr. Rossi, who is the factory manager, takes a shine to Brenda and keeps trying to get her into spaces where he can seduce her. Freda, on the other hand has decided she's in love with Vittorio, Mr. Paganotti's nephew (or cousin?), and who is nominally engaged to another cousin still living in Italy.

So, Freda conceives the idea that the workers in the factory should have an outing, where they visit a grand house and also a safari park. Her prime purpose is to give her a chance to seduce Vittorio. Things, naturally, do not go as planned.

On one level, this book is rather absurd, dark humor. But the ending is enigmatic and really makes little sense to me. It would seem that there are no attachments beyond lust or thralldom. I dunno, the first 70% of the book was mildly amusing, but the conclusion left me cold. Beryl Bainbridge was a well celebrated British author in her time, but based on this example, I'm not sure if I'll attempt another of her offerings or not.

4.5 stars

This was my first Bainbridge, and I appreciate very much the chance to read it.

It's brilliant black humour. I loved this.

After reading a review of “The Bottle Factory Outing” by Beryl Bainbridge, I returned to this neglected ARC which I received from NetGalley to see what the fuss was about. I’m still not sure! The book is very evocative of time and place. Brenda and Freda are two English women working in an Italian bottle factory in London. They are wildly out of place in the factory, and even in their own lives. Strange and disturbing things happen. In soap-opera-esque fashion, melodramas occur. The book was ok, but certainly not great.

I’m glad this wasn’t the first Beryl Bainbridge I’ve read as it’s not a good advertisement for her. I found it silly in the extreme, with implausible characters and an equally implausible plot, which descends into slapstick by the end. It concerns roommates Freda and Brenda who work at a wine-bottling factory and who set great store by the upcoming work outing. The writing, as always with Bainbridge, is spare and concise, it’s well-paced and well-constructed but the black humour didn’t work for me and I found it as unfunny as I find Carry-On films. Not for me this one.

At first, I felt like this was going to be DNF because Freda and Brenda were so unbearable in different ways and the tone of the novel when talking about the Italians was insufferably "We're British so Not Racist" (so dated!) but I stuck to it. I feel like the dark humor snuck up on me and I ended up finding this book rather hilarious in a weird and awkward way. In short, how I feel about much of the Bainbridge I've read. Well done in many ways but also not really my cup of tea.

You either like Beryl Bainbridge or you don’t.

Well, it’s not quite that simple.

I enjoy her later work, which on some level can be labeled historical fiction. I loved The Birthday Boys, a flawless, entertaining novel based on Scott’s expedition to Antarctica. But I find her early books both mordant and morbid, and though I admire them, I always think at the end, “God, I need to read Barbara Pym.”

So I’m not quite a Bainbridge person.

This weekend I sped through her very short, witty, edgy novel, "The Bottle Factory Opening." Her comically realistic portrayal of ill-matched roommates, Freda, a domineering big blonde, and Brenda, a likable thirtyish woman who has recently left her husband, is hilarious. The two women squabble constantly. Freda dominates, but Brenda protests. Freda insists they take part-time jobs at a neighboring Italian wine-bottling factory: she wants contact with the working class. Freda tries to organize a union, but they pay no more attention to Freda ultimately than Brenda does. And I have to laugh, having known Fredas and Brendas.

It starts with a funeral—Freda cries as she looks out the window at a hearse with flowers on top. Four paid men carry a coffin with an old lady down the stairs. Brenda doesn’t want to look.

Freda is whimsically sentimental.

“I like funerals. All those flowers—a full life coming to a close.”

“She didn’t look as if she had a full life,” said Brenda. “She only had the cat. There weren’t any mourners—no sons or anything.”

“Take a lesson from it then. It could happen to you. When I go I shall have my family about me–daughters–sons–my husband, grey and distinguished, dabbing a handkerchief to his lips…”

Freda has no one: she is an orphan, brought up by an aunt she never sees. And because she has no one, we have a flash of intuition that she might end up like the old woman. Brenda, on the other hand, comes from a big well-to-do family, went to private school, and still has contact with her husband and mother-in-law. When mother-in-law shows up on day to threaten her with a gun, Freda is envious that Brenda excites so much passion.

At first we think Freda might be the weaker of the two, but she is the one who orchestrates their lives and needs action. She first saw Brenda having a break-down in the butcher’s shop, weeping that her husband has left her (though it turns out that Brenda has left him). Freda loves to organize: she takes Brenda under her wing and finds them a tiny flat where, unfortunately they must sleep in the same bed—and they are not gay. Brenda puts a bolster and a pile of books between them at night so there can be no contact. I never thought of a book barrier!

Freda does not attract people—though it’s not that she’s not pretty. She is too brash and argumentative for the Italian men at the factory. She has a crush on Vittorio, the factory owner’s nephew, but he is engaged to someone else. . Rossi, the boss, keeps cornering Brenda for a little bit of “fun”: Brenda attracts men but wants nothing to with them. Finally Freda marches into the office and tells Rossi to leave Brenda alone. Freda organizes a Sunday outing for the bottle factory workers because she wants to spend time with Vittorio.

Everything at the outing goes wrong. And I do mean everything. The van doesn’t show up. A few people cram themselves into cars, but most have to go home. .The boss, Rossi, drives them to Windsor park instead of the stately home Freda had arranged. They tour Windsor Castle, and Freda is furious that the dungeon is closed. Clearly she is heading for a fall.

After the picnic, the men play soccer. There are walks in the woods and stones are thrown. I won’t tell you who, what, when, why or how but someone dies. And the book ends with a macabre funeral–coming back full circle.