"Sympathetic" is the wrong word, I'll admit. But surprisingly *non-judgemental* would fit. AF doesn't seem to be condemning her characters for wanting to slum it at times: she seems surprisingly non-critical of them as the "author's voice", even though she would surely have hated all they stood for and all that kind of thing represented in terms of social changes (as a socialist Forest fan and thus a living contradiction, my get-out clause is usually that there are some similarities between some of her cultural views and those of traditional socialists, who are quite different from both radical leftists and - shudder - Blairites).

I had guessed that your nearest library was in a poorer part of your town - I just wanted to make sure, I suppose.