Sackville-O'Donnell asserts that there are serious flaws in Courtenay's depictions of Ikey and Hannah Solomon, the two Jewish characters in The Potato Factory. (The Solomons were real people and their lives were quite well documented.) Although Courtenay has claimed that his novel was thoroughly and seriously researched, Sackville-O'Donnell contends that Courtenay's claims cannot be substantiated.
Providing examples of inconsistencies between the fictional representation and historical documents, Sackville-O'Donnell suggests that 'Courtenay has distorted and ignored the vast bulk of documented material on Ikey Solomon, and created a grotesque Jewish caricature that has nothing in common with the complex personality that is the documented Ikey Solomon.'
