by Phaedra Patrick
This is the story of an older woman, Martha, who is a volunteer at her local library. Martha is very stressed and sad. Her house is cluttered with things she needs to sort through and work she has volunteered to do for others. She feels frustrated because she keeps applying for a permanent job at the library but is never successful despite how hard she works as a volunteer.
She feels she has wasted her life. She gave up a man she loved to come and look after her aged parents. Her sister did little to help out because she has a husband and children. Martha did not get along with her parents. She felt her father was too strict and wouldn't let them have any fun. He did not like her associating with her grandmother, he felt the grandmother was a bad influence on her. She resents her mother because she felt her mother never stood up to her husband.
One day a parcel arrives on her doorstep. When she opens it she finds it is a published book of stories she and her grandmother had made up when she was a child. She is even more shocked when she sees the book is dedicated to her by her grandmother, three years after her grandmother supposedly died.
With the help of a bookseller she is able to track down another copy of the book and also, eventually is reunited with her grandmother who is ill but still alive.
As the book goes on Martha finally blows up at all the demands on her. She eventually learns why her grandmother disappeared so many years ago... her father had told her to disappear as she had revealed some embarrassing info at an anniversary celebration. Martha was sick and never learned that the man she thought of as her father was not her biological father, but a fisherman who died in a storm. She can now understand why her father may not have been as close to her.
Eventually Martha reunites with her grandmother and the remaining family is reunited. She may even develop a romantic relationship with the bookstore owner.
The book shows that we cannot change our past but we can change how it impacts us and we can overcome our feelings of inadequacy.
I thought it was a very interesting story. It kept my interest from beginning to end. The author did a great job of presenting the sad little librarian/perfectionist.
Thursday, 30 May 2019
Friday, 10 May 2019
Spring
by Ali Smith
This is the third book, in a series, that I have read by this author. I just read my comments on the previous book, Winter. I commented that I hoped "Spring" would not be as depressing as "Winter".
Well, it wasn't really.....
The book has a few references to new life and growth in spring but... it doesn't really seem to be regenerative or hopeful. One of the book reviews I read calls this the darkest book.
The story makes references to climate change, Brexit and Trump
The first chapter is like a stream of consciousness rant. The second chapter "I'm the child who's been buried in leaves, the leaves rot down, here I am". No idea who this is, she doesn't seem to appear else where in the book.
Then we meet Richard Lease, TV and Film Director, who is struggling with a script he doesn't want to work on. He is distraught after the death of a female friend and Mentor. He leaves his home, throws away his phone and heads out of London on a train going he knows not where.
Then we meet Brit who is working as a guard at an Immigrant detention centre. It sounds like a horrid place and a horrid job. Rumours start circulating that a young girl entered the facility, no one knows how she got in our got through security. She apparently met with the Head of the Centre and after that cleaning crews cleaned all the bathrooms in the place.
One day Brit is on her way to work and at a train station she is approached by a young girl in a school uniform. The girl says she wants to get a a location on a post card she has and heads to the train. Surprisingly no one asks her for a ticket . She gets on a train and Brit follows her.
They head north and eventually get to a train station where Richard has decided to commit suicide by lying down on the train tracks. The little girl spots him and he is rescued.
Then the three of them head off to the girls desired destination driven by a woman in a coffee wagon that doesn't really sell coffee or anything else. It turns out that the driver is one of a group of volunteers who try to help immigrants. It seems that the young girl hopes to find her mother.
When they arrive at the destination, a battlefield, Brit calls in to her agency and there is a raid. The driver is arrested and Richard and the young girl are taken away.
We never learn what has happened to the girl or the driver but at the end of the book Richard is doing a documentary about the volunteers who work to help the immigrants.
This was a powerful book but disturbing too. I am afraid the last book Summer won't have much Sunshine when it comes out. She is an amazing author.
This is the third book, in a series, that I have read by this author. I just read my comments on the previous book, Winter. I commented that I hoped "Spring" would not be as depressing as "Winter".
Well, it wasn't really.....
The book has a few references to new life and growth in spring but... it doesn't really seem to be regenerative or hopeful. One of the book reviews I read calls this the darkest book.
The story makes references to climate change, Brexit and Trump
The first chapter is like a stream of consciousness rant. The second chapter "I'm the child who's been buried in leaves, the leaves rot down, here I am". No idea who this is, she doesn't seem to appear else where in the book.
Then we meet Richard Lease, TV and Film Director, who is struggling with a script he doesn't want to work on. He is distraught after the death of a female friend and Mentor. He leaves his home, throws away his phone and heads out of London on a train going he knows not where.
Then we meet Brit who is working as a guard at an Immigrant detention centre. It sounds like a horrid place and a horrid job. Rumours start circulating that a young girl entered the facility, no one knows how she got in our got through security. She apparently met with the Head of the Centre and after that cleaning crews cleaned all the bathrooms in the place.
One day Brit is on her way to work and at a train station she is approached by a young girl in a school uniform. The girl says she wants to get a a location on a post card she has and heads to the train. Surprisingly no one asks her for a ticket . She gets on a train and Brit follows her.
They head north and eventually get to a train station where Richard has decided to commit suicide by lying down on the train tracks. The little girl spots him and he is rescued.
Then the three of them head off to the girls desired destination driven by a woman in a coffee wagon that doesn't really sell coffee or anything else. It turns out that the driver is one of a group of volunteers who try to help immigrants. It seems that the young girl hopes to find her mother.
When they arrive at the destination, a battlefield, Brit calls in to her agency and there is a raid. The driver is arrested and Richard and the young girl are taken away.
We never learn what has happened to the girl or the driver but at the end of the book Richard is doing a documentary about the volunteers who work to help the immigrants.
This was a powerful book but disturbing too. I am afraid the last book Summer won't have much Sunshine when it comes out. She is an amazing author.
Mr. Flood's Last Resort
by Jess Kidd
This is an interesting, but a bit bizarre book.
It is the story of a care giver who is assigned to give care to a cantankerous old man. He is a hoarder and hard to get along with. He has been warned this is his last chance to behave or he will be put in a care home. The care worker learns that the previous caregiver had a breakdown from working with the man.
The caregiver, Maud, has a ghost in her past, her older sister disappeared one day and no one knows what happened to her. Maud's mother blames her for her sister's disappearance.
When Maud arrives at Mr. Flood's house it is a mess, cluttered, dirty, with lots of cats. She dives in trying to get some order in the kitchen. Mr Flood is annoyed that she is there. She keeps calm and puts up with his outbursts, eventually he stops being so grumpy. Mr. Flood has piles of National Geographic magazine blocking the way to most of the house including the upstairs but Maud squeezes through the magazines and prowls around the house. She sees a lot of bizarre specimens and a picture of Mr. Flood's wife.
One day a picture is stuck to the window in the kitchen. As Maud is cleaning the kitchen she finds a glass bottle with a paper rolled up in it. Maud looks at it she sees it is a picture of two children, a boy and a girl. The girl's face is burned out of the photo. Maud is curious about this. When she asks Mr. Flood he says he only has a son, whom he despises and doesn't trust. Maud also learns that Mr. Flood's wife died after falling down the stairs at the house. Was she killed or was it an accident?
Maud was raised Catholic and one of her favourite books was about Saints. In the story she now has various saints including St. Valentine who hover around her at times reacting to what is going on and sometimes even talking to her. No one else can see them.
Maud's landlord is an agrophobic transvestite named Renata. Renata is a mystery fanatic and when Maud tells her about her job with Mr. Flood Renata gets excited about solving the mysteries.
As the story progresses Maud meets a person who claims to be the man's son, Gabriel. Mr. Flood denies he is is son. She also meets another man who claims to be the former care worker.
As Maud and Renata seek to learn the truth Maud finds a number of newspaper clippings about a missing girl. She eventually finds out that the floods had a daughter Marguerite who attempted to kill Gabriel. She was put in an institution but kept escaping.
At one point Renata's house is ransacked and she is roughed up too. They get worried as to who would be trying to warn them off.
Eventually Maud discovers that Marguerite and the missing girl are the same person, Marguerite had started to use a different name. She also learns, with the help of a psychic that there is a body at the bottom of the well on the Flood property.
In the end we learn that Gabriel, and his cousin Stephen had killed Marguerite when she returned to the house and it is she who is at the bottom of the well. While it appeared that Mr Flood was grief stricken at the loss of his wife we learn that his wife was initially married to Mr. Flood's brother and when the brother died Mr. Flood married her. It probably was not a happy marriage.
His wife was the one who had all the money and Flood tried to take control of it but gradually she was able to get back her fortune and in her will she was supposed to have directed that after flood's death all money from the assets should go to the institution her daughter was in. We learn that the Mother knew what her son and the cousin had done but she loved the son so much she never reported this to the police. We also learn that for some reason (never explained) the son was pretending to be the care giver and the cousin was pretending to be the son.
At the end of the book Maud, Renata and a retired policeman go back to Renata's childhood village to face the past. The saints are no longer around.
It was a very interesting, somewhat bizarre story. It is not often that you have a story where so many characters are bad, or all have done bad things. It seems like all the Flood family were bad.
Stephen
This is an interesting, but a bit bizarre book.
It is the story of a care giver who is assigned to give care to a cantankerous old man. He is a hoarder and hard to get along with. He has been warned this is his last chance to behave or he will be put in a care home. The care worker learns that the previous caregiver had a breakdown from working with the man.
The caregiver, Maud, has a ghost in her past, her older sister disappeared one day and no one knows what happened to her. Maud's mother blames her for her sister's disappearance.
When Maud arrives at Mr. Flood's house it is a mess, cluttered, dirty, with lots of cats. She dives in trying to get some order in the kitchen. Mr Flood is annoyed that she is there. She keeps calm and puts up with his outbursts, eventually he stops being so grumpy. Mr. Flood has piles of National Geographic magazine blocking the way to most of the house including the upstairs but Maud squeezes through the magazines and prowls around the house. She sees a lot of bizarre specimens and a picture of Mr. Flood's wife.
One day a picture is stuck to the window in the kitchen. As Maud is cleaning the kitchen she finds a glass bottle with a paper rolled up in it. Maud looks at it she sees it is a picture of two children, a boy and a girl. The girl's face is burned out of the photo. Maud is curious about this. When she asks Mr. Flood he says he only has a son, whom he despises and doesn't trust. Maud also learns that Mr. Flood's wife died after falling down the stairs at the house. Was she killed or was it an accident?
Maud was raised Catholic and one of her favourite books was about Saints. In the story she now has various saints including St. Valentine who hover around her at times reacting to what is going on and sometimes even talking to her. No one else can see them.
Maud's landlord is an agrophobic transvestite named Renata. Renata is a mystery fanatic and when Maud tells her about her job with Mr. Flood Renata gets excited about solving the mysteries.
As the story progresses Maud meets a person who claims to be the man's son, Gabriel. Mr. Flood denies he is is son. She also meets another man who claims to be the former care worker.
As Maud and Renata seek to learn the truth Maud finds a number of newspaper clippings about a missing girl. She eventually finds out that the floods had a daughter Marguerite who attempted to kill Gabriel. She was put in an institution but kept escaping.
At one point Renata's house is ransacked and she is roughed up too. They get worried as to who would be trying to warn them off.
Eventually Maud discovers that Marguerite and the missing girl are the same person, Marguerite had started to use a different name. She also learns, with the help of a psychic that there is a body at the bottom of the well on the Flood property.
In the end we learn that Gabriel, and his cousin Stephen had killed Marguerite when she returned to the house and it is she who is at the bottom of the well. While it appeared that Mr Flood was grief stricken at the loss of his wife we learn that his wife was initially married to Mr. Flood's brother and when the brother died Mr. Flood married her. It probably was not a happy marriage.
His wife was the one who had all the money and Flood tried to take control of it but gradually she was able to get back her fortune and in her will she was supposed to have directed that after flood's death all money from the assets should go to the institution her daughter was in. We learn that the Mother knew what her son and the cousin had done but she loved the son so much she never reported this to the police. We also learn that for some reason (never explained) the son was pretending to be the care giver and the cousin was pretending to be the son.
At the end of the book Maud, Renata and a retired policeman go back to Renata's childhood village to face the past. The saints are no longer around.
It was a very interesting, somewhat bizarre story. It is not often that you have a story where so many characters are bad, or all have done bad things. It seems like all the Flood family were bad.
Stephen
Sunday, 28 April 2019
Cooking for Picasso
by Camille Aubray
The title of this book captured my attention. It is about a young girl who is sent to prepare lunch for Picasso (who is in hiding as Mr. Ruiz) in Antibes in the mid 1930's. She is a precocious girl who goes from quietly preparing and serving his lunches to being a model for some paintings and eventually having an affair with him and getting pregnant.
The story switches from the past with Odine to the present when her granddaughter learns from her mother that the Grandmother claims to have been given a painting by Picasso.
The granddaughter, Celine is going through a rough time, her mother (Odine's daughter) married an abusive man who had twins from a previous marriage. The stepfather is hard on Celine and her mother. He is a very angry controlling man. When he dies the twins take control of his estate and move their stepmother from New York to Nevada to be near one of them. They keep Celine entirely out of the picture. One time Celine's mother gives her a book which turns out to be a notebook where Odine wrote down recipes and notes for what she prepared for Picasso. Celine's mother has a stroke and her siblings try to keep her away from her mother.
Celine discovers that her mother had plans to travel to France to take a cooking class with Celine's stepfather's sister. She is much nicer than he is. Celine and the aunt decide to change the mother's ticket and have Celine go instead so that she can search out her grandmother's history and search for the painting.
As the story goes on we learn that Odine was promised to a local man but married the love of her life and they moved to the U.S. where they set up a successful restaurant on the east coast. However the mafia are demanding payments and there is an altercation and Celine's adopted father is killed. Her mother is frightened and takes them back to France where they learn that Odine's parents have both died. They struggle but eventually Odine is able to convince the owner of her parents former restaurant to take her on as a cook. She helps him build up the business to include a small hotel/b and b??
The story goes on to describe how Odine is able to get the painting by Picasso by stealing it from him
Eventually Celine, with the help of the current owner of her Grandmother's hotel, finds the painting and though she would like to keep it she decides to sell it to become partners with the chef who owns her grandmother's hotel and also fund a legal case to free her mother from her siblings control. Sadly her mother dies before she can achieve this.
I picked this book up on a whim and wasn't expecting too much but it actually was an engaging read with lots of details and mystery.
The title of this book captured my attention. It is about a young girl who is sent to prepare lunch for Picasso (who is in hiding as Mr. Ruiz) in Antibes in the mid 1930's. She is a precocious girl who goes from quietly preparing and serving his lunches to being a model for some paintings and eventually having an affair with him and getting pregnant.
The story switches from the past with Odine to the present when her granddaughter learns from her mother that the Grandmother claims to have been given a painting by Picasso.
The granddaughter, Celine is going through a rough time, her mother (Odine's daughter) married an abusive man who had twins from a previous marriage. The stepfather is hard on Celine and her mother. He is a very angry controlling man. When he dies the twins take control of his estate and move their stepmother from New York to Nevada to be near one of them. They keep Celine entirely out of the picture. One time Celine's mother gives her a book which turns out to be a notebook where Odine wrote down recipes and notes for what she prepared for Picasso. Celine's mother has a stroke and her siblings try to keep her away from her mother.
Celine discovers that her mother had plans to travel to France to take a cooking class with Celine's stepfather's sister. She is much nicer than he is. Celine and the aunt decide to change the mother's ticket and have Celine go instead so that she can search out her grandmother's history and search for the painting.
As the story goes on we learn that Odine was promised to a local man but married the love of her life and they moved to the U.S. where they set up a successful restaurant on the east coast. However the mafia are demanding payments and there is an altercation and Celine's adopted father is killed. Her mother is frightened and takes them back to France where they learn that Odine's parents have both died. They struggle but eventually Odine is able to convince the owner of her parents former restaurant to take her on as a cook. She helps him build up the business to include a small hotel/b and b??
The story goes on to describe how Odine is able to get the painting by Picasso by stealing it from him
Eventually Celine, with the help of the current owner of her Grandmother's hotel, finds the painting and though she would like to keep it she decides to sell it to become partners with the chef who owns her grandmother's hotel and also fund a legal case to free her mother from her siblings control. Sadly her mother dies before she can achieve this.
I picked this book up on a whim and wasn't expecting too much but it actually was an engaging read with lots of details and mystery.
Saturday, 20 April 2019
The Island of Sea Women
by Lisa See
This is the story of the lives of two south Korean female divers, called haenyo. The two girls, Young- sook and Mi-ja. Young-sook's mother is head of the women's diving collective. Mi-ja is living with an aunt and uncle who are very mean to her. She is an orphan (with a cloud hanging over her because her parents were considered Japanese collaborators). The girls are very close friends and share all the time they can together. They are illiterate but do rubbings to document their various adventures and memories.
The book describes how the women divers are the breadwinners of the family and the cooks and gardeners. It seems all the men do is look after the children. There is an early tragedy when Young-sook is being taught to be a diver, the other baby diver she is diving with gets caught underwater. She lives but is brain damaged.
The lives of the people are tough especially as they are under Japanese occupation. Many people are killed or arrested as rebels. Mi-ja gets engaged to a man that Young-sook likes. She is sad about this but soon comes to suspect that they man she likes is abusing Mi-ja. Young-sook marries a young school teacher and they are very much in love. Young-sook's affection for Mi-ja wanes as she suspects Mi-ja's husband is siding with the Japanese against the local people. He is eventually captured during the war (by whom I am not sure). But when he returns being the chameleon he is he gets himself employed by the new occupiers, the Americans, and the new government that has been installed
The people are unhappy with this government and one day their dissatisfaction boils over into a riot.
Young-sook is devastated when her husband and son are killed and the young brain damaged woman who is now her sister-in-law is raped and murdered in front to the crowd. She begs Mi-ja who is also there to take her other children to save them but Mi-ja refuses.
The years go by, Mi-ja eventually returns to the town but Young-sook avoids her. She is outraged to learn that her daughter is seeing Mi-ja's son. When the young people announce they are getting married Young-sook refuses to attend. Eventually Mi-ja and the young people move to the U.S. They send Young-sook letters but she only reads the first one.
Eventually Mi-ja's granddaughters (also Young-sook's granddaughters) come to town and want to speak to Young-sook, she ignores them repeatedly until she finally agrees to listen to a tape recording of Mi-ja. Young-sook realized that she did not know the truth of what was going on and harbouring her hatred for so long (when many other people had suffered as much or more than she) was a mistake.
This book was very hard to read and times but it was fascinating to get a better understanding of the history of south Korea. It was a very powerful story and it was worth sticking through it to the end.
This is the story of the lives of two south Korean female divers, called haenyo. The two girls, Young- sook and Mi-ja. Young-sook's mother is head of the women's diving collective. Mi-ja is living with an aunt and uncle who are very mean to her. She is an orphan (with a cloud hanging over her because her parents were considered Japanese collaborators). The girls are very close friends and share all the time they can together. They are illiterate but do rubbings to document their various adventures and memories.
The book describes how the women divers are the breadwinners of the family and the cooks and gardeners. It seems all the men do is look after the children. There is an early tragedy when Young-sook is being taught to be a diver, the other baby diver she is diving with gets caught underwater. She lives but is brain damaged.
The lives of the people are tough especially as they are under Japanese occupation. Many people are killed or arrested as rebels. Mi-ja gets engaged to a man that Young-sook likes. She is sad about this but soon comes to suspect that they man she likes is abusing Mi-ja. Young-sook marries a young school teacher and they are very much in love. Young-sook's affection for Mi-ja wanes as she suspects Mi-ja's husband is siding with the Japanese against the local people. He is eventually captured during the war (by whom I am not sure). But when he returns being the chameleon he is he gets himself employed by the new occupiers, the Americans, and the new government that has been installed
The people are unhappy with this government and one day their dissatisfaction boils over into a riot.
Young-sook is devastated when her husband and son are killed and the young brain damaged woman who is now her sister-in-law is raped and murdered in front to the crowd. She begs Mi-ja who is also there to take her other children to save them but Mi-ja refuses.
The years go by, Mi-ja eventually returns to the town but Young-sook avoids her. She is outraged to learn that her daughter is seeing Mi-ja's son. When the young people announce they are getting married Young-sook refuses to attend. Eventually Mi-ja and the young people move to the U.S. They send Young-sook letters but she only reads the first one.
Eventually Mi-ja's granddaughters (also Young-sook's granddaughters) come to town and want to speak to Young-sook, she ignores them repeatedly until she finally agrees to listen to a tape recording of Mi-ja. Young-sook realized that she did not know the truth of what was going on and harbouring her hatred for so long (when many other people had suffered as much or more than she) was a mistake.
This book was very hard to read and times but it was fascinating to get a better understanding of the history of south Korea. It was a very powerful story and it was worth sticking through it to the end.
Friday, 8 February 2019
Transcription
by Kate Atkinson
This is the third book that I have read by this author. I enjoyed the first two, I found them quirky and unique but interesting.
This books is about a young British woman, Julie Armstrong, who is recruited to work for MI5. Initially she is only a transcriber. She listens in to conversations in the next room where a British agent, who is pretending to be a Nazi sympathizer, is meeting with Brits who are nazi sympathizers. They want to find out what the sympathizers know or are planning to do, at times they feed them false information.
There is a bit of intrigue within the various bosses at MI5, one of the superiors asks Julie if she has noticed anything suspicious about her immediate boss but she doesn't tell him anything. Her boss tells her that she shouldn't trust anyone.
Eventually she is recruited to be a spy, meeting with one of the key female nazi sympathizers. Her actions eventually result in that women and others being arrested.
At one point one of the sympathizers comes to her office/apartment and discovers what is going on. She and two other agents kill the woman and dispose of her body.
The book jumps around in time. It starts in 1981 with Julie being hit by car when she is crossing the street, then it goes to 1940 and at times to 1950. After the war Julie gets a job with the BBC. Other former agents are also working there. She is frightened when she gets an anonymous note saying she will pay for what she did. She also finds that once you have been a spy you cannot leave that behind.
She is asked to provide a safehouse for a Czech defector who seems to have some knowledge about the Russian nuclear weapons program. She and a fellow agent lose this man to unknown people. Her boss loses his job because it is found out that he is homosexual. He had proposed to her, probably to try to cover up his homosexuality.
One of the people who is after her is a foreign woman who was acting as a British Agent. The woman's dog was entrusted to Julie and her boss but while they both loved the dog and took care of it, it ran away from them them. Julie thought the woman had died in Germany but the woman reappears and several times attacks Julie for killing her dog. She is a bit deranged.
However, it does seem that other people are after her. When she tries to leave England there are people trying to stop her at the train station. Her former boss comes to her aid, getting her way paid on a freighter which takes her to Europe. She apparently settled in Italy and had a son from an liaison there. However, one day two men arrive at her door and take her back to England. She is never charged with anything so you have to wonder why they bothered to bring her back.
It was an interesting story but not as engaging as the other two I read.
This is the third book that I have read by this author. I enjoyed the first two, I found them quirky and unique but interesting.
This books is about a young British woman, Julie Armstrong, who is recruited to work for MI5. Initially she is only a transcriber. She listens in to conversations in the next room where a British agent, who is pretending to be a Nazi sympathizer, is meeting with Brits who are nazi sympathizers. They want to find out what the sympathizers know or are planning to do, at times they feed them false information.
There is a bit of intrigue within the various bosses at MI5, one of the superiors asks Julie if she has noticed anything suspicious about her immediate boss but she doesn't tell him anything. Her boss tells her that she shouldn't trust anyone.
Eventually she is recruited to be a spy, meeting with one of the key female nazi sympathizers. Her actions eventually result in that women and others being arrested.
At one point one of the sympathizers comes to her office/apartment and discovers what is going on. She and two other agents kill the woman and dispose of her body.
The book jumps around in time. It starts in 1981 with Julie being hit by car when she is crossing the street, then it goes to 1940 and at times to 1950. After the war Julie gets a job with the BBC. Other former agents are also working there. She is frightened when she gets an anonymous note saying she will pay for what she did. She also finds that once you have been a spy you cannot leave that behind.
She is asked to provide a safehouse for a Czech defector who seems to have some knowledge about the Russian nuclear weapons program. She and a fellow agent lose this man to unknown people. Her boss loses his job because it is found out that he is homosexual. He had proposed to her, probably to try to cover up his homosexuality.
One of the people who is after her is a foreign woman who was acting as a British Agent. The woman's dog was entrusted to Julie and her boss but while they both loved the dog and took care of it, it ran away from them them. Julie thought the woman had died in Germany but the woman reappears and several times attacks Julie for killing her dog. She is a bit deranged.
However, it does seem that other people are after her. When she tries to leave England there are people trying to stop her at the train station. Her former boss comes to her aid, getting her way paid on a freighter which takes her to Europe. She apparently settled in Italy and had a son from an liaison there. However, one day two men arrive at her door and take her back to England. She is never charged with anything so you have to wonder why they bothered to bring her back.
It was an interesting story but not as engaging as the other two I read.
Sunday, 3 February 2019
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine
by Gail Honeyman
This is the first novel by a Scottish writer. It has been getting alot of positive press so I thought I would read it.
It is about a young woman who is very lonely and isolated. She is the survivor of a traumatic event in her childhood that saw her moved from foster home to foster home and group home to group home. She was not maltreated there but she was not loved. Once a week Eleanor receives a phone call from her mother who keeps berating and threatening her. She dreads these calls.
She is working in a a job as an accounts clerk, she has no life, she works then comes home to the same meal every night and drinks herself into oblivion on weekends with vodka.
She doesn't think life can get any better, she lives in a suite provided to her by the state, furnished with other people's cast offs but she doesn't seem to care. She is stockpiling pain killers.
Eleanor is disfigured by burns on her face from a fire. She sticks to herself and her workmates find her strange and aloof. However, a tech guy in the company befriends her and invites her for coffee, to meet his mother etc. One day they are out walking and they find a man collapsed on the street. Eleanor talks to the unconscious man while they are awaiting help. The man survives and Eleanor and Raymond go to visit him in the hospital. The patient is grateful to them and welcomes them warmly. They are introduced to his family. As Eleanor has these interactions she starts to see what a family is like. This is an eye-opener to her. She doesn't have a frame of reference for a healthy family.
Eleanor is at a club and sees the lead singer of a band, she falls head over heels for him and starts to imagine that they will get into a relationship. She buys a computer so she can track him on the web, she buys new clothes, gets a new hairdo and even gets her face done and buys makeup so she can be presentable to to the man she hopes will be her beau. She even visits where he lives.
Sadly, the man that Eleanor and Raymond saved dies a few weeks later. They are both very sad at his death.
Eleanor buys tickets for a concert by the man she has been stalking. She dresses up in her new clothes. As the concert progresses she realizes that the musician will never really see her or be attracted to her. She chastises herself for being a thirty something women with a teenage crush. She goes home and drinks herself into oblivion. She would probably have died but Raymond arrives at her home, cleans up the mess she has made and brings her food and flowers. He insists she see a doctor who diagnoses her with clinical depression. He offers her drugs but she declines. He insists she see a counsellor and she agrees to do this. She is off work for a few weeks to recuperate.
As she goes to therapist she gradually opens up about the trauma she has suffered. As a child she and her sister had a nutcase of a mother. The Mother keeps telling them they are better than other people and insists they speak well and dress well. But while she lectures them at times she beats them and starves them. When teacher's notice the bruises on the children the mother pulls them out of school.
One day the mother sets fire to their home, planning to kill the two children. Eleanor's young sister dies in the fire. Eleanor finally remembers her sister and admits that she feels guilty that she was not able to protect and save her sister. The therapist assures her this is not her fault. A surprise crops up however, we learn that Eleanor's sister AND mother died in the fire. So all these years Eleanor had been imagining the weekly phone calls from her mother.
As the book ends Eleanor has a friend, a cat and the people at work welcome her back warmly when she returns to work. It looks like Eleanor will be fine.
This was a very sad book at times. The author did an excellent job of portraying a very disfunctional, lonely and isolated human. She did a great job of showing the transformation of Eleanor from a person totally isolated from society to a person who is gradually growing and learning how to behave in society.
This is the first novel by a Scottish writer. It has been getting alot of positive press so I thought I would read it.
It is about a young woman who is very lonely and isolated. She is the survivor of a traumatic event in her childhood that saw her moved from foster home to foster home and group home to group home. She was not maltreated there but she was not loved. Once a week Eleanor receives a phone call from her mother who keeps berating and threatening her. She dreads these calls.
She is working in a a job as an accounts clerk, she has no life, she works then comes home to the same meal every night and drinks herself into oblivion on weekends with vodka.
She doesn't think life can get any better, she lives in a suite provided to her by the state, furnished with other people's cast offs but she doesn't seem to care. She is stockpiling pain killers.
Eleanor is disfigured by burns on her face from a fire. She sticks to herself and her workmates find her strange and aloof. However, a tech guy in the company befriends her and invites her for coffee, to meet his mother etc. One day they are out walking and they find a man collapsed on the street. Eleanor talks to the unconscious man while they are awaiting help. The man survives and Eleanor and Raymond go to visit him in the hospital. The patient is grateful to them and welcomes them warmly. They are introduced to his family. As Eleanor has these interactions she starts to see what a family is like. This is an eye-opener to her. She doesn't have a frame of reference for a healthy family.
Eleanor is at a club and sees the lead singer of a band, she falls head over heels for him and starts to imagine that they will get into a relationship. She buys a computer so she can track him on the web, she buys new clothes, gets a new hairdo and even gets her face done and buys makeup so she can be presentable to to the man she hopes will be her beau. She even visits where he lives.
Sadly, the man that Eleanor and Raymond saved dies a few weeks later. They are both very sad at his death.
Eleanor buys tickets for a concert by the man she has been stalking. She dresses up in her new clothes. As the concert progresses she realizes that the musician will never really see her or be attracted to her. She chastises herself for being a thirty something women with a teenage crush. She goes home and drinks herself into oblivion. She would probably have died but Raymond arrives at her home, cleans up the mess she has made and brings her food and flowers. He insists she see a doctor who diagnoses her with clinical depression. He offers her drugs but she declines. He insists she see a counsellor and she agrees to do this. She is off work for a few weeks to recuperate.
As she goes to therapist she gradually opens up about the trauma she has suffered. As a child she and her sister had a nutcase of a mother. The Mother keeps telling them they are better than other people and insists they speak well and dress well. But while she lectures them at times she beats them and starves them. When teacher's notice the bruises on the children the mother pulls them out of school.
One day the mother sets fire to their home, planning to kill the two children. Eleanor's young sister dies in the fire. Eleanor finally remembers her sister and admits that she feels guilty that she was not able to protect and save her sister. The therapist assures her this is not her fault. A surprise crops up however, we learn that Eleanor's sister AND mother died in the fire. So all these years Eleanor had been imagining the weekly phone calls from her mother.
As the book ends Eleanor has a friend, a cat and the people at work welcome her back warmly when she returns to work. It looks like Eleanor will be fine.
This was a very sad book at times. The author did an excellent job of portraying a very disfunctional, lonely and isolated human. She did a great job of showing the transformation of Eleanor from a person totally isolated from society to a person who is gradually growing and learning how to behave in society.
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