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rebeccalm's review
I got exactly 20 pages in and immediately knew I would not be finishing this book. I typically give things more of a chance, but the writing here is overly difficult to decipher (a lot of regional British dialect and slang make it overly complicated). I'm sure this story has potential, and the book jacket synopsis sounded interesting, but the actual writing style was a turn off.
snoakes7001's review
5.0
Great characters and a plot that tears along, this is a really good read. Funny in places (not laugh-out-loud but gently amusing), sometimes a little sad (but never too sad), it's an enjoyable story of different worlds meeting.
wendoxford's review
3.0
Great characters in this north London novel set in 1989. We have Phillip Prys - well-known playwright and the paterfamilias who needs " care" after his stroke. The household he inhabits comprises a young Scot - Struan to fulfil carer role. We also have current wife, ex-wife and children. A sharply observed comedy of manners.
nea's review
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
heathssm's review
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
booktwitcher23's review
4.0
An excellent idea for a book - making a young person the hero in an adult book, especially when the adults are all less than useless!
emtobiasz's review
4.0
I received a copy of this title from the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
This book reads like the literary equivalent of a Wes Anderson movie-- very stylized setting and characters, humorous in some places, touching in others. It opens with a famous playwright suffering a stroke that severely restricts his physical and mental faculties. The rest of the book focuses on the effect of the stroke on the playwright's family, friends, and the Scottish teen hired to tend to him. Clanchy makes even her most hateful characters sympathetic by revealing their histories and motivations, so that even as I was cheering on someone's downfall I knew why they had become the way they were.
A few things would make me hesitate to recommend this book far and wide: first, there is a rather flippant treatment of a character's anorexia, and second, some readers may object to the mention of teen girls' relationships with older men, which is not presented as predatory but certainly feels icky.
This book reads like the literary equivalent of a Wes Anderson movie-- very stylized setting and characters, humorous in some places, touching in others. It opens with a famous playwright suffering a stroke that severely restricts his physical and mental faculties. The rest of the book focuses on the effect of the stroke on the playwright's family, friends, and the Scottish teen hired to tend to him. Clanchy makes even her most hateful characters sympathetic by revealing their histories and motivations, so that even as I was cheering on someone's downfall I knew why they had become the way they were.
A few things would make me hesitate to recommend this book far and wide:
readingtheend's review
3.0
I pronounce this book PERFECTLY REASONABLE. I might have liked to be fonder of some of the characters, and I might also have liked Struan and Juliet to end up in happier situations than they did, but generally I find this book to be a reasonable representation of what people mean when they say "this is a book."
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