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A review by ladymirkwood
The Rejected Writers' Book Club by Suzanne Kelman
4.0
** This title was provided to me by Netgalley in exchange for a fair and honest review**
A slice of small-town life is popular theme for novels these days,
with many authors never quite balancing the requisite mix of humour and pathos quite right.
Suzanne Kelman manages to hit that sweet spot in between and as such, it is a hugely entertaining read.
Set in the fictional Southlea Bay on the East Coast, the otherwise quiet town is home to a ragtag of particularly unusual women. The ladies of the Rejected Writers Club.
The premise of the club is that only those who are rejected by publisher's are select enough to join. Lead by the indomitable Doris, this group of ladies meet regularly for tea and cake, and, more importantly, joyfully paste their rejection letters into their big book of failure.
Janet, the towns librarian, dreads comming into Doris' determined orbit. Between balancing a raccoon-obsessed husband and a demanding adult daughter, she doesn't want to be drawn into yet another scheme. Luckily for the reader, Janet's (at times frustrating) inability to say no does reap rich comic dividends.
At the heart of the novel is Doris' rejected masterpiece, 'Love in the Forest', a time-travel saga featuring Jane Austen and a dishwasher. When a publisher offers her a deal, Doris realizes she will have to leave her own club, and so Janet and the ladies join her on a most unlikely roadtrip to get the publisher to reject her work.
What the ladies don't know is that Doris has written a secret about someone in her story, and to protect them, she must get it back.
'The Rejected Writers Book Club' is full of wonderful characters, each distinct and coming fully to life, familiar but never too cliche. The only fly in the ointment being that some of the supporting chapters shine so brightly, that the protagonist Janet does sometimes get lost in the mix.
But the meditations on the nature of friendship, ageing, parenting and love are are both refreshing and thoughtful coming from ladies older viewpoint.
This book is genuinely funny ( with the crabby Ethel providing the biggest laughs), warm, engaging and an absolute pleasure to read. But be prepared, because Kelman can, when the time comes, move you to tears too.
A slice of small-town life is popular theme for novels these days,
with many authors never quite balancing the requisite mix of humour and pathos quite right.
Suzanne Kelman manages to hit that sweet spot in between and as such, it is a hugely entertaining read.
Set in the fictional Southlea Bay on the East Coast, the otherwise quiet town is home to a ragtag of particularly unusual women. The ladies of the Rejected Writers Club.
The premise of the club is that only those who are rejected by publisher's are select enough to join. Lead by the indomitable Doris, this group of ladies meet regularly for tea and cake, and, more importantly, joyfully paste their rejection letters into their big book of failure.
Janet, the towns librarian, dreads comming into Doris' determined orbit. Between balancing a raccoon-obsessed husband and a demanding adult daughter, she doesn't want to be drawn into yet another scheme. Luckily for the reader, Janet's (at times frustrating) inability to say no does reap rich comic dividends.
At the heart of the novel is Doris' rejected masterpiece, 'Love in the Forest', a time-travel saga featuring Jane Austen and a dishwasher. When a publisher offers her a deal, Doris realizes she will have to leave her own club, and so Janet and the ladies join her on a most unlikely roadtrip to get the publisher to reject her work.
What the ladies don't know is that Doris has written a secret about someone in her story, and to protect them, she must get it back.
'The Rejected Writers Book Club' is full of wonderful characters, each distinct and coming fully to life, familiar but never too cliche. The only fly in the ointment being that some of the supporting chapters shine so brightly, that the protagonist Janet does sometimes get lost in the mix.
But the meditations on the nature of friendship, ageing, parenting and love are are both refreshing and thoughtful coming from ladies older viewpoint.
This book is genuinely funny ( with the crabby Ethel providing the biggest laughs), warm, engaging and an absolute pleasure to read. But be prepared, because Kelman can, when the time comes, move you to tears too.