nancf 's review for:

The Little Old Lady Who Broke All the Rules by Catharina Ingelman-Sundberg
1.0

Before I knew that I would be unable to attend this month's book club, I checked out this book from the library. Then when I was returning another, overdue book, the librarian renewed this book for me. After all that, I felt kind of obligated to read it!

While there were some amusing and realistic parts about old age ("Old People Are Capable"), I found The Little Old Lady... pretty silly. I didn't find it particularly well-written, perhaps due to translation from the original Swedish? There was a lot going on: the group of five elderly choir members from the retirement home, each with their own story ; the director of the retirement home and Nurse Barbara; the police investigators; the college student hotel maid; fellow prisoners, including Juro of the Yugoslav mafia.

After reading some non-fiction recently, I was looking for a lighter book. The Little Old Lady was certainly lighter, but, for me, not very enjoyable.

Although the book was originally written in 2012, I found this paragraph amusing and prescient. "Abroad they have more respect for the elderly. In some places you can be president after you're seventy." (261)