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A review by rhodered
Of Love and Life: 31 Dream Street / Hidden / The Two Mrs Robinsons by Katy Gardner, Lisa Jewell, Donna Hay
4.0
A lovely book. But I don't know if most Americans would agree with me.
I had a friend years ago whose novel was published on both sides of the Atlantic with nearly the same cover - a young couple standing next to a red car. Except in the U.S., the car was very shiny, the couple aggressively happy and the sky was blue. The UK cover however, had a grey sky, a slightly saddened couple and the cars paint job was somehow more muted.
All of that is to say, if you are British or you lived there long enough to get it, you're more than likely to enjoy this book. It's a lovely adult coming of age story with a group of people aged 20-45 living randomly together in a large, shabby group house in London, who are all coming to terms with life and ultimately moving on. It rains. People smoke cigarettes and drink a bit too much. There are (slight) class issues. Almost no one has much ambition or a burgeoning career. Cups of tea are offered. A multi-millionaire side character with a lavish fancy house is presented as almost comic relief - not anyone you would ever want to be.
Much of this is stuff that Americans may not enjoy because we are programmed to distrust anyone who doesn't have a proper work ethic, and we find ambitionless men unappealing. We are not a culture that happily supports poets. We prefer sunny skies to grey. And anyone over about 25 who is still in a group home is sad enough that you don't want to read about them.
If you can get over that, it's a sweet book. A few of the characters had unnecessarily melodramatic secrets - a dying girl, a former criminal, a mother who abandons her child..... We didn't need the extra drama.
I enjoyed the main characters though, and this book includes a salutary lesson in how to avoid marrying mr wrong because you're loving your life on default. Plus, the ending was magic for me.
I had a friend years ago whose novel was published on both sides of the Atlantic with nearly the same cover - a young couple standing next to a red car. Except in the U.S., the car was very shiny, the couple aggressively happy and the sky was blue. The UK cover however, had a grey sky, a slightly saddened couple and the cars paint job was somehow more muted.
All of that is to say, if you are British or you lived there long enough to get it, you're more than likely to enjoy this book. It's a lovely adult coming of age story with a group of people aged 20-45 living randomly together in a large, shabby group house in London, who are all coming to terms with life and ultimately moving on. It rains. People smoke cigarettes and drink a bit too much. There are (slight) class issues. Almost no one has much ambition or a burgeoning career. Cups of tea are offered. A multi-millionaire side character with a lavish fancy house is presented as almost comic relief - not anyone you would ever want to be.
Much of this is stuff that Americans may not enjoy because we are programmed to distrust anyone who doesn't have a proper work ethic, and we find ambitionless men unappealing. We are not a culture that happily supports poets. We prefer sunny skies to grey. And anyone over about 25 who is still in a group home is sad enough that you don't want to read about them.
If you can get over that, it's a sweet book. A few of the characters had unnecessarily melodramatic secrets - a dying girl, a former criminal, a mother who abandons her child..... We didn't need the extra drama.
I enjoyed the main characters though, and this book includes a salutary lesson in how to avoid marrying mr wrong because you're loving your life on default. Plus, the ending was magic for me.