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| Eleanor really wants life to be different! |
September 2016, Orion, 6 hours 28 minutes, Audiobook, Review copy
Content: strong language, adult relations,
Book summary from Hachette Audio
Eleanor Flood knows she's a mess. But today will be different. Today
she will shower and put on real clothes. She will attend her yoga class
after dropping her son, Timby, off at school. She'll see an old friend
for lunch. She won't swear. She will initiate sex with her husband, Joe.
But before she can put her modest plan into action - life happens.
For
today is the day Timby has decided to pretend to be ill to weasel his
way into his mother's company. It's also the day surgeon Joe has chosen
to tell his receptionist - but not Eleanor - that he's on vacation. And
just when it seems that things can't go more awry, a former colleague
produces a relic from the past - a graphic memoir with pages telling of
family secrets long buried and a sister to whom Eleanor never speaks.
Nayu's thoughts
Initially I wasn't keen on Eleanor,
but I was intrigued by the summary so I kept going. It bothered me
how she treated her son. He was fed, had clothes, and the essentials
taken care of, but the connection between them didn't feel amazing.
So I thought over the book her feelings would improve as the story
progressed. They did to a certain extent, and I'm sure they would
have carried on but the story veered off for what seemed like age to the memoir (I think). I couldn't understand what they had to do with Eleanor (I hadn't remembered the blurb...) I kept waiting for the viewpoint to switch back to her,
but it didn't and I had no interest in the characters so I stopped
listening.
Audiobooks are harder to fast forward, whereas with a
physical or ebook version I could have sen where to skip ahead to get
past the part that didn't catch my interest. I really did want to
keep going but I couldn't face it. The story itself is well written,
I loved Timby and felt sorry for him as he didn't get his mother's
attention as much as he liked. The narration was spot on, seamlessly
changing character voices. I do recommend checking this out, I will
read the ebook version at some point just to know what happened at the
end!
Find out more on Maria's website.
Suggested read
Another good contemporary read is Family
Tree by Susan Wiggs, Narrator Christina Traister (Contemporary Fiction,
Romance, 9/10E, Audiobook, short 'n' sweet review)
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