Just Like You, Fifty Fifty and Actress

Would I have bought a book about a relationship between Lucy, a middle class 42 year old white woman with two children, and Joseph, a young black guy in his early twenties? Probably not, but I try any new novel by Nick Hornby (my eighth). He makes it such a light yet emotional read. The reactions of family and friends is described with a sensitive aspect. There is a lot of Hornby trademark humour. The funniest bits usually involve Lucy's two young boys. The only downside was there was too much about Brexit. That is long gone. But I did have to slow down my reading in case I finished too soon.

I only read this book on the back of great reviews from those on the "Between The Covers" TV programme. I should have known better. Populated by mostly sleazy individuals and a preposterous plot, I must avoid crime fiction in the future. I was given to believe this book had some literary merit, but it didn't. Reading the first page of my new book by Anita Brookner showed me what class writing really is. There are a lot of people who will love this story, just not me.

Another great first chapter. It is Nora's (our narrator) twenty first birthday party and her mother, the extraordinary actress Katherine O'Dell, is past her best. She was born in England but invented herself as an Irish icon. The book should have been called the Actresses' Daughter as it is mostly about Nora's own life. But that title does not trip off the tongue, and Norah is trying to tell us in the first person (no, not us but "you") what is was like with a mother like Katherine. The "you" in this case is her husband who might read this story and understand more about his wife.

The novel jumps backwards and forwards in time, sometimes it made me a little dizzy, but it was always interesting if not gripping and I wallowed in Enright's prose. What is a "self-deleting man"? Nora has a weird sense of her long marriage: "Our love has always carried the freight of dread". But the story is not about the marriage, "you" knows all about that. It is Nora's life before "you" that is here. And, yes, mostly about her mother.