a spot of bother

[alcute]

Some quotes from this painful, funny, human novel (c):

…there were two parts of being a better person. One part was thinking of other people. The other part was not giving a toss about what other people thought. Sanding stale naan bread back to the kitchen. Kissing with tongues on Blackfairs Bridge.

...obviously there were worse jobs in the world (ratcatcher, astronaut…) but Jamie had never realised quite how far down the table parenting came.

You know the type… hated children… Which always winds me up. I mean, where do you think adults come from, for God’s sake? You want bus drivers and doctors? You need children.

… many of her childless London friends were beginning to seem a little fey and crapulous themselves, and it was good to spend time with people who’d brought up children of their own, and listen more than they talked, and thought gardening was more important than getting your hair cut.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

The characters of this book are ordinary folks. The book exposes a family dealing with aging and retirement, a homosexual son, marriage and relationship difficulties, etc. The dilemmas faced by these ordinary characters are familiar to us all, but this time it is a “comedy”. However, the book is NOT funny. Here one of typical jokes in the book:
"George could do the bluff repartee about cars and sport if pressed. But it was like being a sheep in the nativity play"

HA- Ha..

PS: this is the place where you suppose to laugh!

[denis690.livejournal.com]

I wonder how anybody can see the humour amongst the madness throughout the book.
It is very depressing book and all the characters are miserable, something like “LES MISERABLES”. Not one of them seemed content with their life (apart from Ray) and therefore, I didn't like this book at all.

[alcute.livejournal.com]

I would say, the younger generation managed to find out their own way and even themselves (thanks to Ray, yeah) - so, it's not so depressing:)