Reviews by Jenny (69)

Jenny 2025-06-27 We all live here

Enjoyable and heartwarming

We all live here

This is the story of Lila who is the author of a bestselling guide to having a successful, happy and long-lasting marriage. Shortly after all the viral social-media, awards and TV performances, her husband leaves her for a young woman - severely compromising her career as a marriage guru. And her mother dies. She has two daughters who are struggling to adapt, and now has her stepfather, who brings his own challenges, move into her home. Finally her long-time estranged, arrogant, fun-loving, has-been Hollywood actor father appears out of nowhere and also needs somewhere to live. How Moyes resolves all the complicated relationships is a warm and funny comment on how modern complicated family arrangements can work really well. A clever and comforting read.

Jenny 2025-01-24 Old God's Time

Depressing

Old God's Time

More abused children in Ireland with a corrupt church and state sanctioning all the crimes. While hauntingly beautifully written, I found it too disturbing and after getting half way though, decide, in the interests of my mental health, to give up and not finish it.

Jenny 2025-01-24 Kairos

Too cold and bleak for me

Kairos

This won the Booker last year and I cannot dispute the quality of the prose and its translation. But I found all the characters to be morally bankrupt, and the story dry and soulless. With a setting in East Berlin acadaemia there is no place for beauty or fun or warmth - everything is intense and serious and the humourless love affair between a young girl and an older lecturer is confined to a grey city and grey apartments and offices. Not my cup of tea and again I gave up on it before half way through it. But it won the Booker ………

Jenny 2025-01-24 Vladimir

Sharp, witty and warm

Vladimir

After the bleak disappointment of Kairos, I decided I wouldn’t even begin Vladimir which is a reversal of Nabakov’s Lolita in that the female protagonist is an older woman (also in acadaemia) who falls for a younger colleague – Vladimir. With nothing else to read I gave it a try and am so glad because I found it really funny and entertaining. Both characters, while dealing with their own problematic marriages, manage to conduct their illicit affair with humour and an uncompromising honesty. The power dynamic between the two is complex and nuanced, and cleverly explored. I loved it

1 ... 5 6 7 ... 14