As a big fan of the movie “Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.” I knew I’d like Moggach’s humour. This new book embraces getting older as an adventure rather than a burden.
Pru goes off to a friend’s funeral. Usual old hymns, words of praise and a eulogy. However, it doesn’t sound like the friend Pru knew… It isn’t. She’s gone to the wrong service. Everyone was very welcoming, it was, oddly, a good laugh and more excitement than she’s had for ages. Now she has the dress, why not go to a few more. people aren’t likely to make a scene at a funeral are they? and no one seems to challenge her. its good company.
Poor Pru has been left by her husband of many years and at the grand age of 70 is completely adrift in an unsettling world. Told solely from Pru’s perspective, it’s easy to feel sympathy for her, particularly as another betrayal follows on shortly after from an equally unexpected quarter. I though I knew where this story would head but it turns out to be something completely different to what I was expecting. Pru talks about missing not so much him, but the life they once had. With funny honest little relationship quirks, like spooning in bed and how to set the tv up, or change a fuse that we can relate to with ease. Moggach brilliantly highlights how “women of a certain age” are perceived against the reality, and I found myself cheering Pru on in her endeavours. It might seem like a crazy carry on from one relationship error to the next, but there is always more going on in this narrative. We [the reader] want her to be happy but can relate to the sorrow wading and imperfect memories of times gone by. Her relationship with her children and the way Greg [the ex-husband] wants to “find himself” brutally show the reader Pru’s true frailer to see the truth. She likes the rose tinted view and isn’t going to change.
Wonderfully fun with unexpectedly dark undertones It just goes to show that it is sometimes good to take a chance on a book outside your norm.
Oak Tree and Stars by BlueFalcon1983 