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Would Like to Meet by Polly James
Blurb
Could the worst thing that’s ever happened to Hannah Pinkman also turn out to be one of the best?
She and her husband Dan have reached the end of the line. Bored with the same gripes, the same old arguments – in fact, bored with everything – they split up after a trivial row turns into something much more serious.
Now Hannah has to make a new life for herself, but that’s not easy. She’s been so busy being a wife and mum that she’s let all her other interests slip away, along with her friends. And when Hannah is persuaded to join a dating site, her ‘best match’ is the very last person she expects it to be . . .
A clever, funny and poignant novel about life after a long relationship, the importance of friendship, and rediscovering your identity.
Review
Have you ever snorted with laughter whilst sitting on a train and had odd looks from.strangers? Yeah, that.
Then I kept reading bits out loud to my husband. Especially the part where the main character, Hannah, is thinking about wrinkly middle-aged faces and waxed-smooth nether regions.
The humour in this book is subtle and quite dry and very tongue-in-cheek, and so typically British in it's self-deprecation. The MC is a sweetie. Alone after years of marriage she is lost and heart-broken, and in a bid to move on with her life she has a series of unfortunate incidents.
Each character is meticulously painted and soundly fleshed out, except for the elusive and mysterious Dan, who continues to elude the reader's scrutiny almost to the end, when all is revealed. The author does a particularly good job of portraying Hannah's son I thought - the almost alienness of our semi-independent offspring, especially sons, is captured beautifully.
The author addresses some of the issues surrounding the pre-menopausal woman and gives all of us in that particular category hope in the form of the irrepressible Eva and the irascible Pearl.
About the author
In 2010, Polly started a comic fictional blog called "Mid-Wife Crisis", which she wrote under the pseudonym of the main character, Molly Bennett. The blog quickly attracted a large readership and was eventually shortlisted for the Orwell Prize. The whole thing came as a massive shock to Polly and she still hasn't got over it. “Diary of an Unsmug Married” tells Molly Bennett's story, though Polly's second novel "Would Like to Meet" features a totally different cast of characters. Polly's website: http://www.pollyjamesauthor.com Polly's blog: http://mid-wife-crisis-blog.blogspot.co.uk/ Polly's publisher: http://www.harpercollins.co.uk/Authors/11679/polly-james Polly on Facebook (as Molly Bennett): https://www.facebook.com/molly.bennett.9693
