This month’s read was The Rest of Our Lives, a donation from the publisher in return for an unbiased review.
After his wife’s affair, Tom promises himself he’ll leave her when their children have grown up. Fast forward 12 years and we find Tom dropping his daughter at university, before setting off west on a journey to see friends, family, and an old girlfriend – while grappling with his own hidden problems.
Our group had mixed reactions to the story – with several not finishing it, or skim reading to get to the end. There were comments that it was ‘slow’, ‘meh’, and ‘depressing’. Some readers were surprised it had been shortlisted for the Booker prize. In general we agreed that we’d liked the start, but many of us had found our enthusiasm swiftly waning – rather like Tom rating his marriage as a C minus.
However some of the group were surprised by how much they’d enjoyed the story, even though it wasn’t something that they would usually choose. One member said that it was that it was good to go out of their comfort zone, another said that they had been pleasantly surprised by the story. Two readers hadn’t finished it but were planning on doing so, and said they would recommend it to others.
The idea of the American road trip appealed, with one member virtually following Tom’s route on their own Rand Mcnally road map. Several people said that they’d been expecting a journey of self-discovery, but this wasn’t what we read. In fact there was relatively little detail of either Tom’s travels, or his emotions. The friends and people he met on his journey were quite two dimensional, with their importance lying only in the way they related to Tom. We concluded that he came across as quite self-absorbed, and also in denial of his looming health problems. The many basketball references went over most of our heads in the same way that the orange ball itself would…
One reader enjoyed listening to the story as an audiobook, and felt the voice of the actor reading it matched Tom’s character. On the whole, we found the book very introspective, with long chapters and a drifting story which showed Tom in a rather unappealing light. His reflections on fatherhood, middle-aged life, and relationships were disliked by several members, but valued by others – with one reader describing the book as a good insight into the realities of middle-aged fatherhood.
We scored it a rather meh 2/5
Our next meeting us on Wednesday 15th April at 1pm when we will be discussing The Instant by Amy Liptrot.
This memoir tells how Amy leaves her isolated life on an Orkney island and moves to Berlin in search of new experiences, work, and love. Over a year in the city, she explores its nightlife, wildlife, and online dating, eventually becoming consumed by an intense love affair while reflecting on nature, technology, and human connection.
Copies are available to borrow from the Education Centre Library at Warwick Hospital and, as always, you are more than welcome to borrow a copy even if you can’t make the meeting – we appreciate thoughts shared by email and in person
Previous book reviews are now up on the Library Blog