I picked this up because I've always quite admired Virginia Ironside as a right-on journalist and agony aunt. The story is okay for what it is, but I was hoping for something a bit stronger or at least a little funnier, from this writer.
Plenty of it is good. Marie Sharp is defiant of the stereotypes and expectations of a woman of a certain age, i.e. sixty. She lists them with contempt and vows to definitely grow old disgracefully. She will remain single but will not become a little old lady. She will wear purple, demand attention and express her opinion at every juncture.
She will also dote on her grandson and give up sex.
Her description of the illness and death of a close friend is unflinching and moving, I felt for all of them. This was for me the most powerful part of the story, her friendship slowly bleeding away.
Where the story fell down was the always implied idea that she will not actually remain single and she will not give up sex. So at the end we come back to the ordinary story of a woman who can't be complete without a man, yet again. I was so hoping for a more interesting ending, but it became just another romance. I was afraid it would.
Plenty of it is good. Marie Sharp is defiant of the stereotypes and expectations of a woman of a certain age, i.e. sixty. She lists them with contempt and vows to definitely grow old disgracefully. She will remain single but will not become a little old lady. She will wear purple, demand attention and express her opinion at every juncture.
She will also dote on her grandson and give up sex.
Her description of the illness and death of a close friend is unflinching and moving, I felt for all of them. This was for me the most powerful part of the story, her friendship slowly bleeding away.
Where the story fell down was the always implied idea that she will not actually remain single and she will not give up sex. So at the end we come back to the ordinary story of a woman who can't be complete without a man, yet again. I was so hoping for a more interesting ending, but it became just another romance. I was afraid it would.
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