From Publishers Weekly
The first third of this debut novel from Great Britain is marvelous, the middle third not bad, the last, contrived. At 51, with no outside interests or strong friendships, Alice Hatton faces an empty nest and a husband she does not love. On an impulse she dyes her gray hair a startling brown, and, after her husband fails to join her for dinner, dines instead with a nice man whom she accompanies to his club for the first good sex of her life. Then the man asks how much he owes her. Alice's initial indignation and return home are hilarious. A subsequent affair is barely plausible and a letdown for the reader, however. Subsequent events include the return home of Alice's daughters and the introduction of an American character whose dialogue is a parody of English condescension. A final, insufficiently motivated plot twist, involving a bastard grandchild, is additionally disappointing, given the promise of the book's beginning.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Life becomes empty for Alice when her youngest child leaves home. After years of selfless devotion to her children, she suddenly finds herself alone with a husband she no longer loves or wishes to wait on. Typical of many housewives in their fifties, she finds she must take her life in a new direction. Her road to self-fulfillment, which begins with a one-night stand, provides humorous and entertaining reading. Despite an ending that will make feminists cringe, the book presents a realistic and sensitive look at the empty-nest problem without the heavy self-consciousness so prevalent in current women's novels. Although not profound, this book does offer insight into a common phenomenon. For general readers.
- Nancy R. Ives, SUNY at GeneseoCopyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
