A brand new author to me - I do like finding a new author. An enjoyable read and would be interested in reading more by this author.

Maybe if I’d read this at another time I might have enjoyed it more, but as it is, I just found it a bit sad and depressing. Thomas and Mary are pretty normal, every day kind of people. I did have to wonder if they were ever truly in love in the first place. I understand what the author was trying to achieve, and I think they succeeded. Realistic to many, I’m sure. But maybe the title did the book a disservice as I went into it expecting one thing, but received something altogether different, Well written, just not the beautifully told love story I was hoping for.

Essentially this book is just so very dull. There’s some good writing hidden amongst all the dullness but it all so unremittingly goes on and on and on……Thomas has been married to Mary for 30 years and things are getting….well, dull. But does the reader really need to accompany Thomas as he wallows in his self-pity? I don’t think so. I found the beginning of the novel quite appealing. Tim Parks is good at analysing the everyday details that make up married life, the avoidances, the resentments, the things left unspoken. And the depiction of their son Mark is pretty convincing, although even here the plot gets a little out of hand. But after about a third of the way through the novel loses focus and just meanders on to very little purpose. Disappointing.