Book Review: How to Age Disgracefully by Clare Pooley
I’ve been on a contemporary British author kick lately and am loving it. Last year I read the book “Iona Iverson’s Rules for Commuting” (also known as “The People on Platform 5”) by Clare Pooley and adored it, so I eagerly picked up “How to Age Disgracefully.” As I’m now firmly settled into my midlife, books like this one, with an ensemble cast full of quirky characters of all ages, increasingly appeal to me.
Synopsis:
A senior citizens’ center and a daycare collide with hilarious results in the new ensemble comedy from New York Times- bestselling author Clare Pooley
When Lydia takes a job running the Senior Citizens’ Social Club three afternoons a week, she assumes she’ll be spending her time drinking tea and playing gentle games of cards.
The members of the Social Club, however, are not at all what Lydia was expecting. From Art, a failed actor turned kleptomaniac to Daphne, who has been hiding from her dark past for decades to Ruby, a Banksy-style knitter who gets revenge in yarn, these seniors look deceptively benign—but when age makes you invisible, secrets are so much easier to hide.
When the city council threatens to sell the doomed community center building, the members of the Social Club join forces with their tiny friends in the daycare next door—as well as the teenaged father of one of the toddlers and a geriatric dog—to save the building. Together, this group’s unorthodox methods may actually work, as long as the police don’t catch up with them first.
My review:
Where to start? You know when the opening pages have you laughing so hard tears are streaming down your face a wild ride is about to ensue. And what a wild ride it was. As a fan of the BBC television show “Call the Midwife” I loved the way community members from multiple generations pulled together to support one another and try to save their beloved social club. I kept picturing a modern-day town on the outskirts of London like Poplar as I read about the characters and their shenanigans. The story is told through multiple POVs, which I enjoy, although there were a few perspectives I wish we’d had access to in the pages.
The character of Daphne reminded me of Iona Iverson, with her mysterious background and razor-sharp wit. Art, the struggling background actor who is well over retirement age, alone save for his lifelong best friend Bernard, will tug at your heartstrings. There’s even an adorable dog time share among the characters after disaster strikes at the community center in the opening chapter.
If I have one quibble to this book, it’s that I tire of seeing women my age married to men in books who treat them terribly, run around on them, and encourage their near-adult children to pile onto Mom. I understand why this scenario was painted the way it was with Lydia’s character, as it was essential to move the plot forward, but just once I’d like to see a woman in mid-life proactively seek a divorce before the cheating begins or maybe, (just maybe) still be happily married. But I think this is more representative of the literature I choose to read and not the fault of the author. There were also a few minor female characters I had trouble keeping track of (Ruby and Anna) but that’s the nature of the ensemble cast.
I did appreciate that Pooley flipped the narrative of unwed teenage mother on its head with the character of Ziggy, the young man still in high school raising an infant daughter while his ex-girlfriend moved happily on with her life. This scenario is not something you see in fiction very often so it was an intriguing surprise.
Overall, the pacing of the book is good, the dialogue delightful, and the personal issues of the various characters were relatable. Haven’t we all struggled with difficult family dynamics, waiting too long to set things right? I will say after reading “The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife,” and “The Correspondent” recently I’m wondering if this may just be my preferred genre as I approach the age of 50?
Whatever the case, I’m now firmly a Clare Pooley fan and have added the book “The Authenticity Project” to my TBR pile, although as her debut novel it has more mixed reviews than her second two.
Have you read any of Clare Pooley’s novels? What are your thoughts?