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The Woman Who Went To Bed For A Year (2012)

by Sue Townsend(Favorite Author)

2.88 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

071815715X (ISBN13: 9780718157159)

languge

English

genre

Humor

publisher

Michael Joseph

review 1: Three hundred pages into this book, I gave in, no longer caring what happened to anyone and tired of selfish and unpleasant people being selfish and unpleasant to each other. There were plenty of flashes of Sue Townsend's comic genius, some good fun poked at Leceister, but also a core of spitefulness to this book. This is a shame. It's not a bad book. She writes about an astronomer much more believably than Ian McEwan does in 'Solar', for example. I think she was blind when she wrote this, but there's no self pity, just rage, and sadly she's no longer with us. But really it wasn't to my taste. Sue Townsend must go down in my book as another of the alarming numbers of English comic novelists whose first book is the best thing they did : her Adrian Mole streaked across the s... moreky like a meteor, total comic genius. So she joins Kingsley Amis (did he ever write anything better than Lucky Jim?) and Douglas Adams (who to my mind. never improved on than the original radio script of Hitchikers). Other comic writers, I notice (Wodehouse, Terry Pratchett, Alexander McCall Smith) seem to keep themselves fresh and their readers and publishers happy just by writing the same book again and again. Farewell Sue Townsend and many thanks. No one has ever deserved an obituary in the Leicester Mercury as much as you.
review 2: This looked like an exceptional book. I first saw it in WHSmith last year and really wanted to read it because the premise was fascinating. A woman, lying in bed for an entire YEAR? I MUST know more about it. Recently I found it for 50p at a charity shop and so I picked it up and took it home with me.It took me over three months to read it and that is not a small feat. I can devour books in hours, but this one just seemed too tedious. I will not deny that Sue Townsend is a great writer, I thoroughly enjoyed her Adrian Mole books, but the Telegraph lied when it said that she has the ability to make one laugh out loud.I found the humour mediocre at best, but perhaps I just don't share her sense of humour. I just felt like the story lacked direction. I ploughed through it expecting there to be a resolution because one does not stay in bed for a year with nothing coming out if it but there was nothing. If anything, matters got worse for the family. The twins became deranged masterminds and Brian Senior didn't learn anything except perhaps how to make a Christmas dinner. Eva appeared to become more frail by the day and the Alexander subplot was tiresome. I felt nothing when she was left alone. I felt nothing when Yvonne died.In fact, I felt nothing throughout the whole book. I didn't feel like investing in the characters because they all seemed self centred and underdeveloped. Sue Townsend is a fantastic writer and I enjoyed reading her descriptions of the characters and loved how she wrote shrewdly about their feelings about each other and their relationships. But her story as a whole seemed to be rather a flop. I finished it feeling unsatisfied. I felt like I had lost several precious hours of my life because I hadn't learnt anything of any importance. It was literally a story about a woman who became fed up with her unsatisfactory marriage and climbed into bed. Was she making some kind of statement? I don't think so. Was she mentally ill? She was adamant that she wasn't but it was increasingly obvious that she must have been. Was Sue Townsend trying to send out a message that mothers and wives are underappreciated and that the world would stop if they ceased to to what they do?I do not know, but I do know that is book depressed me and wasn't as funny as I anticipated it being (the premise screams hilarity, though). I am giving it two stars because Townsend is a great writer. This tale could have taken a better path, I thought. less

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Reviews (see all)

darrenhou2001

And another one ...... trundles along nicely, some poignant moments, some funny moments and then the end... well, it just finishes..... I despair!Are the classics the only place to get a decent read? No, I know they're not - as an example: Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, The Night Circus.... but I feel Heathcliff and/or Jane Eyre calling again .... well they're not to be faulted really and always reignite my love of books :)

Sadipops

vinicius

Excellent. A must for weary mothers and grandparents!

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