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Book Review Title Lessons
For A Sunday Father Fiction-Net Rating Buy It - Buy This Book Cover Story It's
never too late to grow up. This is the
story of Scott, who finds his belongings
outside in a bin bag one day and realises
he may have made a big mistake. Gail, who
wishes her husband was under guarantee so
she could send him back and get a refund.
Nat, who discovers that growing up isn't
all it's cracked up to be. Rosie, who just
wants her Dad back - or if not, then at
least some new glitter nail
polish. Four
lives, one story. Love, loss and learning
to be a grown-up. We Say I read
Lessons
For A Sunday
Father
with very high hopes, for two reasons.
First, Claire
Calman's
previous (and debut) novel, Love
Is A Four Letter
Word,
was nothing short of stunning. Second,
with this book, the author has adopted the
highly effective 'he said, she said'
approach used by Josie
Lloyd
and Emlyn
Rees
in the brilliant book Come
Together
and its reasonable sequel, Come
Again.
This was always going to be an interesting
piece of work. Lessons
For A Sunday Father is told from the
viewpoint of four members of the same
family - Scott and Gail and their two
children, Nat and Rosie. Each character
tells their side of the story whilst the
family falls apart as a result of Scott
having a very brief affair. A big
reason for the success of Love Is A Four
Letter Word was due to its strong
emotional pull. With the subject matter of
this novel, there is plenty of scope for
Claire Calman to use those same skills to
good effect. It almost works. Calman
effectively tells the story of nine-year
old Rosie, who turns out to be a really
sweet character. The author also does an
effective job in telling things from
Scott's side and he effectively becomes
the lead character. Indeed, the father and
daughter relationship between Scott and
Rosie is a very central theme of the novel
and the basis for the book's title.
Watching Scott discover that he has a
lovely child who he'd previously pretty
much taken for granted is a fascinating
experience. However, it has to be said
that Gail and Nat are much less
interesting characters. Gail is too weak
and Nat is not much more than a moody,
annoying pain in the butt. The
storyline itself is a strong point. Claire
Calman leads us on a ride where it's never
really clear whether Scott and Gail will
make it back together or not and she
successfully achieves the desired result
of making the reader care about the
outcome. It
hasn't got the emotional magnetism of Love
Is A Four Letter Word but Lessons For A
Sunday Father is still a very worthy
second novel for Claire Calman. Let's see
more. Review by: Rob Cook Buy It - Buy This Book |
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