Lead Review
- Book: The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle
- Location: Lancashire
- Author: Matt Cain
An immersion into life in Lancashire, with a very enthusiastic narrator (with an appropriate Lancashire accent) and a delightful central character. Albert is nearing retirement, but given that the Post Office sorting office, where he meets with fellow posties, is his one social get-together, he is going to miss it. He now fully realises that he is lonely and really doesn’t want to give up the focal point of his life (apart from his cat, Gracie) which gives meaning to him. He has missed out on a good chunk of his life because he took care of his ailing mother, who turned very sour at the end and continually sent barbed comments his way.
Nicole is a single mum living on the Flowers Estate, which is a struggle for her as she can sometimes feel quite threatened as she goes out and about, even with her daughter. He delivers post to her and she starts to play a part in his life.
The story is a meander through his life, as he starts to sort out what and who really matter to him. He looks back to his younger years when he found comfort in a friend, but the atmosphere then around same sex relationships was even harder. Now he sees men happily cohabiting and that just causes him to think harder.
This is a story driven by characters, charmingly and simply described. And for me here is where it felt like a nice, Harold Fry/Eudora Honeysett study of people in older life, dripping with tropes that felt just a bit too well worn and, at times quite tedious. Cackling women and menopausal moaning (not to mention the hemorrhoids the size of a bunch of grapes), the Secret Santa shenanigans, you could almost predict which rabbit hole the author would go down next as he moved around the story.
This clearly, given the positive reviews, appeals to many readers because it is uplifting and heart-warming on many levels, so check it out for yourself. It just wasn’t one for me.
Location isn’t strong.
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