“Before then I’d never thought what it was actually like to be an old person. I’d just weave in and out of them on the pavement, and smirk with my friends at their funny hair and high-waisted trousers and the way they make paying for something at the checkout last for ages just to have someone to talk to. One minute the thought never crossed my mind, the next I was really and truly concerned about what it was like to be old and stuck in London, where everyone moved faster than you and even the simplest thing could end up taking all day. It was her. I know it was. It was my old lady, the dead one in the urn.”
So yah, Violet is dead. Lucas finds her in the minicab office and conspires with his grandmother to get her off the shelf so he can take her home. Clearly Lucas is not your ordinary teenage boy.
This book was absolutely hilarious and the writing was superb. The way that Lucas describes people, it is nothing short of wonderful. The book is a bit of a mystery, with Lucas slowly discovering what his dad was really like – there are clues littered throughout from belongings, to clues hidden in his grandfather’s Alzheimer stricken memory, but also is very much a coming of age story. The plot is actually quite intricate with interesting coincidences bringing increasing amounts of information to light.
And the ending…oh the ending. It was so fulfilling.
Run out and read this book!
3 comments:
This is the second rave review I've read of this - so it's on my wishlist for sure!
Finished this yesterday. Just terrific. Thanks for the rec, Patti!
Book sucked, i quit rweading it because i was a third of the way through it and the most exciting thing that happened was that he found the ashes of some dead lady in a urn.
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