This Is Your Life, Harriet Chance!
As seen:
By Jonathan Evison
avg rating
2 reviews
‘As sweet as it is inventive, profound as it is hilarious, unflinching as it is big-hearted.’
Maria Semple, author of Where’d You Go, Bernadette
Harriet Chance has spent the last seventy-eight years following the rules…
Career girl (brief)
Wife (fifty-five years)
Mother of two (ongoing)
Now widowed, Harriet discovers that her late husband had been planning an Alaskan cruise. Ignoring the advice of her children and wanting to make the most of the opportunity, she decides to set sail.
There, amid the buffets and lounge singers, between the imagined appearances of Bernard and the very real arrival of her daughter, Harriet is forced to take a long look back, confronting the truth about pivotal events that changed the course of her life.
What she will discover is that she has lived the best part of her life under entirely false assumptions. Confronted with the notion that her past could have been different, will she take a second chance at life?
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Harriet remembers various episodes (at random) from her life. Secrets are revealed. Did not find this very interesting – but an easy read.
I really enjoyed this book, enough to make me want to read more by the same author. It basically tells the story of a few days in the life of an elderly lady, but a series of flashbacks reveal circumstances that arose and decisions that were made when she was younger which affected the way things turned out for her. On the one hand it is easy to read, entertaining and fast-paced, but it is also poignant, heartfelt, humorous and full of insight with a few lessons to be learnt along the way. My only criticism of the book is that it may jump around a little too much and could possibly benefit from having been told in a more linear fashion, but that’s a purely personal view and does not detract from the warmth of the book as a whole.
