Wednesday 21 August 2013

For better, for worse.......


One of my most enjoyable reads of the Summer has been a husband and wife joint effort:For Better, For Worse by Damian and Siobhan Horner. It chronicles their journey through France to the Med on their restored boat "Friendship", and switches constantly between his thoughts in bold typeface, and hers in normal typeface.

Most folks pushing forty and having a bit of a mid-life crisis, would probably buy a Harley, or go yak-packing in Patagonia for a month; but these two, he a burnt-out advertising exec, and she, a former travel writer and busy mum of two under threes, up sticks from the Big Smoke, decamp to a wooden boat and live in cramped conditions as they travel the French canal system.

Life in London has become pretty meaningless, and Damian in particular wants to know if there's still a good guy underneath his cutthroat advertising executive exterior.  His wife has settled into the humdrum routine of caring for very young children and misses not having a career or time for herself.  

On the journey they both get more than they bargained for as they rediscover the joys of family life, meet some amazing new friends, and learn how to savour the small things in life. It's a lovely read, and the stream of thought device alternating between husband and wife is amusing and insightful. I read it really quickly, and now want to go and live in Arles and be a writer!

This is the last of my three holiday read library books, and tomorrow I shall endeavour to return them without borrowing any more that might distract me from the task of reading only those tomes from the bag and the box that have come off my own shelves!

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