Lain's review
Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman by Elizabeth Buchan
This novel could have been a gripping tale of a marriage's end, but instead it read like a watery, detached account from a woman who'd given up long ago. Am I the only reader who rolled her eyes when Rose basically lay down and played dead when she lost her job to her husband's new paramour? Talk about giving up without a fight. Maybe it's the American in me, but I would have been at the lawyer's within minutes after that encounter.
I had trouble believing that the woman dealing with her philandering husband with such equanimity and lack of emotion was the same Rose who trekked through the rainforest and longed for adventures a few decades earlier. Where did all the passion go? Rose also seemed much to eager and willing to take on responsibility for Nathan's behavior, saying she "should have known he was unhappy." Bollocks!
Despite these complaints, many of the secondary characters -- Poppy and Alice, in particular, were compelling and fun to read about, and rang quit...more
I had trouble believing that the woman dealing with her philandering husband with such equanimity and lack of emotion was the same Rose who trekked through the rainforest and longed for adventures a few decades earlier. Where did all the passion go? Rose also seemed much to eager and willing to take on responsibility for Nathan's behavior, saying she "should have known he was unhappy." Bollocks!
Despite these complaints, many of the secondary characters -- Poppy and Alice, in particular, were compelling and fun to read about, and rang quit...more
