Review: Someone Else’s Shoes

My wife and I listened to this novel on the road from London to Sicily. At a length of 12 hours, 21 minutes, it entertained us for about half of our journey. It is written by Jojo Moyes and follows her formula: good women in trouble caused, at least partially by thoughtless men, plenty of action and emotion.

Jojo Moyes

Wikipedia says: ‘Pauline Sara Jo Moyes (born 4 August 1969), known professionally as Jojo Moyes, is an English journalist and, since 2002, an award-winning romance novelist, #1 New York Times best selling author and screenwriter. She is one of only a few authors to have twice won the Romantic Novel of the Year Award by the Romantic Novelists’ Association. Her works have been translated into twenty-eight languages and have sold over 40 million copies worldwide.’

There are two female protagonists in this novel. Sam Kemp works as sales manager for a printing company run by a despicable man who harasses her constantly for negligible failings. Her parents treat her like a handyman/servant; her husband has lost his job, his father died, and he is in a blue funk, watching TV all day. Nisha Cantor is the trophy wife of a super rich, totally selfish business man. She travels the world, staying in the best hotels, and her clothes are her identity, but she discovers that she is to be replaced by a younger trophy wife, and left without access to any money in London. Making it worse for her is that somebody has stolen her designer gym bag which held her six-inch high Christian Louboutin red crocodile shoes. Sam’s knock-off designer gym bag contains a pair of her comfortable flat shoes, but in her hurry to attend a meeting with a client, she picks the wrong gym bag. Left without her own shoes, Sam puts on the six-inch red crocks, and is amazed at the awe she strikes in workmates and clients. Her own confidence skyrockets. From that point, the story solves the following dilemmas with the help of hotel staff, Sam’s colleagues, her daughter, and a friend:

Should Sam resurrect a dead relationship with her husband, or go for the juicy colleague at work?Is Sam going to be fired, and if so, who’s going to hire her?How can Nisha get her shoes, her clothes from the hotel, some money, a decent settlement from her husband and a new love interest?

The women answer these questions with great skill and ingenuity. They also manage to extract revenge from the uncaring husband and boss.

The theme ‘Someone Else’s Shoes’ is played out very well in the circumstances and characters of Sam and Misha, different as they are. The conclusion, where Sam and Misha work together, and respect each other fits nicely. But Jojo isn’t a moralizer, she’s in it for the tension, the dilemmas, and the high-tension emotion, where she really excels. Her particular skill is creating characters who are unique, credible and very real bundles of emotion. OK, some of the props (the shoes, for example) and the settings stretch reality a little bit, but who cares. We’re in this with Jojo for the fun, and there’s plenty of it!