Wise Follies

by Grace Wynne-Jones

Why waving goodbye to Mr Wonderful may be the wisest folly of all...Alice Evans has got a GSOH, GFCH (gas-fired central heating), a cat and a Mitsubishi colour portable. People have told her she can look pretty if she tries. She's thirty-eight and single, so will someone please pass the message on? What Alice thinks she needs is Mr Wonderful. A man like her pottery teacher, James Mitchel, who's warm and wise and gorgeous. But as one long, hot summer disappears with no sign of her snaring the man of her dreams, Alice is forced to consider the alternatives. Should she settle for Mr Mediocre, her dull but dependable ex boyfriend Eamon, and spend the rest of her days trying to like golf? Or could there be another way for a woman to ditch all the longing - and really start living her life?

Genres: Chick Lit

Paperback

First published April 16, 2007

About the author

Did an online interview a while ago so if you fancy a quick peek here is the thingy:
https://authorsinterviews.wordpress.c...

I appreciate intimacy in ordinary life…people who seem to understand, people I don’t have to pretend with. And that’s what the characters in my novels ask of my friendship with them. They want to take off their masks and tell it how it truly is. Sometimes male characters do this too and I almost fall in love with them. For example I find Charlie in ‘Ordinary Miracles’ deeply fanciable. And Nathaniel in ‘The Truth Club’ would make a most wonderful confidant.

One of my biggest pleasures is when a reader says they have felt understood by a novel. This is often because a character has admitted to feelings they themselves have never been able to share. For example a number of readers of ‘Ordinary Miracles’ told me they felt I had somehow been spying on their marriages. One person even described the book as: ‘Victoria Wood meets Shirley Valentine’.

I love writing humour. I like my novels to contain many notes and contrasts, like in music. But as the saying goes, certain chords always reach the heart in the same way.


‘Ordinary Miracles has that rare combination of depth, honesty and wit…and all of this backed by a deliciously soft, gentle and loving humour…If you try one new author, try Grace Wynne-Jones.’ OK MAGAZINE

‘Grace Wynne-Jones has a wicked sense of humour which enlivens every page…Alice and her friends, and her hilarious magazine assignments, at times leave the reader rocking with laughter.’ THE IRISH TIMES re. ''Wise Follies'

‘…this is one of the best Irish novels this year…The trip to Greece is steeped in olives and jasmine, cicadas and sunshine…readers will love the local gigolo, Dimitri. Grace writes with great humour…On a more serious note, her portrayal of friendship, commitment and the complexity of relationships is very real and most enjoyable.’ EVENING HERALD re. 'Ready Or Not?'

‘…..Grace Wynne-Jones has written an entertaining, intelligent and genuinely funny story….this is a great read, especially for commuters…guaranteed to shorten any journey.’ THE IRISH TIMES re. 'The Truth Club'

Reviews

[Maureen Vincent-Northam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thirty-something Alice Evans is looking for her dream man and finds him in her pottery teacher, James. Does he feel the same about her? He’s certainly acting very friendly. But Alice has sort of promised she’ll marry the steady, if boring, Eamon and meanwhile is trying to avoid the young man who’s moved in next door.

This book has a few laugh out loud moments featuring her elderly neighbour’s budgies and some tender moments too.

[Pippa Franks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh, how I wish I was living next door to Alice!
What a wonderful character Grace has created here. Her views on life and love had me laughing out loud throughout. The whole cast were brought to life perfectly, even Cyril the budgie!
I adore humour, and Grace takes some beating. This book was impossible to put down. I have a list a mile long of books I want to read, yet I've read this one twice.
A fabulous job Grace!

[Stef Rozitis · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm so disappointed! This book tricked me into thinking I was going to like it. For over half the book the quirkiness and intelligence of Alice plus her eccentric spinster housemate and definitely Laren Brasserie (is anyone really called Laren?) seemed a departure from the chick-lit ordinary. There was genuine wit in some of the observations about popular magazines, about Alice's toxic boss and the real pressures women writers can be under do do and write things that are unpalatable and even in some cases dangerous.

I mean it was blatantly obvious where things were going with each of the potential Mr Wonderfuls, that seemed mapped out and tropey but I was inclined to forgive the tropeyness on the grounds that this book is a bit older (and maybe some of that stuff was more radical back then). Liam was a bit creepy with his voyeurism and sneaking his jocks into her laundry but he was mild level creep at that point and at least interesting in conversation. I thought there was going to be a slightly dully standard "feel good" ending but still the feminist principles would remain untouched. Sure Alice needed to grow the FU but that would come via realising the "Mr Wonderful" nonsense was stupid and that if she didn't want to be an eccentric spinster or a lesbian she could have a roll in the hay with a only slighly irritating but hot younger man.

Even when it seemed like she might have got pregnant with the wrong man I thought- well that at least is a realistic and slightly gritty twist to a usually insipid genre.

But no, she had therapy from Louise Hay AND the Road Less Travelled and a romance novel bearing her parents relentless white-picket-fence heterosexuality and suddenly she rekindles her inner fire or something, becomes irrational and boring and we get a chapter and a bit of waffle and conveniently falling into place musical theatre endings complete with realising her job at the women's magazine and her toxic boss were quite wise really.

FFS

Oh and the trigger for this exchange is we finally get to meet Laren but she is pulling herself back into a respectable, domesticated pose (because women don't really want adventures they are like the freaking song by Charlene and just want a penis and then babies. At least there is still artschool at the end for our almost heroine. Also WTF happened to Mira? All of her awesome quirkiness was just "hell hath no fury" over a guy? And she picks the blandest guy in the book to fall for and end up with?

And despite a promising beginning none of them are lesbians. Lesbians are conveniently mentioned as distant and other and definitely existing but not here so a girl like me can't even read against the grain.

So half the book is promising and exciting and you could read that and then imagine your own ending...or you can read that through to the cowardly tropes-as-usual if you like descriptions of wedding dresses and people getting excited over erections.

[Elisabeth Heien · Rating 3 out of 5]

This started off as the kind of book I would drop after a few chapters...but I persisted,and gradually it changed, turning into a quite good book. A few of the twists and turns in the story were pretty obvious from the beginning,but others were surprising. Add that to a likeable main character and that results in three stars. It certainly has more depth than what the title and cover hint at.

[Helene · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thouroughly enjoyed this story. It was fun and relevant.

[Jo Notary]

and really start living her life, could there be another way to ditch all the longin, but that's not working, looking for mr wonderful, 38 and single, 259pgs

[JenniferB · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book. Interesting author. Again cliched/manipulative in parts,

[Anne Hamilton · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was funny, occasionally sobering - but not my usual cup of tea. It's the story of Alice who lives in a cottage in Dublin and who, at 38, is dithering about giving up hope of ever meeting her perfect knight in shining armour, Mr Wonderful, and accepting the marriage proposal of Eamon, her ex-boyfriend. Trouble is, Eamon is perfect for her Eccentric Spinster flatmate, Mira, not for Alice. And Alice, in taking up pottery, falls obsessively in love with the unobtainable James. Life is complicated enough without Alice's boss (in cahoots with Alice's longtime friend, Annie, who is adamant Alice should wait for Prince Charming to arrive) sending her off to investigate singles-evenings in local supermarkets. And then there's the quiet attentions of Liam, the far-too-young next-door neighbour, that Alice feels she needs to fend off...

[Ros · Rating 2 out of 5]

ok but average Chick Lit. Alice is searching for meaning in life will she find it with a marriage proposal?

[Tracey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this funny thought provoking book.. I have another of Grace's books already loaded to read and am looking for more..