Chick lit aimed at older readers
saving missy By Beth Morrey, HarperCollns $32.99 .. .. .. .. .. ..
At last, chick lit for grown-ups.
For grown-ups read those lucky enough to pass the three score years and ten milestone.
Missy, real name Millicent, is this book’s protagonist. When it opens she’s in her 78th year, by the time it closes she’s cracked 80.
In those two years she’s carried the burden of loss and conquered loneliness with the discovery of the joy new friendships bring.
A Cambridge graduate (she “came down” with a first class classics degree), her career went on hold when she married fellow academic Leo, as women of her era did.
After 50-plus years Leo’s no longer with her. Their son and grandson live in Australia. The daughter she’s never been close to has a wife, a 21st century situation Missy doesn’t find easy to accept.
Consequently she’s become a lonely woman of advancing years rattling around alone in a house far too big for her, life’s become an empty vessel.
There will be many of Missy’s vintage who’ll empathise, especially those with families far distant.
Her heart breaks when the planned Christmas visit by the son and grandson’s cancelled.
She’s so besotted by both it’s not until well into this book that we discover there’s a daughter-in-law, to Milly’s jaundiced eye she’s always been surplus to requirements.
But is anyone ever surplus to requirements? As Missy begins to move into the real world and mix with real people who care for her, she discovers loneliness is a state she’s inflicted on herself.
Her transformation’s led by Bob, the female mutt foisted on her, and Otis, a child her grandson’s age whose life she reluctantly becomes swept up in.
The plot line’s not unfamiliar but with its nuances for women of accumulated years the discovery comes that there’s a lot more to cram in before the final curtain falls.
Leaving it to the dying stages to reveal what wrenched Leo from Missy is a master stroke.
Morrey’s going to have to work overtime to better this, her debut novel.
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Jill Nicholas