BOOKS WITH NICKY PELLEGRINO
This is a fairly short and very sweet novel about a group of people leading ordinary small-town lives. It’s as special as it is understated and I absolutely loved it.
The author’s previous book, Standard Deviation, was similarly wonderful, so I already knew she wrote pitch-perfect, witty prose about everyday lives and relationships. But this time she has created a book that is warm, touching and real, filled with so many small moments that ring true. It is happy and sad, and everything in between.
The story begins in 2002. Jane Wilkes has moved to the small town of Boyne City, Michigan, where she works as a primary school teacher. She has lived there only a month when she locks herself out of her house and local handyman Duncan rolls up in his rustspotted white van to help out.
Duncan is good-looking, affable and kind. He still mows his ex-wife’s lawn, even though she is married to someone else, and employs Jimmy who is slow at learning and can’t be trusted round the tools. Duncan is an easy man to fall in love with, but unfortunately that means lots of other women have fallen for him too. To Jane’s dismay, it appears he has slept with almost every woman in town.
Early Morning Riser is gentle, poignant and funny. It’s a story about putting down roots, making connections and creating a family. Along the way, Jane finds joy in unexpected places.
The word heart-warming tends to get over-used, but this novel truly is. I adored the characters and was charmed by every page of it even though – for a novel that spans 17 years – not an enormous amount happens. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Early Morning Riser turns out to be my book of the year.