Relatable characters lend charm to novel

Forty-something tries to navigate her way back to her old life

CONFESSIONS OF A FORTY-SOMETHING F##K UP

Alexandra Potter Loot.co.za (R306) PAN MACMILLAN

I USED to roll my eyes at people who made a big deal about “the big four oh”… that is until I actually turned 40.

And so when I saw Alexandra Potter’s Confessions of a Fortysomething F##k Up in the review pile, I initially cringed, but decided to give it a chance.

And I’m glad I did.

I laughed out loud, felt my eyes well up with tears and gasped as Penelope “Nell” Stevens took me through a year of her life.

Confessions starts with Nell returning to the UK after living in California where she was engaged to who she thought was the love of her life, and started and failed at running her own business.

We meet Nell fresh after her break-up with Ethan. Desperate to get over the end of their relationship, and with her visa expiring, Nell decides it’s as good a time as ever to return to London and pick up the pieces of her old life.

Only, that old life no longer exists. All her friends were married, or married with children.

Their interests and priorities changed and seem to have little place for a single, childless forty-something girlfriend from their past.

Having lost her savings when her book café tanked, Nell is surviving on a loan from her dad until she can get back on her feet.

Unable to afford a flat in the city, she takes the advice of a friend who recommends sharing a place with a stranger.

And this is when we meet Edward, Nell’s annoying, fastidious and über environmentally conscious landlord.

While her first instinct was to cross his place off her list of options, the deal was sweetened when he told Nell that weekends he went to stay with his wife and children in the country, so she’d have the place to herself – if she agreed to take care of his dog Arthur.

Ultimately Nell’s story has a (very) happy ending, some of which is predictable, others not so.

But more importantly, her story is about taking risks, trying new things, finding friendship in unusual places, and challenging yourself to resist making assumptions about what’s going on in other people’s lives.

There were many parts of Nell’s story that I related to, and I feel many others will too.

Potter has an easy, open way of writing, and I finished this 500plus page novel in less time than I expected.

She also succeeds in making the reader feel totally invested in the lives of her characters, which I feel is a feather in any writer’s cap.