Thursdays in the Park, by Hilary Boyd is a lightweight book that will not tax your brain cells too much. Jeanie is almost sixty and her life is plodding along in a comfy, but less than thrilling manner. The main highlight of her life is her granddaughter, Ellie, who she looks after on Thursday afternoons and always takes to the park. One day, she bumps into Ray, a man on grandfatherly duties - and their two grandchildren start to play very happily together and they get talking. This chance encounter shakes her up and brings her life into focus. She is in a stale marriage, her husband George is overbearing and non communicative - and left the marital bedroom 10 years ago without explanation. He wants her to give up her whole life - the shop she runs, the closeness of her daughter and granddaughter and retire to the country. She has kept saying no, but no one is listening. The charming Ray sets her heart a flutter and makes her feel like a teenager ... is this real or is she just reacting to the unhappiness in her life "before Ray"? It is nice to have an older woman as the central character of a book for a change, and more especially one who still has all her faculties and passions. There are also traumas and tension and soul searching a-plenty. I did find myself caring about Jeanie and wanting her to be happy, but at the same time, I wanted to shake her for her pliability and apparent "hey ho" attitude that had seemed to be her forte up to this point. However, I could have done with a bit more depth to all the supporting cast, some of whom felt a bit like caricatures to me. A book maybe for a holiday or with nothing better to do - great for the Kindle! One that will not be staying with me for very long I suspect ... but sometimes, that's what your brain needs!
My STAR rating: THREE.
Length: 352 print pages.
Price I paid: £0.20.
Formats available: print; unabridged audio CD; unabridged audio download; ebook.
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