An Ordinary Life

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amy krouse rosenthal writes with the exact same flair and random brilliance as every single one of my friends -- perhaps why this book wasn't as unusual and unique as i expected. though there were some passages i was compelled to read aloud to anyone who'd listen, i mostly had the nagging feeling that i already know amy from somewhere, maybe chicago where i too grew up. she mentions names of people i'm familiar with like greg allen of the neo-futurists, and the whole concept and brevity of the chapters remind me of neo-futurist plays from 'too much light..' THE AUTHOR: Amanda Prowse was a management consultant for ten years before realising that she was born to write. Amanda lives in the West Country with her husband and their two teenage sons. It showed nothing more outwardly impressive than an ordinary street in Vermeer’s home town of Delft. Someone was doing a little sewing; some kids were playing on the stoop, a woman was busy in the yard. It is one of the greatest paintings in the world.

De Hooch was the first artist in the history of humanity to point out the charms of organising a cupboard. He did one picture that depicted a rather well-off merchant’s house, but the thing that really interested him was the laundry basket and how the owner of the house and her assistant are folding and putting away towels and bed sheets. This, de Hooch seems to be telling us, is also the meaning of life, properly understood. London, 1940s. Molly is a bright young woman, determined to help the war effort and keep her head up despite it all. Life becomes brighter when she meets and falls in love with a man who makes her forget everything with one dance. But then war forces her to make an unforgettable sacrifice, and when she’s brought to her knees by a daring undercover mission with the French Resistance, only her sister knows the secret weighing heavily on Molly’s heart.Time is short, as it was in wartime fraught with stolen moments, and Molly and Johan's was just that. A lieutenant in the navy, Johan is stationed in a secret location, though he assures her he is quite safe as he remains on English soil. The couple share only a handful of moments together before it is all tragically torn apart. But not before one stolen moment together that she now treasures - the memory of Johan's touch, his kiss and the feel of their nakedness. Along the way, she fell in love, but sometimes, fate has a nasty way of dashing all your hopes and dreams. London: newcomers arrive daily on British shores seeking a fresh start, new opportunities, or simply the chance of a different life. However, some are from much further afield than India or Jamaica...

Next she has a timeline, called, “evolution of this moment,” that gives the notable dates of her life, and finally, we delve into section called “Alphabetized existence.”But things change. Especially in wartime. Molly soon found herself without a job and no way of taking care of Joe. So she decided on a temporary solution while she saved enough for her and Joe to live a comfortable life. She asked her sister Joyce to look after him and keep him safe until after the war when living in London was no longer a risk. It seemed the ideal solution...for now. She cursed her inability to finish the note she had started, wishing nothing more than to place it in the hand of the boy who had shaped her whole life. She needed to tell him of her history. Her story, her ordinary life, and thus his story, the full truth he'd never known but that she'd promised, finally, to tell him. The truth that now he might never know. Stories of struggle in Mumbai of aspirants trying to get a toehold in Bollywood are a dime a dozen. What makes this ordinary life truly extraordinary are the magnitude of the struggle (literally no money for any food for days), the duration of it, the perseverance, and the payoff. This book seems like a PR attempt to build on Nawazuddin's newfound fame and gloss up his image. But even in this, it falls short badly. The writing is inconsistent, varying from the grammatically unsound to suddenly literary to pulpy to poetic. Then there are the problematic ideas - domestic violence, cheating, abuse, ghosting, exploitation. These are spelt out in great detail in incidents where Nawazuddin is the victim but there are several more where he's the perpetrator where the same is stated with unapologetic nonchalance.

Elements of the plot were predictable but I think that's always the case with a story which chooses to start at the end and certainly, in the case of this novel, it doesn't detract from the enjoyment. If anything, it heightens the anticipation as you wait for the inevitable to happen. There are a couple of things which happen at the end of the novel, one of which I loved and one I can't decide if I liked or not. Part of me feels it was entirely the right thing to do within the story and another part of me feels it should have been done differently but I can't explain more without spoiling it, so I'll just say you'll have to read it yourself and make up your own mind! London 1943: Nineteen year old Molly Collway works as a translator of both German and French for the Ministry of Information in her bid to help the war effort. She hopes this position will be a stepping stone to a career in Diplomacy although her family would rather she settle down with a nice young chap and have babies. But Molly wants more from life than domesticity. That is until her best friend Geer drags her along to a dance one evening and introduces her to her handsome brother Johan. As soon as their eyes meet, Molly forgets everything else and sees only him. They dance as if no one is watching, as if they were the only people in the room. The solution is to turn away from constant comparison and instead focus on finding fulfillment and identity on your own terms, says Stauffer.

Short Stories

Will she be able to find peace—and finally understand that what seemed to be an ordinary life was anything but? This is exactly what good reading' is about. A story doesn’t need a opening paragraph, plot, settings, summary. It doesn’t have to even contain words. It has to jar you, it has to pull you in and make you laugh, cry and relate. And who can't relate to having an obsessive need for coffee and trying to balance that with raising children, listening to the radio, remembering that you need trash bags when you hit the grocery store and is it this week that your kid has yoga? I walk that line daily. This book has an advantage. I'm supposed to be reading Don Quixote, but EOAOL is so easy to read "instead" that it wound up getting finished first. By far. Not even close. For that escape hatch, I give Amy 5-stars. AN ORDINARY LIFE is about one woman's extraordinary life that was anything but ordinary. It will make you laugh, it will make you cry and it will make you feel. It spans the years from 2019 to 1943 and throughout the years to the present day again. It is a tender tale, a beautiful story that is both heartfelt and heartbreaking...and it is about a secret carried over seven decades.

Steven says that the only thing he knew of the 1950s were the great historical events: the Korean War, the Suez crisis, the GP in Switzerland. An Ordinary Life is a tender story of love, loss, courage and hope. Amanda Prowse’s many fans won’t be disappointed. Very early in the book, Nawazuddin talks about his grandfather being liberal for his times and marrying outside the caste. Later, he talks about his shame in being associated with people of lower castes. But in the same chapter, he also speaks proudly of how he is said to have inherited his grandfather's majestic stance. The shallowness is off-putting. The vivid setting descriptions written by Amanda Prowse, the words used to convey the emotions of the characters, all worked, and I was hooked all the way through. What a heroine, Marvellous M!

This book made me think, as I often do, of all the life experiences and memories that older people have, memories which could be lost when they die if not passed on to their family and friends. Recently an old lady I knew died at the age of 102. I only knew her as an old lady and was very moved to hear at her funeral (which was streamed online) that in her younger days, she had been considered a real beauty, was a wonderful dancer and had a beautiful soprano voice. She was who I held in mind when reading about Molly’s life.