The Woman who Went to Bed for a Year (Penguin Picks)

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As a comedy it failed on every level, and, as a meaningful or poignant tale of modern life, it failed doubly. I couldn't see any meaning beneath the selfish, nonsensical and ofttimes cruel activities of the characters, and I tried my best to find it. Townsend gets carried away and the plot descends into a sheer farce around midway, with the arrival of TV crews and desperate fans clamouring for a glance of Eva. While the whole novel is far-fetched, this element asks the reader to suspend more disbelief than is reasonable and is just a bit of nonsense too far. Strangely, the phenomenon dissipates and plays no part in the conclusion, which also renders it a pointless tangent that would have been better omitted. Main character wasn't likeable. Can imagine the same plot written to make the main character seem despairing/given up, but she seems (and is eventually portrayed as) as someone who is simply being petulant. (For example the piece early at the beginning with discussion of her bodily functions/the "White Pathway"). Ennek a regénynek az olvasása döbbentett rá valamire, amit igazából eddig is tudtam. A pillanatnyi életszínvonalam sokkal jobb, ha minőségi könyvet olvasok.

The narrator, Caroline Quentin, did a fantastic job on this I felt, which made it all the more enjoyable for me. I’m rather sensitive to voices and they can make or break a story so easily. It’s hard to imagine anyone doing this better now. In this book, Eva's twin children, autistic brilliants who never relate to anyone else, have left for university, and Eva decides to retire to her bed. Forever.Logo que os 2 filhos gémeos voaram do Ninho para a Universidade, Eva, fatigada duma vida pejada de tarefas e pouco sentido, decidiu parar, enfiando-se um ano na cama 🛌!

The thoughts that Eva had during her bedridden spell were vacuous and annoying - world hunger, war, etc. Who doesn't get depressed about these things? And she didn't even seem that concerned about the things that 'worried' her so much.She was an honorary MA of Leicester University, and in 2008 she was made a Distinguished Honorary Fellow, the highest award the University can give. She was an Honorary Doctor of Letters at Loughborough University, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Her other awards include the James Joyce Award of the Literary and Historical Society of University College Dublin, and the Frink Award at the Women of the Year Awards. In 2009 she was given the Honorary Freedom of Leicester. Ostensibly, Townsend’s novel is a light, humorous and unpretentious look at modern middle-class (dysfunctional) family life – the story of a woman who makes a conscious decision (being seemingly neither physically mentally unwell) to retreat from life, from the expectations of her and her role as mother, daughter and wife. Oh gosh. I hate to disparage an author's hard work. I hate to be negative when I consider how much time, effort and soul has gone into writing it. I've enjoyed Townsend's other work, Adrian Mole was hilarious. However, if I can save you from wasting your time reading this book then perhaps it is the fairest thing I can do.

The day her gifted twins leave home for university, Eva climbs into bed and stays there. For seventeen years she's wanted to yell at the world, 'Stop! I want to get off'. Finally, this is her chance. Perhaps she will be able to think. Somehow the world whirls around Eva, crises rising and falling, and through it all, Eva wonders what the world is about. Or, it's a serious and thought provoking book, or at least, an attempt at one, with nothing much going on under the surface. This was ostensibly a comedy novel about a woman whose life was not going the way she wanted it to. The day her gifted twins leave home for university, Eva climbs into bed and stays there. For seventeen years she's wanted to yell at the world, 'Stop! I want to get off.' Finally, this is her chance. Perhaps she will be able to think.

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Szóval kereken száz oldal után arra jutottam, hogy fontos az öngondoskodás, ami ez esetben a könyv azonnali félbehagyását jelenti...:P The plot is simple, and potentially interesting. A middle-aged woman effectively has a breakdown, decides to go to bed and stay there for a year. Her family and an expanding cast of bizarre eccentrics become entirely responsible for her care. Eva grows afraid to step out of her bed, and gradually things get odder and odder. She gives advice to a passing cabbie and he spreads the word of her wisdom, and soon she is surrounded by acolytes, begging for answers. Her husband is caught in a several-year-long affair. Her children are terrorized by a fellow undergraduate, who insinuates herself into every aspect of their lives. Eva's selfishness puts her at risk.