Douglas Petersen has reached a crossroad in his
life, not uncommon in middle age. His only child, son Albie, is due to go off
to university and his wife, Connie, suddenly announces that their marriage has run
its course and she wants to leave him. As Douglas (the narrator) puts it “if
Albie had flunked his exams we might have had another good year of marriage”.
The timing of the announcement is also
inconvenient as to mark Albie’s last summer at home a Grand Tour of Europe’s
cultural centres – Paris, Amsterdam, Venice, Florence and Rome - has been
planned and paid for. So they decide to see it through. In Connie’s mind it
will be a last hurrah; for Douglas it will be a chance to show the woman he
still loves a good time and convince her to stay.
So far so downbeat - funny but in a Victor
Meldew vein of humour. But before they get to Paris the cracks in his
relationships with both his wife and more particularly his son begin to show. Then
in Amsterdam the pressure of keeping up appearances is too much and the
threesome fragment. Douglas for once acts on impulse, and once he becomes
liberated from his itinerary and exposed to new experiences, the action becomes
frantic, funny and more purposeful.
As well as the on-going mishaps of an
Englishman abroad and the inescapable trials of family life, Douglas also
relates how his courtship, career and family evolved to this point, musing on
how it all went wrong after him trying so hard. In addition to the humour there
are moments of bitter sweet emotion, tense heart-stopping episodes, and an ending
full of twists and turns.
So just another cracker from the author of ‘Starter
for Ten’ and ‘One Day’.
No comments:
Post a Comment