The Godmothers
May. 4th, 2025 01:30 pmThe Godmothers by Monica McInerney is one of those books where I read a lot of them but I can't really pin down the genre...
I guess, contemporary fiction? Though that doesn't really narrow it down...
Anyway - it's about a young Australian woman named Eliza, who lost her mother when she was seventeen and has been living a fairly regimented and subdued life since then. When she's thirty, she loses her job and her home and decides to take a trip to Scotland to visit her godmothers and find out more about her origins.
Tonally, it's a bit all over the place. Aspects are quirky and amusing, with some characters verging on caricature. But it also delves into some quite dark topics - mental health, dementia, parental neglect - so it's definitely not a comedy.
My other issue with it was that a lot of important stuff was reported rather than being shown in direct action, so there was a lot of summary and telling.
I liked the romance aspect and the complex layers of the various inter-relationships (particularly between Eliza and her godmothers) were very well drawn.
It all came together in the end in a satisfying way - and I liked that it didn't all get tied up too neatly.
A solid read overall.
I guess, contemporary fiction? Though that doesn't really narrow it down...
Anyway - it's about a young Australian woman named Eliza, who lost her mother when she was seventeen and has been living a fairly regimented and subdued life since then. When she's thirty, she loses her job and her home and decides to take a trip to Scotland to visit her godmothers and find out more about her origins.
Tonally, it's a bit all over the place. Aspects are quirky and amusing, with some characters verging on caricature. But it also delves into some quite dark topics - mental health, dementia, parental neglect - so it's definitely not a comedy.
My other issue with it was that a lot of important stuff was reported rather than being shown in direct action, so there was a lot of summary and telling.
I liked the romance aspect and the complex layers of the various inter-relationships (particularly between Eliza and her godmothers) were very well drawn.
It all came together in the end in a satisfying way - and I liked that it didn't all get tied up too neatly.
A solid read overall.