by Sarah Winman
This is the third of Sarah Winman’s books that I have come across, and read, listened to or tried to read.
In this case, the book was a Christmas present from my son and daughter-in-law. My face must have dropped a bit as I opened it, because Simon said “if you don’t like it, we can give it to Kate’s mum!”. Well, I think Kate’s mum will be getting it. I have got about halfway through, and although the descriptive writing is good, I am still looking for a plot. Even the characters don’t jump off the page.
There is the eponymous Marvellous Ways, an in dependent older woman who in 1947 takes in a troubled younger man, Francis Drake, who has returned from wartime service in France, with a mission to deliver a letter. I haven’t yet reached the part where he actually delivers (or doesn’t deliver) this letter. I got bored first, and I’m afraid this book is going out of the door. Life is too short to make myself read something that has nothing to offer me. Or maybe it’s just that the time is wrong.
By the way, the first Winman book that I came across, and that at least one friend raved about, was Still Life. I listened to a radio dramatisation but wasn’t impressed. And the second was When God was a Rabbit – chosen by my book group.
A rug and a book 