When I realised I only had two chapters left of this wonderful book, I felt a sense of loss; I would never again be able to discover this book for the first time. I proceeded to mope around my apartment for the next 15 minutes, heartbroken over its imminent conclusion… And I still had two chapters to go.
As a Frankie reader for years I expected this book to be well written, funny and touching, but as it turned out it was all that and so much more. It is a beautiful book full of hilarious anecdotes and tender moments, bizarre stories and obscure instances that pang with a strangeness that fiction simply cannot provide. I had pompously assumed that the book would be quite ‘samey’, each chapter being just more ironic domestic narrative like the last – how wrong I was. It grew beautifully, with each chapter bringing a new layer of complexity and understanding to its characters. It feels cliché to say that I feel as if Ben Law is like a friend to me after reading this (rather than just a writer I follow on twitter) but it’s hard to describe it in any other way; I feel now as though I have the kind of new understanding of the world that comes with seeing it through a friend’s eyes.
This book is a great read, it’s warm, hilarious and charming, and I imagine I will read and reread it until its covers fall off… At which point I will desperately order another copy (to read and reread until its covers fall off too, probably, and then rinse and repeat). Seriously, just find a copy of this book and read it.
You can get a copy of it (and the image credit comes from) here
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