3 and 1/2 StarsThis book was so much fun. I do so love a character-driven novel and the story in this one truly took a backseat to the characters. Ellen is a former flower child with a mouth that runs away with her and often lands her in water way over her head. But she keeps bobbing up, trying to find the shore of peace and sanity. After one such episode, which cost her the latest in a lifelong string of jobs, Ellen heads out of New York City to Montreal to visit her sister. One the way, she is struck by the sight a tumble-down cottage - the house of her dreams - literally. Because she has seen just such a country cottage in numerous dreams over the years she takes it as a sign, and without thinking about it or even consulting her long-suffering husband, she buys it with her credit card! The place is long abandoned and needs more work than any sane person would take on but Ellen proceeds, full steam ahead, even when it means she has to clear land and haul the water by hand for the garden she creates, even when she ends up taking care of her non-English-speaking toddler nephew and a narcoleptic dog for the summer, even as she puts her marriage in jeopardy and tries to help both a red-neck with a rare and fascinating condition and an aging chain-saw sculptor. Ellen plunges through her life, seizing the day, trying in her way to put the circumstances of that life into meaningful context, often with more heart than common sense. She is a true character and I am going to miss her and her friends, though I will remember them fondly, I'm sure. On a whim, Ellen buys a country home, tumbledown but charming, and charges it to her credit card. Recently fired from her New York City job, she decides to spend the summer in the country, much to the surprise of her urban loft-dwelling husband Tommy. Once she settles in, she starts an organic garden, becomes involved with new neighbors' lives (whether they like it or not!) and becomes a pseudo-Mom to her toddler nephew. What follows is a heart-breaking, uplifting and often hilarious story of change and growth in middle-age. I enjoyed the story, since I am partial to stories involving the repair and improvement of old houses, but Ellen's story really drew me in. I recommend the book.
What do You think about Anybody Any Minute (2008)?
mid life crisis can be so eye opening. Life is about caring for others and caring for yourself
—Tstix
I started this Friday and I'm almost done...(put the other aside), it's pretty good.
—baferrara
I related to almost everything that Ellen, the main character, experienced. OMG!
—Breanna
