The Old Romantic. Louise Dean (2011) - Plot & Excerpts
I really enjoyed this story of a fairly dysfunctional family as they find their way back to family and love. Nick has been estranged from his parents for the past 20 years until his brother, Dave, insists on getting him together once more with their father, Ken. Nick, and Ken, discover the ties of family that really bind us together and the history that is a comfortable love, too. Lots of fun to read, Dean is a wonderful writer with rough but honest characters. My husband and I both enjoyed this book tremendously. The writer, who is British, is compared favorably to John Updike, a comparison she earns. Like him, she's a stylist--she simply can't write a bad sentence. And also like him, she is a great appreciator of the world around her, which she describes in language that is usually wry, sometimes poetic, and often downright ribald. It is a pleasure to read a writer who employs the language so beautifully. She is perceptive, but also "knows when to quit"--the narrative hums right along and you are rapidly caught up in the web of funny, touching relationships she spins.The story is essentially a domestic comedy-drama--an old-school type of novel that the British do extremely well (I think American family stories tend to be darker and more earnest). The father--the "old romantic" of the title--is a type that is probably dying out: an old bastard that you can't help loving because he's just so damned larger than life. He's cheap, critical, querulous, un-mannered and unschooled but sharp as a tack. He was a terrible prick as a father and husband, but now he's obsessed with dying and wants to reunite his family. Though he can't come right out and say it, it's clear he wants to make things right with the ex-wife and sons he has neglected and/or harangued ever since they can remember. Their reactions to his attempts to reinsert himself in their lives are about what you'd imagine--chiefly, horrified.The ending is a stunner. Somehow Louise Dean manages to deliver a big load of feeling while avoiding sentimentality. One of the author's previous novels made it to the long list for England's Booker prize. After reading The Old Romantic, I look forward to reading her other works.
What do You think about The Old Romantic. Louise Dean (2011)?
I read about 30 pages. Very unpleasant family dynamics, could not see the point of continuing.
—aunty
Set in Hastings, recommended by A Common Reader
—vikki
