The Grump is marching steadily in to the twilight years of old age where the past is somehow more appealing. His wife is incarcarated in hospital with dementia and his son seems to think that old age means giving up, giving in.
The story is told from the viewpoint of the Grump and almost reads like stream of conciousness in some places. We are, after all, visiting this man's thoughts that jump from childhood to coffins to the profits of shopkeepers in a fairly random pattern. You get a real and full sense of a person who has lived a long, productive life and wants to continue in the same vein right to the bitter end.
Warm and humorous this book took me by surprise. I really went in completely cynically as so-called funny books are usually anything but. The very real sense of a person breathes from pages and the humour is wry and dark in places but actually there.
The story is told from the viewpoint of the Grump and almost reads like stream of conciousness in some places. We are, after all, visiting this man's thoughts that jump from childhood to coffins to the profits of shopkeepers in a fairly random pattern. You get a real and full sense of a person who has lived a long, productive life and wants to continue in the same vein right to the bitter end.
Warm and humorous this book took me by surprise. I really went in completely cynically as so-called funny books are usually anything but. The very real sense of a person breathes from pages and the humour is wry and dark in places but actually there.