Short Stories, Irish literature, Classics, Modern Fiction, Contemporary Literary Fiction, The Japanese Novel, Post Colonial Asian Fiction, The Legacy of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and quality Historical Novels are Among my Interests








Sunday, February 1, 2015

The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy by Rachel Joyce (2014)





The Love Song of Queenie Hennessy by Rachel Joyce is a companion to the author's best selling short listed for The Booker Prize The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, not a sequel or prequel.  It tells the story of Queenie Hennessy, the woman dying in a hospice of cancer, that  Harold Fry walked across England to visit.  

The novel flashes back and forth in time, in an easy to follow fashion, from Queenie's days working at the brewery with Harold, to her girlhood, her romances prior to coming to the brewery, her life after she quit working at the brewery, her relationship with Harold's troubled son David, and above all her love for Harold.  A lot of the novel is set in the hospice.  Everyone there knows of Harold's pilgrimage and are excited over it.  

I think it is safe bet that this novel will be a best seller.  Anyone who read The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry will want to learn more about Queenie.   

I did not like this book as much as the first one.  I somehow was not convinced by Queenie's relationship with David, I knew we were just waiting for something bad to happen.  The hospice scenes began to bore me. The minor characters were not that well developed. 

I would say for sure don't buy this book unless you read and really liked the prior novel.  I received a free copy of this book for review purposes.  

Mel u

No comments: