I laughed...

A very amusing story and it was delivered well. She is observational of the ways of the world we live in today, The characters become familiar and all are entertaining. Ironic and black humour abounds. Recommended.

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The best audio book I have heard

Another wonderful book by the author, superbly narrated. Hilarious and poignant in equal measures. I thoroughly enjoyed it and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it.

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A story of municipal London estate with glorious set of characters

A host of great characters in a story about the retention of an old style council flat - set against austerity Britain & the bedroom tax. Absolutely charming & I was sad when the story came to an end. Extremely well read - the reader brought every player to life.

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Brilliant!

The narrator really brought the book to life, the parrot, pigeons and all! Really good

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1 person found this helpful

I have read all of Marina Lewycka's books.

I have enjoyed all of Marina Lewycka's books and this does not fail to entertain, with her usual witty style. The characters are real and you feel you are part of the story.
The narrator was good and the characters each had a distinctive voice.
However the story is not as strong as her previous books and the ending feels a little cut short.
overall a must read for Marina Lewycka fans.

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1 person found this helpful

What a delight

Always look forward to the new Marina Lewycka's books and once again she hasn't disappointed. With her usually humour this book is great and the narration by Toby Longworth adds to the enjoyment.

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1 person found this helpful

If he was still alive he'd be spining in his grave

After Lewycka'sTractors in Ukraine I was looking forward to this, but was disappointed.

The extremely busy straggling plots centre on Bertold Sidebottom who imports Inna, an elderly, wildly eccentric Ukranian, to impersonate his mother in order to ensure that he doesn't lose the tenancy on the London council flat he shared with his mother before her death. Parallel to this story is Violet, the young Kenyan intent on doing her bit to stop violations (including that of her boss at International Wealth Preservation against herself) and against communal cherry trees threatened with the axe, and against international financial scams and swindles.

It's certainly immensely energetic and packed with gutsy and impassioned swipes at all the government-policies-induced ills in our society from zero hours contracts to bedroom tax and rubbish jobs; there's an entertaining potpourri of languages and a crowd of vibrant characters. The language is inventive and fun - from Ukraine, Kenya, management speak, young and old Londoners - and some dialogue made me laugh, like Bertold's old mother's words in the title to this review. I liked the 'lettuce-leaf handshake' and 'media-mouthed crap' too. The trouble is that there is just too much going on so that the characters never develop as real people, and the 'funny' parts can lose sight of reality and become just silly.

There's plenty of sharp observation, and there's pathos too. Legless Len dies because his electricity was cut off and he couldn't cool his insulin; Bertold is struggling to recover after the death of his young daughter and the disintegration of his marriage - but these elements are too rushed to engage the listener's sympathies and merely sit uncomfortably with the questionable slapstick-farce elements, such as the coffin of Bertold's mother bursting open at the funeral.

The whole is too heavy-handed. The repetition becomes irritating and any comic effect of hearing the phrases for the first time is lost. Flossie the Parrot squawks inappropriately and the door bell goes Ding Dong far too often; Inna must have rattled through her repertoire of Ukranian pies and cakes more than fifty times; Bertold constantly makes comparisons between himself and George Clooney which add nothing. Chunks of background information - the war-history of Odessa; corruption in Kenya - stick out awkwardly from the narrative.

All of that said, if you want a fun-romp with some food for thought, you won't be disappointed. The narration is certainly a bonus with a raft of accents including the wittily mangled Ukranian English - much better brought alive than read on the page.

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6 people found this helpful

hilarious

hilarious and dark with outstanding narration. can't wait to hear more by both author and narrator.

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Entertaining enough...

Amusing story, though I wasn't entirely sure why these two particular viewpoints were woven together. Still, they didn't jar; I just felt I missed the point.
The performance was very good with accents and the dry humour conveyed brilliantly. Occasionally the ends of sentences were somewhat swallowed.

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3 people found this helpful

More a polemic than a comic novel

I have read many of this authors work and found them amusing contemporary comic novels. This one ends up being a sort of outdated ad for the leftist end of the labour party. Capitalism is a big bad wolf, socialism and even communism seem to be held up as solutions even where the characters own experience might be used to suggest otherwise. The lack of personal accountability in the key character is not recognised or commented on meaningfully. Good for bleeding heart trainee social workers but not for anyone acquainted with the reality of an infantilised population who expect the state to nurse and nanny them cradle to grave (without a thought for where the money will come from to support all those who choose not to work or who ‘work’ in jobs that others dont want to pay for - the failed actor). I dont like being lectured so obviously, especially when the lecture includes many absolute falsehoods.

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