Alice Alone

 

Alice Alone by Amanda Brookfield - women's fiction

Set in 1986, Alice lives with her husband Peter. Her last grown child has just flown the nest and Alice is at rather a loss. She has spent all her years looking after the three children and also Peter who struggles to find even the sugar in the kitchen and whom she realises she probably doesn't even like let alone love. Being invited to what she anticipates as rather a dull dinner party she gets her hair dyed. The next morning, she refuses to get out of bed as she usually does to make Peter's breakfast, being fed up with being defined as the wife, the mother- anything but her own self. What transpires awakens Alice and she even surprises herself.

I enjoyed this, it's very much a story of the era. For those that perhaps didn’t live through it, yes times were different in lots of ways. Although women worked they were rather under valued at times and in different professions. Misogyny was alive and kicking as were several things we women would rather forget. I mention these as they are a part of the story and the era. Peter having a few glasses of something and then driving would be something we are horrified about now but sadly then it happened far more often than it should- which is why things have changed since.

A story of realising who you are and trying to be yourself, which isn't always easy given circumstances.  A read of an era and a woman's choice.

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Alice Alone On the day that her youngest child leaves home, Alice Hatton discovers two disturbing truths in a matter of hours. The Empty Nest cliche is true. And she does not love her husband Peter at all. Now in her fifties, Alice is appalled to realise that she is no longer considered her own person, but is instead defined by her relationships – mother to her adult children, wife to her husband. Horrified by the thought of spending another thirty years with Peter in their North London suburb, Alice decides to take matters into her own hands. What follows is a triumphant and liberating breaking of all the rules. But when Alice must cope with loss for the second time in as many years, she discovers what even the most apparently ‘respectable ‘woman is capable of. Join Amanda Brookfield as she revisits her first novel, Alice Alone, and rediscover how she got her well-deserved reputation for writing about women’s lives with humour and honesty. Includes a brand new forward from the author. Purchase Link - https://amzn.to/3ADVwaD

Author Bio – Amanda Brookfield is the bestselling author of many novels including Good Girls, Relative Love, and Before I Knew You, and a memoir, For the Love of a Dog starring her Golden Doodle Mabel. She lives in London and has recently finished a year as Visiting Creative Fellow at University College Oxford. Social Media Links – Facebook https://www.facebook.com/amandabrookfield100 Twitter https://twitter.com/ABrookfield1 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/amanda_and_mabel_brookfield/ Newsletter Sign Up: http://bit.ly/AmandaBrookfieldNewsletter Bookbub profile: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/amanda-brookfield