Anna Duke is a thirty five year old solicitor whose husband, whom she nicknames ‘The Arsehole’ has left her for a younger model to whom she refers as ‘The Backside’. Anna, the central character, narrates the story in the first person singular, present tense. She is persuaded by friends that the best way to get over it is to find someone new as soon as possible. She is by nature contemplative and relates her thoughts as much as what actually happens to her.
She goes on various dates and is interested in how prior information might affect the outcome of these dates; whether, as a pill might cure you if you’re told it’s a sure remedy, similarly a favourable description of a man she’s going to meet may increase the chances of a successful relationship developing.
Finding initially that having very little information about a date doesn't exactly work well, she tries internet dating imagining that she’ll benefit from seeing the on-screen data, but the unexpected happens and she gets more than she bargained for.
Anna’s thoughts on her experiences are many and varied and are expressed in a light-hearted fashion though it troubles her that she may be seen as a light-weight, a person of no substance. At one point a friend says: “Well I don't think it’s so much that you’re not a serious person….but that non-serious things seem to happen to you. I’m sure you’ve got your antenna set to ‘serious’ but it veers off and the unusual and the unlikely just overtake you without you intending it.”
And some difficult and odd things do happen to Anna.
Almost everyone has hopes, fears, neuroses, weaknesses, doubt, theories, leaps of imagination. The narrative takes the reader into Anna’s mind. What she thinks and feels and experiences, she tells the reader about, liberally sprinkled with truisms and her views and opinions. Anna does veer into the realms of fantasy in the natural way in which people’s thoughts can be fantastical or extreme, but never in a dark way. Anna’s upbeat attitude doesn’t lend itself to the dark side, more in fact to the daft side.
Anna’s journey is not easy, her uneven path strewn with potholes, littered with highs and lows. It’s a road many have to travel following a relationship breakdown, striving to get back onto level ground eventually.
‘…. I have not laughed so much reading a book for a long time…it was a wonderful – and wonderfully funny - picture of modern womanhood.’ Val Kershaw, award winning, acclaimed author.
She goes on various dates and is interested in how prior information might affect the outcome of these dates; whether, as a pill might cure you if you’re told it’s a sure remedy, similarly a favourable description of a man she’s going to meet may increase the chances of a successful relationship developing.
Finding initially that having very little information about a date doesn't exactly work well, she tries internet dating imagining that she’ll benefit from seeing the on-screen data, but the unexpected happens and she gets more than she bargained for.
Anna’s thoughts on her experiences are many and varied and are expressed in a light-hearted fashion though it troubles her that she may be seen as a light-weight, a person of no substance. At one point a friend says: “Well I don't think it’s so much that you’re not a serious person….but that non-serious things seem to happen to you. I’m sure you’ve got your antenna set to ‘serious’ but it veers off and the unusual and the unlikely just overtake you without you intending it.”
And some difficult and odd things do happen to Anna.
Almost everyone has hopes, fears, neuroses, weaknesses, doubt, theories, leaps of imagination. The narrative takes the reader into Anna’s mind. What she thinks and feels and experiences, she tells the reader about, liberally sprinkled with truisms and her views and opinions. Anna does veer into the realms of fantasy in the natural way in which people’s thoughts can be fantastical or extreme, but never in a dark way. Anna’s upbeat attitude doesn’t lend itself to the dark side, more in fact to the daft side.
Anna’s journey is not easy, her uneven path strewn with potholes, littered with highs and lows. It’s a road many have to travel following a relationship breakdown, striving to get back onto level ground eventually.
‘…. I have not laughed so much reading a book for a long time…it was a wonderful – and wonderfully funny - picture of modern womanhood.’ Val Kershaw, award winning, acclaimed author.
