The Woman on the Bus: books for your holiday

Cover of The Woman on the Bus

Whilst away there was much opportunity to read – the TV programmes weren’t very good in Scotland. So I am now doing well on both my Summer Race statistics – in the Coffee and Books group in GoodReads and also my annual target of 100 books and titles by A-Z. I read 14 books! One thing I did was a: read some of the books left by previous inhabitants of the flats we rented, and b: buy some charity books. This meant I experienced some new writers and genres.

Here is just the review of one – more will follow of course…

Book 1: The Woman on the Bus by Pauline McLynn.

I give this 4 stars. Especially for holiday reading.

It is set in an Irish village without the cutesy overtones of set piece characters and language. Thus people speak, mostly, without the accent we have come to expect of an Irish novel.

A strange woman arrives on a bus and the lives of many of the villagers change as interacts with them. Slowly, as she remembers why she was on the bus, her thinking and behaviours evolve and she realises that her old life no longer appeals.

We also gain gentle insights into alcoholism – and the general over-use of alcohol – which is a constant theme of Irish life (the statistics of our own local Irish population support this here in North London – illness and premature death and related problems are common).

Other emotional and familial issues are also explored through storylines that are interwoven.

Is the ending a cliché? And do we expect it? Does it matter?