Stevie‘s review of Never Say Goodbye by Susan Lewis
Contemporary Women’s Fiction published by Ballantine Books 08 Apr 14
I nearly gave up on this one in the first chapter, but I stubbornly persevered and managed to find some redeeming qualities to it in later chapters, not all attributable to the writing improving further on compared to in the first chapter. On the other hand, lots of people love stories about characters struggling to cope with massive levels of unfairness being thrown at them, and I suspect that some of my issues with the plot and characterisation are standard tropes for the genre.
Josie is a working class woman living in the West of England, and very proud of the fact that she and her husband have managed to raise their children without ever relying on benefits or resorting to loan sharks. Their daughter is the first member of the family to go to university and is not only doing very well on her degree course, but has also started going out with a lad from a much better-off background. Meanwhile, their son falls in with a bad lot and takes the blame for a more serious crime than that his friends are convicted of. He now swears he didn’t do it and is working hard to turn his life around and gain qualifications while in prison.
Josie and her family and friends don’t quite ring true to me, for reasons that are hard to pin down; however, Bel, the heroine of the parallel and then converging story, feels marginally more real, although I’d have liked a little more backstory to explain where her money came from in the first place. Bel lost her sister to breast cancer, and as the story unfolds, Josie is diagnosed with a different form of the disease at the hospital which Bel visits as a volunteer support worker for a cancer charity. Sadly for me, Josie’s list of symptoms read like one of the fictional case reports I have been known to write as part of my Day Job, so I knew from the outset where the story was headed.
The two are introduced because Josie is struggling to tell her family about her diagnosis and it’s thought that speaking to someone who’s been on the receiving end of similar news might help her work through her issues. The two then become friends and help each other through a series of other difficulties, although at times Josie comes across as rather spineless in facing up to the people she had to deal with, and Bel isn’t much better.
The last few chapters, in which Josie grows a backbone and sets about making everything perfect for her family, are better than what went before but don’t raise this novel from being rather average, with distinctly unrealistic characters. It could have worked better as a much shorter piece: possibly an inspiring story in a magazine or on a website for cancer patients and their families. Not an author I’ll be seeking out again in any format, however.
Grade: C
Summary:
For readers of Jodi Picoult, Heather Gudenkauf, and Elizabeth Flock comes a deeply moving novel of finding friendship and love in the most unexpected of places.
Josie Clark, a loving wife and mother, struggles to make ends meet by cleaning homes and working at a diner while her husband drives a taxi. Josie’s joy is her two children, just entering adulthood. But with her son recently imprisoned for a crime she is certain he didn’t commit, and her daughter marrying too young, Josie now worries about the future—and wonders if she’ll ever be able to ensure their safety and happiness.
Across town, in a gorgeous house by the sea, successful property developer Bel Monkton lives in comparative luxury. But she has struggles of her own. Since the death of her twin sister more than a year ago, Bel has been unable to rebuild her shattered world, and the troubled past she thought was behind her haunts her ever more.
Faced with uncertainty and heartbreak, Josie and Bel find each other and a surprising friendship that will change their lives.
No excerpt found.
