Good Reads Synopsis
The story of your life never starts at the beginning. Don't they teach you anything at school?So says 104-year-old Ona to the 11-year-old boy who's been sent to help her out every Saturday morning. As he refills the bird feeders and tidies the garden shed, Ona tells him about her long life, from first love to second chances. Soon she's confessing secrets she has kept hidden for decades.
One Saturday, he doesn't show up. Ona starts to think he's not so special after all, but then his father Quinn arrives on her doorstep, determined to finish his son's good deed. The boy's mother is not so far behind. Ona is set to discover that even at her age the world can surprise you, and that sometimes sharing a loss is the only way to find yourself again.
Review
Ona’s relationship with the boy is a delightful and magical one, through each other he is given the opportunity to feel true friendship and respect when it is apparent he is fraught with both personal issues appearing in the collation of items in listings of ten and also the bullying experienced by his peers who do not understand this unique and smart boy.For Ona it unlocks something within her a reminiscence and a spiritual link to an event in her past and her childhood memories of a language long forgotten. She feels reawakened to life through the boy’s idea of the Guinness Book of Records which gives her new purpose and a goal to work towards in her quiet days.
When the boy stops visiting and his father replaces him, Quinn undertakes the tasks required for Ona as a form of duty, apology and guilt at his disconnection with his son. As his time with Ona goes on, Ona enables him to see himself from an external viewpoint and how others may perceive both his musical career and his relationship with both Belle and his son. Ona also enables him to reconnect with the boy’s life and form a close attachment of love to Ona, their friendship guides him in to a positive direction through the guilt and grief.
I believe Ona treats Quinn as she would a son, at times telling truths which bring him to grieve for his son however, she also finds peace in the loss of her first child and his current circumstances.
Quinn’s interactions with his ex-wife and mother to the boy, Belle are fraught with regret, respect, love and a desire to make good for his failings in their time together. When the boy passes he endeavours to rectify his short comings in continuing with his maintenance payments however this just puts further pain on Belle (as I believe she sees more of Quinn in her son that he can see). Jealousy of her new partner does not assist him in building bridges, but eventually Quinn (with Ona’s help) comes to terms with the ending of their relationship and the termination of the link their son had kept between them.
The author has said, “In my novels I assemble families from broken parts”. This is very much apparent in this novel. It is clear that the direct family of the boy, Belle and Quinn is fractured and painful at times. It becomes clear as the book goes on that sometimes the friendships made outside of blood can be equally if not stronger than family ties.
This is displayed both with Quinn’s interactions with Ona, his longstanding connection to his ageing band mates in “The Benders, the dream he lost being played out with the youthful boy group and their mother Sylvie, who not only respects his knowledge of the industry but looks up to him and the way he can inspire the group to go in the direction best suited to their musical style.
In this modern age, it did not come as a surprise to me that some people can now live into extreme old age, what did surprise me with Ona (at 104) was the lack of empathy displayed by the estate agent determined to ship her into a home for a fast buck. This is reiterated when Ona visits her son Laurentas (at 90) in such a facility and you see how he is out of sight out of mind to his own children and the diminishing affects it was having on this once intelligent individual.
I would like to hope that at some point we as a world will try harder to respect, support and make pleasurable the lives of the extreme elderly. It also reminded me of my own time as a teenager visiting and helping the elderly and the enlightenment I myself got from this experience.
Ultimately I believe that this story does not have one main character, if anything I believe the journey of Ona, the boy, Belle and Quinn are the most substantial and significant in my view. This story shows the meaning of friendships, family, love and ultimately forgiveness.
After Ona tells the boy about seeing a thousand hummingbirds on a roadside, she adds: "This is the sort of thing Louise invited into my life." I believe when Ona first meets Louise she was a strong, inspirational character but very much an opportunist using their friendship for her own benefit and when it no longer is deemed useful easily disposed. However, when they reconnect in their later years, I believe Louise has mellowed and life experience has left her as alone as she finds Ona so their friendship is one of companionship, it is implied that the love Ona has for Louise could be more than that of just friendship however, this is not apparent to me.
Subscription Box
This was an inaugural service from Elena Reads of BookTube, this provided us with a wonderfully wrapped Hardback copy of the book along with a floral magnetic book mark.
But more than that this offers the wonderful opportunity to not only experience a book through Elena's eyes but also that of fellow subscribers who have been provided with their own Good Reads group where you can see video's exchange thoughts.
As somebody with few bookish friends I loved the layout of this service, through the book you find enjoyable items hand selected by Elena to personalise the experience and to make the book more real e.g. link to a song mentioned in the book.
The book itself was given 4* however, the experience was a soaring 5* and I would recommend it to anyone, so much so that I have already ordered the next book due in November, to which I have shared the link below.
I hope you like this blog and if you have any comments or questions please feel free to leave them below.
Happy Reading
Emma
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