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The Whole Day Through
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Review
Praise for 'Notes from an Exhibition': 'Poised and pitch-perfect throughout, this is an engrossing portrait of a troubled and remarkable character. A fine writer at the top of his game.' Mail on Sunday 'This is an uplifting, immensely empathetic novel, and Gale's prose, as ever is as clear and bright as the Cornish light.' Guardian 'It has the kind of quietly radiant intelligence, craft and integrity that bypasses superficial questions of originality. A novel with a variety and freshness that is all the more powerful and surprising for being discovering in such a circumscribed and very English milieu.' Adam Lively, Sunday Times 'Skilfully constructed as a mosaic of different viewpoints that shift back and forwards in time. A warm, well-written novel about creativity and the perils of living with the creative spirit.' Times Literary Supplement 'By the end I had laughed and cried and put all his other books on my wish list. This is dense, thought-provoking, sensitive, satisfying, humorous, humane -- a real treat.' Toby Clements, Telegraph 'Beautifully written, slowly unravelling tale!Patrick Gale's serene and carefully crafted prose conveys a profound understanding of the workings of human relationships and the torment that mental illness causes its sufferers and also those around them.' Ross Gilfillan, Daily Mail
Product Description
The new novel from Patrick Gale, author of Richard & Judy-bestseller Notes from an Exhibition. When forty-something Laura Lewis is obliged to abandon a life of stylish independence in Paris to care for her elderly mother in Winchester, it seems all romantic opportunities have gone up in smoke. Then she runs into Ben, the great love of her student days - and, as she only now dares admit, the emotional touchstone against which she has judged every man since. She's cautious - and he's married - but they can't deny that feelings still exist between them. Are they brave enough to take the second chance at the lasting happiness that fate has offered them? Or will they be defeated by the need to do what seems to be the right thing? Taking its structure from the events of a single summer's day, The Whole Day Through is a bittersweet love story, shot through with an understanding of mortality, memory and the difficulty of being good. In it, Patrick Gale writes with scrupulous candour about the tests of love: the regrets and the triumphs, and the melancholy of failing. The Whole Day Through is vintage Gale, displaying the same combination of wit, tenderness and acute psychological observation as his Richard & Judy bestseller Notes From an Exhibition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A pleasant summer read,
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This review is from: The Whole Day Through (Paperback)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Programme (What's this?)
I had enjoyed Patrick Gale's "Notes from an Exhibition" so when I saw a new Patrick Gale on the reading list I immediately ordered it. The concept of structuring events around a single day is not a new one, Michael Cunningham brilliant "The Hours" springs to mind, but here the handling is more pedestrian.
Laura has returned from Paris to care for her elderly mother who now lives in the home town of her college boyfriend of twenty years ago. Ben, the ex-boyfriend, has returned to his childhood home to look after his brother following the death of their mother. Laura and Ben meet and their mutual attraction is rekindled, but is it really their destiny to be together? The chapters oscillate between Laura's story and Ben's. Laura's evolves around the care of her mother, whilst Ben's centres on his avoidance of dealing with the problems in his marriage to Chloe. Whilst these two are the focus it is the other characters who will influence the relationship's outcome without even meaning to. Patrick's strength is in his understanding of why people struggle with their problems when to an outsider (like the reader) the solution may seem obvious. The colour in Patrick's books comes from the grey areas of life. For me this book did not meet the standard set by "Notes" but I did enjoy it.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
filled with longing.........yearning................,
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This review is from: The Whole Day Through (Paperback)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Programme (What's this?)
I've never read any Patrick Gale novels before, but after reading this, I certainly will now! 'The Whole Day Through'is just excellent! It is filled with longing.....for lost loves, lost lives, lost youth, and yearning........for what was, what could be, and what is. Laura and Ben were young lovers, though socially incompatible. Laura's parents were academics, and she has had an unorthodox upbringing - her parents being naturists, and estranged from family, as well as being older parents. Ben, on the other hand comes from a happy home, he has a brother with a mosaic form of Downs Syndrome, of whom Ben is very protective. Their affair is passionate, but eventually fizzles out. Laura moves on to Paris, where she has a succession of unsatisfactory affairs, and Ben becomes a Doctor specialising in HIV. He goes on to marry Chloe, who was a very popular, pretty and rich girl at University, and not someone that Laura could ever relate to. Years later, laura returns to England to care for her now widowed and disabled elderly mother, and bumps into Ben. Some passions never die - they are merely left simmering until a chance encounter awakens them, and so it is for Ben and Laura. However, they are older now, they each have responsibilities, and ties.
This book just aches with longing, and the dilemma which faces Ben and Laura is very real, and utterly believable. I loved it, devoured it, and will read it again. Highly recommended.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fabulous!,
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This review is from: The Whole Day Through (Paperback)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Programme (What's this?)
Typical Patrick Gale, slick and accomplished, language polished to perfection, unpredictable, a smooth surface hiding dark undercurrents. His characters always seem a tad 'Notting Hill' but he has a way of getting to the inner man (or woman) and as usual there is plenty of sex - gay and straight.
Gale is one of the few writers to portray gay characters for what they are - just like the rest of us. However, Bobby, the gay chap in this book, is not like the rest of us, he has Mosaic Down's Syndrome. This is another Gale trademark - a character suffering some obscure medical condition. He seems to be on a mission to get us all to leave aside our prejudices and treat everyone as equals. I've always liked his treament of older people, portraying them (us!) as living, breathing, sexual beings. Professor Jellicoe shows us the fragility of life as she heads towards an old age dependent on her daughter Laura, bones broken by osteoporosis. Gale has a particular sympathy with women, (a previous novel gave me the vocabulary to describe the horrors of the menopause) such a rarity in a male writer. This is one of the reasons that he is almost my favourite author, a close second to Isabel Allende. Laura is the dutiful daughter, Ben the lover (a venereologist - is Gale a frustrated doctor?) and brother of gay/Down's Bobby. Cloe is Ben's wife, waiting on the sidelines while he chooses between her and Laura. Like most of Gale's books, there are layers upon layers and he is maturing into a very significant writer who deserves a much wider readership.
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