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Sugar and Snails: An unusual midlife coming-of-age novel shortlisted for the Polari First Book Prize by [Anne Goodwin]

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Anne Goodwin

Sugar and Snails: An unusual midlife coming-of-age novel shortlisted for the Polari First Book Prize Kindle Edition

by Anne Goodwin (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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At fifteen, she made a life-changing decision. Thirty years on, it’s time to make another.When Diana escaped her misfit childhood, she thought she’d chosen the easier path. But the past lingers on, etched beneath her skin, and life won’t be worth living if her secret gets out.As an adult, she’s kept other people at a distance... until Simon sweeps in on a cloud of promise and possibility. But his work is taking him to Cairo, the city that transformed her life. She’ll lose Simon if she doesn’t join him. She’ll lose herself if she does.Sugar and Snails describes Diana’s unusual journey, revealing the scars from her fight to be true to herself. A triumphant mid-life coming-of-age story about bridging the gap between who we are and who we feel we ought to be.

Print length

252 pages
Language

English
Publication date

23 July 2015
File size

573 KB
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Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B010O8F9M6
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Inspired Quill (23 July 2015)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 573 KB
Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 252 pages

Best Sellers Rank: 244,392 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- 278 in LGBTQ+ Literary Fiction
- 2,132 in Romance Literary Fiction
- 3,920 in Gay Fiction (Kindle Store)

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44 ratings

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Wendy J

An excellent thought-provoking story

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 30 October 2016

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Diana is a middle-aged professor whose fledgling relationship with Simon causes her to rethink her past and her future.

Her story is compelling. Diana’s poise, introversion and integrity make the reader both admire and feel protective of her, and this increases the more we learn about her. While she is the emotional heart of the story, the role of her parents is almost equally as fascinating. When Diana was fifteen her mother and father made an incredibly brave decision that changes her life completely. The path they took to reach that point, and their subsequent responses to their daughter, really affected me, and the thought of parents being faced with such a huge decision and its fallout had me thinking long into the night.

Diana’s secret is a big one and the reveal is sensitively handled. There is no unnecessary melodrama. In fact, one of the things that draws the reader to Diana is the way in which the author convincingly relates how naïve she is about some aspects of her situation. Diana’s experience is all the more thought-provoking because she takes us on a journey from childhood through to middle age, and encourages us consider how far she and society have come in the last few decades.

The deft combination of coming-of-age and mid-life-crisis produces an excellent story. I love good, intelligent writing, and I’m looking forward to reading more from this author.

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AliB

Powerful and poignant

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 14 August 2015

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Sugar and Snails

Powerful and poignant

Di is a psychology lecturer whom we know in the first few pages lives with the kind of issues that have caused repeated suicide attempts and a continuing need to self-harm. But she has met a new man and decides things can’t go on like this. If she wants Simon and a ‘normal’ life she is going to have to resolve the hangover of guilt and confusion from her childhood which culminated in a mysterious trip to Cairo when she was a teenager.
Neither the blurb nor the book-cover (on my elderly Kindle, anyway!) gives much away as to what Sugar and Snails is all about and I admit for a while I did feel frustrated by the knowledge there were secrets being held back from the reader. However as Di’s current difficulties are fleshed out by episodes from her past life (all beautifully depicted) the writer’s control of the story is never in doubt and when things fall suddenly into place there is a brilliantly paced denouement. Moreover by the end I was totally engaged with Di and desperately needed to know how she was going to move on.
There is a lot of pain in this book, so it’s not light entertainment, but there is humour too. The only comparison I can think of is Rose Tremain’s 'Sacred Country', and I would say that Sugar and Snails deals with a similar topic in a subtle, humane and moving way without ever compromising on character. My only quibble is with boyfriend Simon – somehow I miss the kind of spark between him and Diana that will change either of their lives. But in the end Simon is only a catalyst for Di’s reassessment of her life and her place in her family. He is arguably the least important member of a colourful and convincing cast. In all other respects this is a brilliantly executed debut novel which I hope gets the recognition it deserves.

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Des Hope

This has potential for confusing the reader but Anne Goodwin’s vivid prose and clever structuring allows the reader to easily fo

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 17 September 2015

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This is a book that explores confusion of identity, isolation and the struggle involved in confronting these issues. Anne Goodwin's "Sugar and Snails" is a remarkable piece of work. It deals with enormously difficult issues but, in doing so, it displays a deftness of touch that one would not expect in a debut novel.

The central character, Di, is desperately holding her secret past to herself. It soon becomes clear that her life is “paralysed” by earlier events from which she is unable to release herself and have left her trapped as a socially awkward individual who feels unable to live true to the person she really is.

The opening scene in the book finds her sitting half way down the stairs, head bowed and clutching herself defensively round the chest; body language that reflects her state of mind. In parallel the author also withholds the truth of the past from the reader and just as Di finds the means and resolve to share her secret with friends this is mirrored by the way the author shares Di’s secrets with the reader.

Some readers may guess Di’s secret early on in the book but that doesn’t matter – it is not a “who done it” and even those who guess right will still admire the way that the author skilfully drops hints that enable the reader to incrementally piece together the facts of the past. This technique is not only used to reveal what has happened to Di in the past but also to lead the reader to an understanding of her father and his relationship with his daughter. The “slow reveal” technique requires regular back and forth shifts along Di’s time continuum. This has potential for confusing the reader but Anne Goodwin’s vivid prose and clever structuring allows the reader to easily follow the threads and join up the links without difficulty.

The author provides a strong supporting cast of characters in the form of Di’s parents and Venus, her long standing friend and work colleague. Perhaps less convincing is the male love interest, Simon. It is not easy to understand why Di might be attracted to this character other than that he was an available male who showed interest in her. However, as another reviewer has pointed out, Simon is perhaps little more than a device that enables Di to break free from the past; beyond that we have little interest in the outcome of the relationship. It is Di’s evolving relationship with herself and the slow reveal of her traumatic journey that keeps the reader enthralled right to the end of this compelling book.

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Philippa East

Moving and Original

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 13 April 2017

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Sugar and Snails tells the story of Diane, a woman still struggling to feel comfortable in her own skin, despite a brave and life-changing decision decades earlier. Diane's story was completely original to me (despite having heard many varied narratives in my own career as a clinical psychologist), and I felt privileged to enter into her life and world. I found the story very engaging, not least because Diane is driven to face (and conquer) her fears by the most universal human desire of all - to fall in love. A moving and original story, with a unique protagonist and a sensitive and knowledgeable handling of an important issue.

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