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The Generation Game by Sophie Duffy (view source)
Revision as of 10:46, 22 September 2011
, 10:46, 22 September 2011no edit summary
Do you remember ''The Generation Game'' TV show, with old Brucie and then Larry Grayson managing the mayhem? Where were you when Charles and Di got married? What about when Diana died? There's plenty of reminiscing to be done in this book as Sophie Duffy takes us from the 1960's to 2006 through the life of her character, Philippa, in a book that fleets from funny, heartwarming moments to real sadness.
Through the story we get to find out Philippa's life story, or rather we see it happening before our eyes, her birth, her mother moving them both from London to Torquay, her mother's affairs and the troubles they cause before Philippa is abandoned by her and raised by those who whom her mother leaves behind. Philippa has just become a mother herself at the start of the book, so there's lots about motherhood, about the nature of the relationship between a mother and her daughter, as well as about growing up generally and discovering who you are.
I must admit that I sometimes found the book's format a little irritating. It's one of those stories that has a little bit in present day (well, 2006) and then a chapter from the past, then another bit from present day, and then back to the past. I really liked reading the past sections, but the present day parts annoyed me. Philippa seemed to have grown up into someone so ineffectual and nervous and lost that it made me feel both sad and annoyed! Still, I'm here to say that if these interruptions get your goat too, stick with it and pay a little bit of attention to what's happening, as it's definitely worth it for the payback at the end...what might have been a non-committal 3 star 'you might want to borrow it' definitely turned into a 4 star 'this is worth reading' sort of book!