TV drama-ready!

42 year-old Lucy is Head of English as well as raising her two young boys and living through the final stages of her divorce from an alcoholic husband. She's comfortably off living in a 'nice' middle class white area of the city. In the local butcher's shop where loud-voiced women queue for their £100 worth of fillet steak and marinaded chicken pieces, Joseph works as one of his part-time aimless jobs. He's a 22 year old young black man living with his Christian church-going mum.

Lucy's action which follows and on which pivots the whole of the novel's story is totally unrealistic. She asks Joseph to come and look after her two sons whilst she goes out to dinner one evening (do middle class mothers really invite completely unknown men into their homes to look after their children, whatever their colour or culture??) Anyway, from this initial baby-sitting evening, their relationship develops, ending (after a raft of totally predictable difficulties and embarrassments), in Joseph living in as Lucy's 'boyfriend', loved by her two boys for his cool knowledge of football & X-box, living each day as it comes, enjoying being each other, having sex and watching The Sopranos for as long as it may last. Taken as a gentle love story and not taken too seriously, it's bold, quite touching in places, filled with cringe-making social occasions where the differences between the two are played out, and the typical Nick Hornby screen-play dialogue is fast (and brilliantly narrated) and in places funny. It will / would makes a great TV drama.

BUT I have two important criticisms which is why I've given it only a 3. The first is the setting: 2016 Referendum time. There's FAR too much about the divisions caused by the Referendum Vote all of which were played out ad nauseam at the time until over-ridden by Covid. We've HEARD and experienced ALL these views and conflicts and certainly I don't want to listen to them rehearsed again and again as they are throughout this novel. The gaping cultural voids between Lucy and Joseph's worlds are obvious enough and plentifully detailed. They would have been much sharper without all this endless stuff about Brexit, Leavers and Remainers. It just makes the novel tired and tedious - even in the touching Epilogue set in 2019 Hornby's characters are still banging on about Brexit.

The other shortcoming I felt was that some of the potentially serious divisions caused by Lucy and Joseph's relationship were left dangling undeveloped - presumably in the interest of keeping this novel something of a light-hearted romp. What happened between Lucy and her parents after that meeting when they were left reeling having learned of their daughter's choice of partner? And what happened to Lucy's school reputation after the Head teacher was clearly unhappy that Lucy's classes were all in raptures of gob-smacked amazement at their Head of English having sex with, as they were saying, a 17 year-old black boy? How did that play out? For me, I'd have liked the entire Brexit theme to have been junked and a more serious development of the reality of the situation.

But it's a brave scenario which throws up plenty to think and talk about. I'm looking forward to that tv drama.

4 people found this helpful

Latest Nick Hornby novel is up with his best work

In a recent interview Nick Hornby lamented the fact the 80% of readers of novels are women but his books Fever Pitch (football), High Fidelity (music), About of Boy (coming of age) are mostly read by men. His latest novel, Just Like You is a kind of Guess Who's Coming to Dinner for the 21st century and covers the themes of age gap relationships, race and class.

Possibly most uncomfortable and controversial of all, the novel is set in 2016 in the midst of the UK Brexit referendum with its associated tribe like mentality and accusations of lies, fear, stupidity and racism. This is a heart warming story of the complications of modern life and how love always wins in the end. Excellent as always from Nick Hornby and this is a story that would appeal to anyone. 5 stars.

3 people found this helpful

Nice relaxing listen

It is a little political but if you just accept everyone has different opinions and it’s just a story then you’ll be fine! I really enjoyed it and thought the characters were executed very accurately :)

1 person found this helpful

Brexit heavy

Shame that Brexit featured so heavily in it as I liked the love story. The performances were great.

Not funny, not interesting

Nicly performed but about very normal people and there romans. It was so boring that I didnt finished it.

gentle read

in general I enjoyed this book but it was a gentle bed time read rather than a page turner. what was outstanding was the narration. it was brilliant and I could see Joseph and Lucy in my head. perfect.

Easy Listening

All the reviews have said it all. It's fixed in time around Brexit but that's not a major distraction from the important issues of human relations and surmounting the challenges of the expectations, attitudes and judgements of others. Be yourself and do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Simples. If only...

Brief Encounter for the modern age

Brilliantly observed, witty and wry, with genuine out-loud laughs, and as full of tenderness and yearning as any classic. Brilliantly read by both performers - I was hooked. Would love to see this as a movie.

Great story.

I really enjoyed listening to this story because it dealt with current issues in an interesting way.

A tender love story

A tender love story about waiting and seeing how far you can get. Loved it.