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The Authenticity Project by Clare Pooley

 




Published: February 2020, Penguin

Genre: fiction

Themes: modern society, relationships, community

My rating (out of 5): ❤❤❤

The Authenticity Project by Clare Pooley is another book I was given for Mother's Day (the family know I enjoy reading!).  My son chose it for me because it was billed as 'uplifting', and that is certainly something we can all do with during the lockdown.

The story is about an elderly artist called Julian, who finds himself bored and lonely after a lifetime of being the center of attention.  In an effort to give himself something to do, and also find a way of engaging with people again, he starts the Authenticity Project.  He has come to the conclusion that everyone goes to great lengths to hide their true selves from the outside world, and if they could start by being honest with themselves about who they really are, then they could have more meaningful lives and better relationships with others.

Julian takes an ordinary school notebook and begins the project by writing his own reality of being lonely in the front, then he takes the book to a local cafe and leaves it on one of the tables for someone to find.  His intention is for the person who comes across it to write a similar piece, and then leave the notebook in public place where another person will find it and do the same.  If all goes according to plan it will carry on until the book is filled.

The plan begins to work when the cafe owner, Monica, finds the book and after reading Julian's sad story she immediately wants to try and help him. He has conveniently signed off with his full name, and part of his story includes where he can be found every Friday evening at five in the evening.  This allows Monica to track him down in person and help him by working out a way of persuading him to give art classes in the evenings in her cafe.  It isn't long before Monica adds her own story to the book and on it goes again.

I found it a bit incredible that people would write something so personal and then add their full name at the end, but then the story wouldn't work if they didn't.  If you can put that aside, then we end up with a diverse set of characters who have experience of the woes that go with modern life such as; drug addiction in professional life, the false life of an Instagram influencer, and someone having commitment issues when it comes to a traditional life of home and family.

The book is split into nice little chapters that make it easy reading, and each chapter takes up the story from the viewpoint of one of the characters who write in the book.  It has a very modern feel to it with all the references to Instagram and constant use of mobile phones, and despite a few twists in the road to happiness, all the characters do seem to resolve their major life issues before we get to the end.

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