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Home Stretch by Graham Norton



Published 2020, Hodder and Staughton

Genre: Fiction

Themes: Ireland, acceptance of homosexuality, family, bereavement

My rating (out of 5): ❤❤❤
 

Home Stretch is Graham Norton's third novel and his style of writing very much reflects his conversational style, so it makes for an entertaining read.  It's not the sort of book that would find its way onto the long list for any of the major book awards, but it still has wide appeal and became a best seller here in the UK.

The story begins in a small town in Ireland and describes a fatal car crash that takes the lives of three young people, including a couple who were to be married the following day.  The crash has a massive impact on the three survivors and the consequences of that afternoon impact their lives for decades to come.

Over the first few pages it feels as though the reader is being introduced to the entire town of Mullinmore, and by chapter two I had to flick back to the start a few times to remind myself who was related to whom.  Normally the first few characters in a book are the ones you have to concentrate on, but in this case the owner of the local garden centre and the lad described on page one quickly disappear and we are off to meet a whole host of other people who may or may not be central to the plot.

The plot itself moves along at pace with no time wasted between key scenes.  As soon as the relatives have been informed of the crash, one of the characters wonders how the fate of the driver will be decided in court, and then over the page, boom!  It is the day of the court case.

Later in the book Graham Norton uses the story-line to chart the way homosexual males have been treated in Irish society.  In the 1980s, when the book begins, there is still a great deal of prejudice, and it is almost impossible to be openly gay, but by the end of the book there is a greater public acceptance and even the little town of Mullinmore plays host to a same sex marriage.

Heterosexual marriage does not fare very well in the book with the marriages seen as simply boring or downright tragic.  In one of Graham Norton's previous books, 'Holding', there is a wife and mother who turns to drink to get herself through the day and we see the same happening in Home Stretch.  The poor wives let themselves go, and the housework and children are no longer a priority until one day light dawns and they pull themselves together and leave their husbands.

It's a good story and there are plenty of twists to keep the reader interested and, as with all good tales, all comes right in the end and the baddies get what they deserve by having their lives ruined and by putting on enough weight to make them unattractive.  This is a nice light read for summer.



My review of Holding may be found through this link:


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