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Title: The Comfort of Others
Author: Kay Langdale
Narrator: Joan Walker
Format: Unabridged
Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins
Language: English
Release date: 04-06-17
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 1 votes
Genres: Fiction, Literary
Publisher's Summary:
Minnie and her sister, Clara, spinsters both, live in a dilapidated country house in the middle of a housing estate, built when their father sold off the family's land. Now in their 70s, their days follow a well-established routine: long gone are the garden parties, the tennis lessons and their suffocating strict mother. Gone, too, is any mention of what happened when Minnie was 16 and the secret the family buried in the grounds of their estate.
Directly opposite them lives Max, an 11-year-old whose life with his mum has changed beyond recognition since her new boyfriend arrived. Cast aside, he takes solace in Minnie's careful routine, observed through his bedroom window. Over the course of the summer, both begin to tell their stories: Max through a Dictaphone, Minnie through a diary. As their tales intertwine, ghosts are put to rest and challenges faced in a story that is as dark as it is uplifting.
Critic Reviews:
''A beautiful and insightful writer...I loved this book.'' (New Books Mag)
''A wonderful writer.'' (Daily Mail on Away From You)
''Langdale's psychological intelligence informs every angle.'' (The Times on Away From You)
''In this double portrait each voice comes from a combination of speech, thought and writing for a tale of cruelty and redemption both moving and deeply satisfying.'' (Oxford Times)
''Warmth and affection seep into the reader's hands.'' (The Irish Times)
Members Reviews:
THE VALUE OF FRIENDSHIP & COMMUNICATION
When we first meet Max, the eleven-year-old boy living with a single mother, we see him using a Dictaphone, taping his thoughts. Then one day, he looks across to the house next door, the one at the center of the compound, and sees Minnie, who appears to be writing in a diary.
Caught up in the alternating narratives of Max and Minnie, we are soon immersed in the story of their lives, and my empathy peaked, until I couldnât wait for the next episode from each of them.
Eleven-year-old Max is frustrated by the changes in his life after his single mother connects with the man who fixes the boiler. A man unnamed, who seems annoying, at the very least, and somewhat verbally abusive. His teen daughter is a bully, and Max discovers how to deal with her, but I attribute his ability to do so from his newly found connection to Minnie.
Minnie is elderly, living with her older sister Clara, in Rosemount, the home at the center of the compound. Minnieâs writings in her diary recount events from the past that she has kept secret, specifically what happened to her in the early 1960s.
Set in England,The Comfort of Otherstakes place in the present, but veers into the past through Minnieâs entries. Maxâs tapes are about his summer in the present, but also reveal how the intrusion of his motherâs new boyfriend has impacted his life.
My favorite parts were when Max and Minnie share their feelings with each other, and Minnie gives Max some ideas about how to deal with his motherâs boyfriend. He stands up for himself, expressing his feelings bravely and directly.
Minnie and Clara make life-altering decisions that sprang from Minnieâs ability to resurrect the secrets of the past and look at events in a new light.
An interesting story about friendship, secrets, and how communication can change lives.