Blue Wolf Reviews

Tag: age

  • The Gran Tour Travels with my Elders

    The Gran Tour Travels with my Elders

    Looking at the front cover of The Gran Tour; Travels with my Elders will give you your first chuckle. It shows an elderly woman determinedly clutching a handbag and a li-lo, trudging through the sand to get a vantage point at the beach. She has an incredibly determined look about her. Although many years her junior, the Ben Aitken decided that he had much to learn from his elders and chose to do bus trips around the UK to immerse himself in the aged travelling sector.

    One thing he does discover is that he will never feel left out. There are enough single people on the tour, who quickly become friendly (although at first, they did think he was the bus driver) and the couples are inclusive. Ben learns the art of playing Bingo as an after-dinner entertainment, winning the first night, to the disgust of the group.

    Aitken travels on Shearings tours for the elderly to Scarborough, St Ives, Wales, Ireland, Italy, and Scotland. He takes his partner Megan on one of the tours, and his gran on another. There is a great deal of conversation in the book as Ben chats to anyone he can, interested in their story and happy to be a friendly ear. There are many chuckle moments in the story. Megan feels that old people have great ideas and should be consulted by powerful people. Ben says this already happens, “It’s called the House of Lords.”

    If you are looking to get a sense of one of the places that the author travels to, then stop. This is really a brief look at another intriguing place, while engaging in revealing innermost thoughts of the elderly. Most engaging!

  • The Returns

    The Returns

    The storyline in this simple and yet complex voyage into the real world of middle age, is one that winds about the psyche until it spins its web of beauty, capturing the imagination, as Trevor and Elizabeth each evolve into intricate people, with backstories that have contributed to the manner in which they live their lives; slowly, repressed and almost regressive.

    The Returns is a complex novel of humanity, loss, grief, loneliness and eventual deep friendship, built on a slow acceptance of each other’s frailties, a deep need for acceptance and an eventual non-threatening, gentle style of love.

    Slow, and yet because of the slower metre, the words used by Philip Salom resonate deep within the human spirit, often somewhat tongue in cheek, which certainly helps lighten, what could all to easily become a somewhat depressing read.

    Trevor spends his days as the owner of a bookshop in inner city Melbourne, accepting his life is fast unravelling, yet again, but not really knowing what to do about making changes, or even wanting to. His lethargy is great. He is very lonely.

    Elizabeth is a freelance book editor who has a room to rent. She almost collapses outside Trevor’s bookshop, reluctantly admitting she is feeling faint but is OK. She returns later to post a notice for a room to rent in his shop window. Feisty and seeped deep in denial and guilt, she has become solitary and very lonely.

    The room to rent is the catalyst they have both been seeking, which very, very slowly brings a rare and beautiful thing to both their lives; friendship and acceptance, and possibly even a gentle kind of love.

    As the characters reveal their layers, of which there are many, the real beauty of Salom’s writing becomes apparent, as he shows a rich and deep understanding of how the many twists and turns that life offers up, create changes that often seem irreversible, but with the right circumstances and good dose of courage, can be the basis of a fresh new world.

    The Returns is a very different read, gentle and almost unassuming, but will leave a lasting impression as it deals with the reality of life, living and moving on, with a very gentle, kind and understanding acceptance.

  • The Universe Is Expanding and So Am I

    The Universe Is Expanding and So Am I

     It would be easy to assume from the beginning of this story that it was a simple teenage romance. The reader meets Virginia, age 16, who lives in New York with her parents. She is the youngest child in the family. Dad is a business man, Mum is a psychologist; Virginia has an older sister who is working in a refugee camp overseas. Gin also has an older brother who has been sent down from college for an “Ordeal.”

    Virginia’s parents are very disciplined in their fitness and diet routines, and despair of her large size and lack of motivation. Gin however, sees herself as “Curvaceous,” and is resistant to their constant efforts to improve her. During the stressful time of end of year exams, Gin finds that the boy she thought of as her first boyfriend, is not as special as she had hoped and she has fallen “Out of like with him.”

    It is during this time that she finds out that the reason her brother has been sent home is because he has been accused of date rape. After a period of time, the police come to take him away. At a young age this can only mean he will possibly go to jail and be put on a sex offenders register. He was to have studied law.  Horrified for her brother, Virginia meets the girl who has made the accusation. Equally horrified, she discovers the young girl has had her life changed forever, and although she is trying not to be a victim, the abused girl can’t move away from the dreadful action.

    This is almost a novel of awakening from a teenager to adulthood, as Virginia sees her parents prepared to do anything to protect their son. Her older sister comes back at this time and breaks the news that she has a partner. Another woman.  Again, the family is rocked, they are furious, and see it as a phase, like her vegetarian phase. It is now clear that the family code is one of secrecy… no one in their family does anything other than the “right thing.”  To complicate matters Virginia meets a lovely young man but then discovers he is related to her brother’s victim.

    Getting her thoughts straight and realizing that her parents are not infallible, is a tough job for a sixteen-year-old. The way Virginia rationalizes her thoughts and feelings is interesting to follow and bit by bit we see an independent young woman of strength and character emerge. The process and development are engaging.