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Editorial Review:
'Joanna has held up a mirror to millions of women around the world, and they've seen themselves, their lives, their relationships and their desires staring back.' GOOD HOUSEKEEPING 'Trollope is a slick and stylish writer.' DAILY TELEGRAPH 'She writes so beautifully in a style so graceful and judicious that you would call it restful if it were not also palpably intelligent.' EVENING STANDARD 'As subtle as Austen, as sharp as Bronte, Trollope's brilliant!' Fay Weldon, MAIL ON SUNDAY Trollope (Second Honeymoon, 2006, etc.) freshens up a tired chick-lit device, the woman's group, in this story about a group that falls apart when one of the members falls in love.Eleanor, a retired professional who never married, began the Friday night get-togethers years earlier when she noticed two young single mothers who separately looked lonely and invited them in to her home to meet each other. The father of Paula's son Toby never left his wife and family but pays Paula child support and occasionally visits Toby, now eight. Lindsay's husband died before six-year-old Noah was born. Lindsay's waiflike younger sister Jules, an aspiring DJ, begins to show up. So does Eleanor's neighbor Blaise, a business consultant who like Eleanor has chosen work over family. Blaise introduces her business partner Karen, married and struggling to balance her domestic responsibilities with her professional ambitions. The friends find comfort and support in the Friday nights spent talking and drinking wine. Then one Friday Paula arrives with her new beau Jackson, both to show him off and get her friends' approval. A pucklike figure, the charming if emotionally elusive Jackson insinuates himself into the group, triggering a mix of reactions. Lindsay resents that Paula ignores their previously close friendship for a man. Jules believes Jackson is going to give her a career. Her marriage foundering, Karen is sexually drawn to Jackson and mistakenly thinks he is interested in her. Both Blaise and Eleanor, women without other emotional ties, suffer the loss of the community they depend on. And Paula is too gaga over Jackson to pay attention to anyone else, including needy Toby. There are no villains or heroines here, just women - and men - trying to make sense of the limits that their choices and personalities have imposed on their lives. By the time Jackson slips away, or is pushed away by Paula, the characters have realigned, wiser and mostly happier.Insightful and reassuring if a little contrived. (Kirkus Reviews)
Second Honeymoon, Trollope #39;s last novel, was a number one best #45;seller and sold 230,000 copies in paperback Broad market: for fans of Anne Tyler, Kate Atkinson, the 'Bridget Jones #39; books and Marian KeyesTarget market includes more young women than before with this widely appealing subject matter
It's Eleanor who starts the Friday nights. From her window she sees two young women, with small children, separate, struggling and plainly lonely - and decides to ask them in, and see what happens. What happens is that a group gradually forms, a group of six different and disparate women, who become a circle of friends. They range in age from Jules, who is twenty-two and wants to be a DJ, to Eleanor herself, who is a retired professional and walks with a stick. They include one wife, three mothers, three singletons and five working women. They all of them, variously, value Friday nights. And then one of them meets a man - an enigmatic significant man - and the whole dynamic changes. The bonds that have been so closely forged are tested - and some of them break. With wit and warmth, Joanna Trollope explores the complexities, the sabotages, and the shifting currents of modern friendship.
It's Eleanor who starts the Friday nights. From her window she sees two young women, with small children, separate, struggling and plainly lonely - and decides to ask them in, and see what happens. What happens is that a group gradually forms, a group of six different and disparate women, who become a circle of friends. They range in age from Jules, who is twenty-two and wants to be a DJ, to Eleanor herself, who is a retired professional and walks with a stick. They include one wife, three mothers, three singletons and five working women. They all of them, variously, value Friday nights. And then one of them meets a man - an enigmatic significant man - and the whole dynamic changes. The bonds that have been so closely forged are tested - and some of them break. With wit and warmth, Joanna Trollope explores the complexities, the sabotages, and the shifting currents of modern friendship.
Author of eagerly awaited and sparklingly readable novels often centred around the domestic nuances and dilemmas of life in contemporary England, Joanna Trollope is also the author of a number of historical novels and of Britannia's Daughters, a study of women in the British Empire. In 1988 she wrote her first contemporary novel, The Choir, and this was followed by A Village Affair, A Passionate Man, The Rector's Wife, The Men and the Girls, A Spanish Lover, The Best of Friends, Next of Kin, Other People's Children, Marrying the Mistress, Girl from the South, Brother and Sister and, most recently, Second Honeymoon. She lives in London.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 3.0 / 5.0
Relationship Saga Just finished the latest Trollope novel.
Have read all her previous works, so eagerly await each new offering.
This is not her best, but its still very readable and slowly draws you in.
The characters are hit and miss - and some of the situations are way out of Trollopes comfort zone (reading about going to a Chelsea match made me wince - as a regular attender of League one football matches having Trollope write about Chelsea Football sums up totally whats wrong with Premiership football... more info
Friday Nights How I wish I'd read Amazon readers' reviews of this novel before buying it. For weeks I've been forcing myself to 'give it another go' but time after time I've failed to become engrossed in the characters' lives. Such a disappointment from one of my favourite authors.
Best trollopw book I have read so far!! This, for me, was a "can't put down" type of book!! I have read Joanna Trollope before, but have never emphasized with the characters so well, as I have in the latest, brilliants novel. The main character, Eleanor, is absolutely, quietly but stunningly brilliant as the one who really " who holds it all together"! Cannot praise it highly enough! Am now inspired to re-read and try even more Trollope!
So So I think I was drawn to the title after reading the fabulous Friday Night Knitting Club. It started out with the promise of a good read but I managed to put it down - for days! I kept trying to get into it again and then just gave it a good go to finish. Still thought 'something' would happen until I reached the last few pages - it never did. It was OK but I wouldn't have missed anything if I hadn't picked it up to read.
