Clare Pooley Novels
If you are looking for charming, feel-good stories, I recommend the novels of British author and former advertising executive Clare Pooley. I reviewed How to Age Disgracefully in September, and since then I read The Authenticity Project and Iona Iverson’s Rules for Commuting. The books share a common theme and are a little predictable, but no less enjoyable.
Iona, a longtime advice columnist for a woman’s magazine, rides the same train to work every day. One morning her careful routine and anonymity is disrupted when a nearby passenger, Smart-But-Sexist-Manspreader, chokes on a grape. Impossibly-Pretty-Bookworm looks on in horror as Iona raises the alarm. Mr-Probably-in-the-Caring. Professions administers the Heimlich Maneuver and saves the man’s life.
Since it is a bit awkward to ignore each other after a near death experience, the passengers, joined by Bland Man and Schoolgirl, introduce themselves. First impressions are reconsidered, and the eclectic group exchanges confidences. When Iona gets into trouble, her new friends ride to the rescue.
In The Authenticity Project, strangers bond via a green notebook which seventy-nine-year-old Julian deliberately leaves in a coffee shop. In it he tells the truth about his lonely life since his wife died. Finding the exercise cathartic and recognizing that most people lie to themselves and others all the time, he instructs the next reader to add their own (true) story to the notebook and pass it on. The green notebook travels from person to person, until one reader decides to track down the contributors. Friendship and romance ensue.
