Free shipping on orders over $99
The Single Ladies of Jacaranda Retirement Village

The Single Ladies of Jacaranda Retirement Village 1

by Joanna Nell
Paperback
Publication Date: 25/09/2018
5/5 Rating 1 Review

Share This Book:

 
$29.99

Joanna Nell's life-affirming debut is a moving, funny, heartwarming tale of love and community in the spirit of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and Grace and Frankie

The life of 79-year-old pensioner PEGGY SMART is as beige as the decor in her retirement village.

Her week revolves around aqua aerobics and appointments with her doctor. Following a very minor traffic accident, things have turned frosty with her grown-up children and she is afraid they are trying to take away her independence. Noticing her memory isn't what it used to be, Peggy is taking ever more inventive steps to cover up her dwindling faculties.The highlight of Peggy's day is watching her neighbour Brian head out for his morning swim. She dreams of inviting the handsome widower - treasurer of the Residents' Committee and one of the few eligible men in the village - to an intimate dinner. But why would an educated man like Brian, a chartered accountant no less, look twice at Peggy?

As a woman of a certain age, she fears she has become invisible, even to men in their eighties.But a chance encounter with an old school friend she hasn't seen in five decades - the glamorous fashionista ANGIE VALENTINE - sets Peggy on an unexpected journey of self-discovery.

ISBN:
9780733640353
9780733640353
Category:
Contemporary fiction
Format:
Paperback
Publication Date:
25-09-2018
Language:
English
Publisher:
Hachette Australia
Country of origin:
Australia
Dimensions (mm):
233x153x27mm
Weight:
0.47kg
Joanna Nell

Joanna Nell was born in the UK and studied medicine at Cambridge and Oxford universities. Her essays and short fiction have won multiple awards and been published in medical journals and literary anthologies.

A former ship's doctor and now working as a GP, Joanna writes character-driven stories, creating young-at-heart characters who are not afraid to break the rules and defy society's expectations of ageing.

Her first two novels, THE SINGLE LADIES OF JACARANDA RETIREMENT VILLAGE and THE LAST VOYAGE OF MRS HENRY PARKER, were national bestsellers. Joanna lives on Sydney's Northern Beaches.

Click 'Notify Me' to get an email alert when this item becomes available

Reviews

5.0

Based on 1 review

5 Star
(1)
4 Star
(0)
3 Star
(0)
2 Star
(0)
1 Star
(0)

1 Review

The Single Ladies of Jacaranda Retirement Village is the first novel by British-born Australian doctor and author, Joanna Nell. Peggy Smart has been at Jacaranda Retirement Village since Ted died four years ago. She’s quite happy sharing her little unit with Basil, her ageing Shih Tzu, but hasn’t made any real friends. And she would like to get to know the handsome Brian Cornell a bit better: nights without Ted to cuddle her can be a bit lonely.

Might he ever be interested in someone as dull as Peggy? “I’m a seventy-nine-year-old widow with a broken arm and a body like day-old rice pudding. It’s time to face facts. I’m past it.” Peggy tries to be independent: the last thing she wants is for her (interfering) son and daughter to put her away; but she is a bit forgetful sometimes, and her waterworks problems make it difficult to enjoy everything she’d like to do.

Things are changing at Jacaranda, though: a new doctor might just sort out Peggy’s bladder, and Brian seems to be noticing her. Until, that is, Angie Valentine turns up. Angie’s a blast from Peggy’s past: gorgeous (still, at nearly eighty!) and stylish, she has the heads of the few males at Jacaranda turning. Peggy watches Angie captivating everyone at Jacaranda, and feels ready to give up. But Angie has other plans. Soon, in the mirror, “Instead of a pensioner camouflaged in fifty shades of beige, she saw an elegant, mature woman with a figure.”

What a charming tale Nell gives the reader! The plot is not as predictable as it might first seem, and Nell manages to include plenty of humour, both in the dialogue and the antics of her characters: pricing a Karaoke machine, swimming laps, hosting a Fashion Parade, crashing a birthday party, hair and clothing makeovers, clinic visits, and the sabotage, with laced brownies, of a certain (Basil-adverse) residents’ committee vote, all present the reader with laugh-out loud moments.

None of Nell’s characters is wholly good or bad: all have human flaws as well as virtues, but Peggy is the star of the show. She is truly a delight, but she’s also the reason that this novel should not be read in the quiet carriage on public transport. Peggy’s little errors: her malapropisms, her mixed metaphors, her mangling of common expressions, her (unintentional) double entendres, and misheard words, will have the reader exploding into laughter. Sometimes they are very subtle (Dave’s knee deconstruction op), other times, glaringly obvious (Angie’s Louis Carthorse-style chairs), but definitely worth watching out for.

Readers of a certain vintage will doubtless identify with Peggy’s issues and worries (Nell captures the senior mindset perfectly), while those a generation younger will appreciate the situation from David and Jenny’s perspective. Nell highlights the dilemma, for our ageing population, of balancing safety with independence, comfort and indulgence with the discipline of exercise and health, medication with more wholistic treatment. This is a brilliant debut novel, and Nell’s further works will be eagerly anticipated.

Contains Spoilers No
Report Abuse