Three Things About Elsie

This is a beautiful book. I smiled, laughed and cried my way through it, enjoying the wry observations about life and the pathos of the aging process for residents and staff of Cherry Tree Home for the Elderly. It's a topic handled with gentle humour and delicacy here, from a writer who clearly understands the mechanisms of the mind.
Great characterisation makes the narrative appear easy and relaxed. There’s no straining for effect. The author has a deft touch with conversation and storytelling, succeeding in keeping you hooked, wanting to savour more of her delicious prose.
Elsie may be mentioned more than most, though it is her closest friend, Florence, whose perspective carries the weight of the book's narrative. She is more than the sum of her parts, just like the rest of us. Her life has been peppered with secrets that weigh heavily in her senior years, causing great emotional distress.
We witness Florence struggling to be believed, with fears of being sent elsewhere, amid growing concern that she might be losing her grip on reality. She relies completely on Elsie and Jack for reassurance she is not going mad. Eventually, past and present people and events coalesce and come into better focus. Resolution, when it finally arrives, is no less satisfying for being delayed.
In the process, we see how much the past pervades the present, seeking to be addressed. Bad memories may not go away but we can learn to live for the moment and be thankful for the good things we experience. There are lots of valuable life lessons wrapped up in this quirky gem of a book. Now I need to read the author's acclaimed debut novel. How did I miss it?!

Brilliant, Miss Marple meets last of the summer wine. A wonderful insight into dementia, thought provoking, with an interesting theme throughout. Loved every minute of it, very sad twist at the end.

What an unusual read this book is, so many facets to it and running through it a little whodunnit too. It's not often I read a book and think I'm so glad I got to read this story - but this is one of those books.

The book opens with Florence aged 84 lying on the floor of her flat wondering if anyone is going to find her. She begins to recount events from her life over the past 60 years and more recently at the Home for the Elderly that her flat is a part of. From time to time the narration leaves the events and comes back to the present day and Florence who is still lying on the floor.

Throughout the book we meet the people in Florence's life - of course Elsie, the people who work at the home and various other characters that she encounters through little jaunts. The description of her time in Whitby was wonderful. I know Whitby fairly well and I could tell the author did too, I was there with Florence and her friends walking along seeing what they saw in glorious colour.

The plot construction is marvellous but to say would give too much away as there is more than one secret to uncover in this utterly enchanting read - a glimpse into seeing things through someones older eyes.

You don't just get to see things through Florence's eyes though. There is also Simon the Handyman who makes discoveries of his own about his life and Miss Ambrose who has probably been on a course for whatever life throws at her, except her own life!

So many beautifully written and evocative sentences too. My favourite was "three generations of women balance their lives on top of each other, like tiers on a wedding cake". The battenburg cake on the cover is also a charming but sad part of the story too.

I could go on and on about this book, but really you just need to read it for yourself.

I'm giving this book 5 out of 5 stars. My thanks go to Netgalley for an advance copy of the book which is out on 11 January 2018.

A beautiful, beautiful story written with a poetic delicacy I have never seen better done.

This is a lovely story and so beautifully written I found myself re-reading lines again and again, despairing that I will never be so good. It is the writing gives this intricate tale extra depth and poignancy, that leads us firmly into an understanding of what we lose when we age. Joanna Cannon's empathy with the elderly no doubt made her extraordinarily good at her work, but it is in her writing that we truly benefit from her skill.

The storyline itself is, strangely, almost secondary to the joy of meeting and getting to know each participant in the novel. Cannon's characterisation is superb. We can draw ourselves a picture of every character through their speech and mannerisms alone, no need for physical descriptions. There's a little of every old person we have ever known in each one too, from the old chap who visit the supermarket near where live, always immaculately turned out and everlastingly courteous, to my own grandmother, who shouted her points out regardless of her audience (both willing and unwilling). Florence is simply marvellous and we walk alongside her as the tale unfolds, growing increasingly concerned for her safety and her sanity.

Perhaps for me though the greatest joy is in how Cannon gently, so very subtly, links the threads that bind each one to the other, a reflection of her belief that each person we meet alters us in some way. The story winds in concentric rings in this respect, with each new ring satisfying a question we hadn't raised, but which gives great pleasure to learn the answer to. In the closing chapters of this book I was brought close to tears more than once, as threads are neatly tied and stories that were started (without us even knowing) are ended.

I simply can't sing its praises highly enough. Highly recommended.

This book was very intriguing from the get go. There were lots of things to like about it. I liked the mysterious way it was written as well as the fact that there was clearly an actual mystery to be solved. I also really enjoyed the way the narrative switched between the characters and made this an ensemble piece. I thought it dealt really sensitively with the issue of ageing without being patronising or saccharine. I liked the fact that it was really funny at times as well as being really sad. It was gripping too, and I really liked the fact that it kept me guessing until the end. It was a book, like its main narrator, Florence that had lots of layers and lots of little tricks up its sleeve. I didn't really know what to expect when I started it, but it was beguiling and intriguing and fresh.

Firstly I must confess I’ve been having a bit of a struggle recently to concentrate on my reading and find books which grab and hold my attention well enough to ensure I can’t put them down.

Three things about Elsie has been the exception to the rule and has renewed my faith in my ability to devour and drown in and adore a book.

It also quite broke my heart – Joanna Cannon how could you put me through this? By the end I was sobbing those great big gut wrenching Waah’s that you just can’t do quietly – Thank goodness I was reading it in bed and not on the bus!

Like her debut novel “The Trouble with goats and sheep” which I also read and loved, this author peoples her writing with wonderful characters to believe in and peppers it with wry observations and astoundingly astute and beautiful prose.

We are introduced to the narrator Florence as she lies prone on the floor of her sheltered accommodation waiting for someone to find her following a fall.

She spends her time reminiscing, interspersed with detailed imaginings of how different folk will to react if they are the ones to discover and rescue her.

In her mid 80s Florence has a lively mind which treats us to some colourful and detailed observations, yet people assume she is losing her memory because she is old – how can they, she never forgets a thing, well not when her best friend Elsie is around to help jog her memory. Her BFF is her constant companion and the 2 old ladies have been together since they were friends as teenagers, so what one may have forgotten the other will be sure to remember.

But when a sinister face from the past shows up in the very place Florence feels safe, she takes it upon herself to unravel the mystery of why a man who was supposed to have died donkeys years ago is still very much alive and seems to be posing a threat to Florence. Not many people believe Florence except of course her loyal pal Elsie, and sprightly pensioner the wonderful Jack, who also becomes her staunch champion.
There are a few mysteries to be solved and dear Florence is determined to solve them all, if only she didn’t have so many little gaps in her ageing memory.

This is a simply stunning book, read it, love it and please take my advice and read it with a hanky tucked up your sleeve.

And if, in your eighties, that long forgotten bully from your youth turns up as resident at your care home……..

Joanna Cannon’s first novel, The Trouble With Goats and Sheep, with its child narrator, had enchanted me. Cannon showed a quirky, wonderful imagination, a linguistic skill and the ability to turn on a dime the balance between dark humour and an ache to the heartstrings which reminded me a lot of early Kate Atkinson (Behind the Scenes At The Museum)

So I was eager to read her second novel, kindly provided as an ARC from the publishers, via Net Galley

And delighted that this second novel exceeded my expections, raised so high by her first novel.

Three Things About Elsie has a narrator, and a setting, at the other end of a life span. Florence, awkward in some way, full of self-doubt, intelligent, kind, but lacking the skills of received social finesse, is 84. She is teetering on the edge of dementia, not always sure of her memories, and is currently, just, living in a flatlet in Cherry sheltered accommodation. Almost in residential care – socialisation is certainly expected by the staff, which still often means parking oneself, jaw agape, in front of the telly. Florence though is ‘on probation’ – her dislike of pabulum means she prefers the company of fellow residents Elsie and Jack to the big group activities. Elsie is her lifelong good friend, and Florence’s (please, do not call her Flo without permission) happiest memories are of the warmth shown her as a child, welcomed into Elsie’s family .Jack is a sociable widower with a lot of real charm and good heart All three have, as is inevitable, happier memories to protect from their past, younger lives. Florence is forgetting a lot of hers, though Elsie can help her to remember. In fact, Elsie and Jack keep her safe from the fearful place which awaits – removal to Greenbank (which was neither green, nor set on a bank) the next stage for the elderly, a clear slow sliding into dying

As Florence eloquently notes, on a visit to someone who has already made that journey
Greenbank is not a place of comfort to contemplate

“As we’d walked through Greenbank, the clouds had hurried across a September sky, exchanging the rain for a watery sunlight. The harsh lines, the sharp edges of a windowsill, the white stare of a pictureless wall, were all diluted with a butterscotch kindness. On the bedside table were a bix of tissues and a beaker of water. The room had an echo.

The woman said ‘She has everything she needs,’ before all of us were even inside.

I looked up at the ceiling and it looked back at me with a magnolia indifference”

As if the worries about the prospects of Greenbank being dangled, threatened, if Florence doesn’t get more normal and compliant are not enough, a long avoided memory from the past has arrived to haunt her. Florence has a past, of course, as everyone does, but, in this case, the past involves a bullying, unpleasant man from her youth. And this one has now turned up, a deceptive slippery charmer, skilful at hiding his true nature, is the new resident in Florence’s ‘shelter’

“Everyone’s life has a secret, something they never talk about. Everyone has words they keep to themselves. It’s what you do with your secret that really matters. Do you drag it behind you forever, like a difficult suitcase, or do you find someone to tell?”

Florence, Elsie and Jack have to embark on a quest to help Florence out of dragging that suitcase

“Perhaps the closing words of my chapter will be spoken in a room filled with beige and forgetfulness, and no one was ever meant to hear them”

Told in that now usual literary trope, the dual time frame, in this novel, the device is brilliantly used, twisting the reader into the present moment, with a ticking clock, and a patchwork of scenes from the past, memories which are not sequential, but arising from the deeps, as memory does, unbidden, sometimes also in the middle of recounted events from the most recent past, maybe just days ago, at Cherry Tree

Cannon skilfully twines joy, humour, the painful tragedies of small lives, a cast of wonderfully, normally quirky individuals and a page turning what will happen. And she really was making me laugh, making me weep, making my heart tenderly suffer, causing my pulse to race, almost all at once. And, oh glory, I never felt contrived or manipulated.

A wonderful, painful, funny, satisfying read. What on earth can she do for book number 3? She has raised my expectations very very high indeed

After reading and enjoying the debut novel,The Trouble with Goats and Sheep by author Joanna Cannon I jumped at the chance of reading this novel. This book just got better and better and on finishing left me reflecting on what I had just read. Without giving anything away I was blown away by the ending.
This book is not typical of my normal genre, I normally favour thrillers that are sometimes gruesome, but this book is sentimental, funny and a lovely read. The main character is 84 year old Florence who lives in sheltered accommodation and spends her days in conversation with her friends Elsie and Jack. When a new resident arrives named Gabriel Price, Florence is very upset and believes him to be a man from her past: Ronnie Butler who supposedly drowned. Florence, Elsie and Jack are determined to uncover the truth behind his real identity.
This really is a beautiful book and so well written and I would thoroughly recommend it..

Loved this book. An elderly lady living in sheltered accommodation with her friend, when a face from the past disturbs her, and leads to things in the past that she thought were long dead. Very well written, with an unexpected ending

I loved this book - I really enjoyed both Jack’s and Flo’s wisdom. It was a beautiful story of love, friendship and forgiveness. It dealt with the impact we make on the world - just by being there.

The characters were sensitively drawn and although the story was hard to read at times, it was softened with moments of humour.

Hard to think of old age and dementia but a book that should be read.

Thank you.

One of my favourite reads this year. This is a story about Florence, who has has a fall in her sheltered accommodation.

There has been a new resident join Cherry Tree, who is the sporting image of someone Florence used to know a long time ago. But Florence is not sure of her own mind, and most people don't trust her mind either.

Florence tries to piece together her memories with the support of her best friend Elsie. With intertwined lives within the home we learn about Florence and Elsie's lives and friendship.

This is a laugh out loud story which left me in tears it was so touching.

This book is in my top 3 reads of the year. The descriptive writing is top notch and I don't think I have highlighted more passages in a book ever.
Flo is 84, lives in sheltered accommodation and has fallen in her flat. The story portrays Flo's thoughts as she lies on the floor waiting to be found. Elsie is Flo's best friend since childhood, and she plays a large part in Flo's life. Flo has a secret though which has clearly bothered her ever since it happened and Flo's thoughts keep reverting back to it as she lies there. All becomes clear by the end, but it is a tale you have to let Flo tell in her own way in order to understand it all.
The cover of this book is absolutely perfect in reflecting the story as the jigsaw pieces of Flo and Elsie's lives gradually get put together throughout the book and the reader puts the facts together to make the picture whole. I loved the characters - there really isn't one person I disliked in the whole book. Each of them is travelling their own journey of self discovery in this tale and I am not embarrassed to say that I cried a tear or two for more than one of them by the end.
A lovely tale, amusing and heartbreaking in equal measure. This book will definitely be hitting the bestsellers lists and staying there for some time.
My review will appear on my blog at www.sandiesbookshelves.blogspot.co.uk in the new year

Words cannot convey how much I adored Three Things About Elsie! A story that grasped at my heart more than anything. Heartwarmingly funny and endearing, this is definitely one of the best books for 2018!

Reminiscent of Thora Hird’s magnificent portrayal of the feisty old lady lying on the floor after a fall, looking back over her life in the Alan Bennett monologue, Florence too is a magnificently feisty old lady in a similar situation. In her case though she’s living in sheltered accommodation in a flat near her lifelong friend Elsie. The 2 of them are inseparable but Florence knows her days are numbered and she might soon be moved to Greenbank, more suited to her declining memory but not to her robust personality. Florence’s problems have been made worse by a new resident in the flat across the road, someone she’s sure she recognises from her youth but who she knows is dead. Even worse he seems to be trying to speed Florence on her way to Greenbank. Luckily Elsie is always on hand to help her out and the 2 of them soon join forces with another resident in a series of madcap adventures to try and get to the bottom of the mystery man. I absolutely loved this book, the characters were so warm and believable, the portrayal of life in the care home showed how sad it can be for people who know they can’t do the things they used to but would dearly love to anyway, was told with such humour it was never depressing. The end took me completely by surprise, I really didn’t see that coming! Thank you netgalley for sending me the review copy and thank you Joanna Cannon for writing such a wonderful book. Florence’s story deserves to be told.

I loved The Trouble with Goats and Sheep. Joanna Cannons first novel and wondered whether Three Things About Elsie could be as good. Well it certainly is as good. I would even go as far as to say it's even better. I loved Florence and Elsie's story. They made me laugh out loud but I finished the story with a large lump in my throat. I highly recommend this book, it's amazing!

Thanks to Netgalley for my copy.

How could Joanna Cannon top the suburban slow burn of The Trouble With Goats and Sheep? It was one of my favourite books of the year. Yet, incredibly, she’s bettered it with Elsie. The book is a mystery based on memory, acted out by very real characters in a haunting storyline which asks: what is real? Her turn of phrase is sublime and her descriptions, of skies, of people, places and emotions, feel so familiar, she has the rare skill of making us wholly identify with her characters. Brilliant. Joanna Cannon is such a talent.

Loved Joanna Cannon's first book, and this is equally good. The plot grows deeper and deeper, keeping the reader hooked. Brilliant, in depth observations of characters and full of feeling.

Just loved this book with it's original descriptions of dementia. The writing style is slightly quirky but excellent. The mixture of characters on both sides of the sheltered housing location were charming. I found it especially interesting as my parents have recently moved in to a close care apartment. Arguably though Cherry Trees has a lot more going on !!!! Must try to read Joanna's first book which, for some reason, I missed.

Sometimes you come across a book that you just love. This is one of those books.
I love the way it is written, I love the quirky characters, the humour and the way the plot develops.
It is beautiful and reflective and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
5 stars *****

Absolutely brilliant. Florence is often confused, but nevertheless is often as sharp as a tack. Her dry asides and comments on modern life and people she meets are succinct and witty.
There is a good plot and some varied characters but the quality of the writing is what makes this book exceptional. Joanna Cannon has a wonderful ear for dialogue, put to excellent use.
Highly recommended

I rather liked this. It is reminiscent of Elizabeth is Missing, in that an elderly woman with dementia tries to solve a mystery from the past. The characters were very sympathetically drawn and realistic. There is a lot of humour and also pathos. The care home set-up is not quite how it really works!! (I hope). I got a little lost after Whitby - I think I was possibly reading too fast and missed some crucial bits, as I had to re-read some of it to clarify what had or had not actually happened. There are a couple of twists, and a nice gentle coincidence towards the end. I had read Goats and Sheep previously and liked it. This is just as quirky and makes a rather refreshing change from the formulaic run of the mill stuff that is out there.

Another great book from Joanna, she seems to be able to make you feel like you’ve known the characters all your life. A very well thought out book!

I enjoyed "goats and sheep" the author's first novel and absolutely loved this one! The characters were so well written it felt at times the story got in their way and I just wanted to read about their present lives. I was particularly pleased they all went on a trip to Whitby as it is one of my favourite places and great to see it so lovingly described.
I felt that the author managed to be warm, witty and wise with some really beautiful writing. I will definitely be recommending it

A wonderfully compelling read beautifully written and very sympathetically told about life in an old peoples home with dealing with dementia and past life. The characters are very easily identified with and slightly whimsical but obviously closely observed from real life. The main character, Florence, has a fall and whilst she waits to be found the story goes through many twists and turns with her remembering and piecing together her, sometimes, forgotten past life. There are many humourous passages giving an insight into seemingly uneventful life of the elderly in a care home. There are many twists and turns on the way and eventually every just slots into place including Flo's constant friend from childhood, Elsie. A thoroughly enjoyable read which makes me want to seek out this author's previous novel.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The prose is excellent and so descriptive, with many witty twists. The author is obviously an excellent observer and describes characters that we've all met along the way, so that it feels personal.

I laughed out loud at Florence's description of being the owner of large feet (taking size 8s myself!) and have taken her attitude on board.

The book re-raised many questions in my mind about how we care (or not) for our elder generations, whether or not they have dementia. The relationships between the various characters - now and in the past - were very well described, and in some cases, very moving.

All in all, an excellent read. I will seek out more by this author (who hails from my neck of the woods it seems).

Thanks go to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me to read an advance copy in return for my honest review.

Easily readable and carefully plotted I found this an exceptional novel and would highly recommend it. Each character has meaning and relevance to the storyline wth clever twists and turns. There is some sadness about illness and dealing with age and care but all dealt with empathetically. The author intertwines the lives of all the characters with insight and skill.

Lying on the floor in her flat waiting for help Flo, the central character, keeps the plot moving along with pace and wit. Sensitively addressing the issues of Alzheimer's, loneliness and growing old the story focuses on Flo's life and some situations she struggles to face up to when a man from the past arrives at the sheltered accommodation.

As the story moves between the present day, where Flo is 84, and her teenage years, the reader meets Elsie who has always been her best friend. A companion, Jack, who also lives in the same accommodation helps with a variety of adventures in the hope of finding the truth about what really happened all of those years ago at the local dance which Elsie and Flo attended.

Nothing is as it seems.