#8 The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy

The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy
by Rachel Joyce

Very readable and well written, interesting contrasting sections, between the present and past, finally bringing the book to a startling ending on the very last page! The sections are short, keep you reading and the plot moving forward. I think the portrayal Queenie's last days, as she is dying of cancer in a hospice are particularly well done.

However, I think the book should be renamed, "The Final Confession of Miss Queenie Hennessy." The story looks back to the time twenty years earlier, when Queenie was in love with a married man for the four years that they worked together. Forbidden love, that's the only love in the story, and she never got over it. Her memories of those years lead up to her final confession, in the last days of her life, when she finally admits to herself how much she hurt the man she "loved" from afar and his family. Her lies and deceit, not just to do with her love of this man, are the burden she bears for the rest of her life. The end of the book, in my mind, is the final retribution for a woman who's actions were so destructive. Though the book is very well written, I didn't like the main character at all, or the "love" story.

The book is a parallel narrative to the author's first book, "The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry", and the action takes place when Harold Fry is walking from south England to the north to see Queenie. He asks her to wait until he gets there, and this becomes a theme in the hospice.

Rating: 4/5
Recommendation: Most reviews of the book are positive. Well written. Sure, read it, but read "The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry" first, or read both at the same time…….