Why Men Must Read This Book About A Woman

When I sit down to write a book, I have a very clear picture in my mind regarding the person who is going to buy and read it. OK, it has to be a bit generic, but I know their probable gender, their typical age range and the sorts of interests that they have. I try to write in a way that will appeal to them specifically.
 
As a multi-genre author, I have several of these images, to suit my different target audiences, but I won’t go into details about them now. I’ll save that for another blog. But my point is that if author Georgie Hall also creates a mental image of her target audience, I doubt she would have imagined me.
 
Which is a pity, because her book, “Woman of a Certain Rage”, should be read by all men of a certain age.
 
At any time, half the population of the world is either going to go through the trials and tribulations of the protagonist, Eliza Hollander, they are actually going through them or they have been through them already. If men who are in a relationship with women were to read this book, it might help them to understand their partners better and it may also help to save a few relationships.

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But I’m guessing that this book was aimed mainly at women of a certain age and will mainly be read by them.
 
As I said before, that’s a bit of a pity, made even more so by the fact that it’s a very enjoyable read, says a man of a certain age.
 
Eliza Hollander is fifty and is suffering the rigours on menopause. The use of that word alone will probably send male readers rushing towards their man caves with their fingers in their ears and singing "la la la" to keep the noise out. But if you are male and still reading, I encourage you to continue.
 
Eliza once had ambitions to become a great actress, until life got in the way and she had to settle for a lesser career. She still practices her art, but not on the grand stage she once imagined. Her relationship with husband Paddy is strained, for many reasons.
 
The triggering event for the book is a simple one, which many readers might relate to. Her beloved dog died. The dog’s unquestioning devotion helped to mask the cracks that had opened up in Eliza’s life and now she is forced to face them at the same time as she is having to deal with the menopause and all that goes with it.

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"Eliza is made of sterner stuff"

Eliza has three children: Joe who is a student activist, Summer an A Level student and wannabe social media influencer who is suffering a teenage crush on one of her teachers and Ed, who suffers from autism, which brings along its own problems.
 
Throw into this mix the family from hell (well, purgatory at least) and an amorous Italian restauranteur and you have the cast list for a delightfully humorous and touching novel.
 
But Eliza is made of stern stuff. She wants to fight back against the aging process and “make a difference”, just as she had planned to do when she was a young actress in the late 80s. Like many women of her age, Eliza feels she has become invisible and wants to be seen as a person once again. So while the backdrop of the book may be the menopause, the foreground is very much Eliza’s fight to get her identity back, at the same time as she saves her marriage.

A narrowboat, not a barge, but also a vehicle for a metaphor.

It helps if, as a reader, you have a liking for narrowboats (or barges as they are sometimes incorrectly called) but that isn’t essential.

​The narrowboat in question is just a vehicle (groan) to help carry a larger metaphor. I won’t go into detail but “The Tempest”, as the narrowboat is called, plays a pivotal role in the story for several reasons.

​It also helps to have a liking for the writings of Shakespeare but that, too, isn’t essential.
 
The book is well paced and it is very easy to engage with the likeable Eliza, who tells her story in the first person. Starting the book I was unsure that it was really something that I would enjoy, but a couple of chapters later I found that I was wrong about that. Despite the difference in gender and the biological issues that creates, I was able to relate to quite a lot that Eliza was describing.
 
In between narrating the current plot, Eliza goes back and tells us what her earlier life was like and that provides plenty of light and shade for the story. These passages are memories, not flashbacks, and make it easier to understand how Eliza drifted into the unsatisfactory state in which she now finds herself.

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What does the future have in store for you?

So, an engaging and entertaining book which works on several levels.

​If you are female and under forty, read this to find out what life has in store for you.

​If you are female and over forty, it may help you to know that you are not alone and if you are male and in a relationship with a female in either of the aforementioned groups, then this will help you to prepare for what might lie ahead. I just hope it doesn’t send you running for the hills in fear, because your partner will need you, probably more than at any other time of her life.
 
I highly recommend “Woman of a Certain Rage” by Georgie Hall. To find out more about the book, click on the cover image at the top of this blog.

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