Has anyone read The woman who went to bed for a year by Sue Townsend?

[beujolais]

Has anyone read this? would love to know what it is like as i sacrificed it at the book shop yesterday for a box of rose and violet creams!

[laptopwieldingharpy]

Hi there,
I just absolutely love the title but have not had the time to read it yet.
I was on fantastic thread recently about introverts and it reminded me that I should read this.

[beujolais]

Hello, I have heard very good things about it, i'll certainly look forward to it. I've run out of tony parsons books to read and this one is supposed to be a laugh a minute! If you read it before me give me your verdict, thanks!

[stainesmassif]

Read it v quickly but in afraid it's a bit blah and derivative. I didn't laugh at all I'm afraid. Nice to read about leics if you're from there tho.

[notactuallyme]

Just finished a dreadful one by her Queen Camillaa, so its not on my list anymore!

[beujolais]

Oh that's a shame, i had high hopes for that one. A friend read queen camilla and said it was rubbish too. Any must reads you guys can recommend?

[TheReturnoftheSmartArse]

I thought it would be funny, but it wasn't. I couldn't feel any sympathy for any of the characters, not even the woman who stayed in bed. I could understand why she might want to hibernate for a week, but then decided she was being ridiculous and was hurting other people. Mind you, I think she had mental health issues, to be honest, though I'm not sure that was Sue Townsend's plan.

Read it, but only if it doesn't cost you!

[beujolais]

Maybe she was in bed herself when she wrote it! Have you read anything fantastic to recover from it?

[beujolais]

Maybe she was in bed herself when she wrote it! Have you read anything fantastic to recover from it?

[beujolais]

Sorry for repeat, computer's playing silly beggars!

[beujolais]

Sorry for repeat, computer's playing silly beggars!

[beujolais]

My computer has gone all max headroom on me!!

[Bluebell99]

I had the misfortune to read this on holiday this year. It is one of the worse books I have ever read. I had zilch sympathy or interest in any of the characters. I did not laugh at all. It was tedious. I am glad I got it out of the library and didn't waste any money on it.

[beujolais]

Thanks for the warning bluebell99, saved myself a tenner now! Any recommendations?

[NicknameTaken]

I agree it was a disappointment - there were a couple of good scenes (one where the husband is tupping his mistress and she's getting very bored with proceedings; another where the bride is walking down the aisle and falls out of love with her groom by the time she reaches the altar). For those reasons, I'm not sorry I read it, but on the whole it was a damp squib.

[TheReturnoftheSmartArse]

I'll have to have a trawl through my Kindle and see what I've enjoyed recently. There must be something!

[beujolais]

Shame, maybe she'll redeem herself with the next one! Am i the only person that hasn't read the fifty shades trilogy?

[TheReturnoftheSmartArse]

Nope, not read it either! I tried the first one, I really did. But it was AWFUL!!

[beujolais]

Everyone i know who has read it said it was dreadful and very badly written, how has it gone stratospheric if that's the case? Saying that anything that stirs controversy in the media arouses curiosity.

[YouOldSlag]

Well I read it and loved it. There are one or two LOL moments, but overall it's pathos and how her behaviour effects other people.

There are so many themes in it, so many events in other people's lives and so much goes on that I am not sure the point that Townsend was trying to make as she made so many.

It was not a waste of time by any means and I ending up really caring about Alexander, if nobody else. Eva's twins are autistic and their sub plot develops quite alarmingly. There is very irritating and toxic character in it called Poppy who frankly, just irritates and I'm not sure of her purpose unless it was to illuminate the differing reactions to her from the different characters.

It also had a bit of social commentary in which Eva, the main character briefly becomes a cult figure which nicely outlined how today's Twitter society are all too ready to read too much meaning into something and how they are so needy that they try and see a guru in the simplest of folk.

I won't spoil the ending but it was poignant, but not tragic.

As I said there is no clear singular message, unless you can conclude that everything is messy and nothing is simple and one decision affects people not only adversely, but also in ways that are both dramatic and banal.

[mummyonvalium]

Read it and thought it was okay.

Some of it was funny and at the time of reading it I didn't really get the point of it. Maybe in hindsight I can see that Sue Townsend was trying to make a statement about modern society and how it neglectful it can be and also the point about the media raising people up to be things that they aren't. I did feel there was something missing to this book.

[NicknameTaken]

Was Alexander the black guy? I liked him but I thought there was a bit of this going on the dynamic.

[stainesmassif]

Lol @ 'magical negro'. It all seemed a bit like feminist literature from the late 60s / early 70's - Sub Women's Room with a bit of twitter thrown in to make it 21st century.

[YouOldSlag]

Nickname- that's very interesting. I think you're right.

I did actually cry when his hair got cut off like Samson or Aslan, it was so sad.

[NicknameTaken]

Glad it's not just me then! I found him touching but also a bit unconvincing - all that goodness and suffering nobly borne.

[YouOldSlag]

Nickname- I think all the nobility was borne out of guilt.