Sipsworth

Sipsworth by Simon Van Booy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Seeking respite from political mayhem, I picked up Sipsworth, a perfectly delightful escape: the tale of an 83-year-old woman regaining zest over a two-week period with the help of a pet mouse. Not my usual fare, but it was ideal. Detailed descriptions of her solitary meals, cups of tea, a Bakewell tart once a week, the old movies she favors on TV, her classical music programs, as she studies the facts about mice gleaned at the local library.
Memorable sentences:
"Returning after sixty years, Helen had felt her particular circumstances special: just as she had once been singled out for happiness, she was now an object of despair. But then after so many consecutive months alone, she came to the realisation that such feelings were simply the conditions of old age and largely the same for everybody....Those who in life had held back in matters of love would end in bitterness."
"The only real proof of her advanced age are a chronic, persistent feeling of defeat, aching limbs, and the power of invisibility to anyone between the ages of ten and fifty."

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