How It Was - September book club

Am I the only one who would like the answer to the question that I asked? Everyday I check the Forum, should I give up?

Are we going to get answers to our questions?

I read the book quickly but when I finished it I went back and 're read the last third as I felt I had missed something, Janet could have gone deeper into the inter relationship with the main characters

Only managed to finish it yesterday. Read it in 4 sessions. I won it and suspect I might not have persevered with it if this were not the case. I had a sense of moral obligation. It did improve as I got into it. Some of the writing was beautiful but I agree with a lot of the criticisms in the posts above. Took a while to cotton on to the clues as to which thread the chapter belonged. Appreciated the 'period' allusions. Actually received 2 copies so one will go to Oxfam. The first was oddly addressed but our clever postie in this rural area worked out it was for me. Then the correctly addressed one arrived. Had never been on the book forum before and took a while to find it as no direct links from the 'prize' letter. Not sure I'll enter again.

I haven’t finished reading the book yet but I have found the opening quite a different approach - very short chapters, not always immediately obvious how they are linked, but as I’ve got further in I am enjoying reading it more . I haven’t read Janet’s earlier book so I can’t make any comparison.
I do intend to read the whole of How it was and wonder if there’s anything autobiographical about its content?

Although I found this book a tad confusing to begin with, I did enjoy reading it.

Well after my initial enthusiasm, I'm afraid my pleasure in the book wained. As mentioned by others, a lack of direction of where in the story each chapter was concerned with led to some confusion. I thought it very sad how the two central characters led their family through such disturbing times by not being honest with each other from the start. How could any one live so long together and not really talk to each other.
I finished this book in record time and sadly can not say I found it enjoyable. Can I ask Janet, how did she hope her readers would react to the storyline and is any of it based on her own experience of viewing others lives.

I received the book 2 weeks ago, enjoying it so far will send a review once I have finished it.

When I received my first copy of this book I was delighted, anticipating a 'good read', but I was quite disappointed and only managed to read half of it before setting it down. When the second copy arrived I felt guilty and waded through to the end. I know that Marion was deliberately written as an unsympathetic character, but she seemed not to have one redeeming feature, so in the end, she was plain boring. I couldn't be bothered with her.
Sarah, the teenage daughter was unrealistic, too knowing for a thirteen year old, at that time, I think.
I found it quite shocking that Marion's only reaction to the fact that she thought her teenage daughter was being groomed for sex by a middle-aged man was to see her as a rival. Yes, she was a careless mother - but that bad?
Sheila was really odd, if not a little bonkers.
I found the ending and Marion's epiphany rather too convenient.
All in all, although Janet Ellis is undoubtedly a good writer, the characters were unconvincing and the book was not a 'page turner'.
My question to Janet is : - was Eddy Philip's baby, if only in Marion's mind, and was that why she loved her son more than her daughter? I couldn't make out the time frame, so this was not clear to me.

I will add my final thoughts....

Received my book(s) just before going on holiday.
As it was a hardback copy (weight was an issue) I decided to read when I returned home.

The title almost immediately reminded me of the phrase my Grandmother or Mother would use when questioned about the past.
'Well that was how it was in those days.'

I have not immediately taken to this book.
In order to get through it, I am reading a few chapters at time.
Although the book is well written, I am not drawn to any one character.
I have no feeling of anticipation about what happens next.

The first few pages did resonate with me.
As I have sat by the bed-sides of both my parents and quite recently my mother-in-law and waited for the last breath to release each one from pain and suffering,
I did at that point connect with author.

But sadly the connection was then lost.

I will my final thoughts, when I come to the end of the book.

,
'

Thank you for the book, GN (both copies!).

I found it disjointed and a very slow burner at first, but enjoyed the last third much more. Unlike others, I didn’t find the plot particularly predictable. Without giving anything away the pivotal event of the book came as a surprise, as did the summaries of what happened to some of the characters afterwards.

Nearly all the main players were thoroughly unlikeable in my opinion, the exceptions being Eddie who was a joy, the minor character Rosalind, and Michael, who was honourable and long-suffering if a bit boring (I’d like to have heard his side of the story). Sarah was a typical teenage girl who’d probably grow out of the phase, so I had sympathy for her. The others….well! I thought Marion was a horror, self-absorbed, jealous and uncaring, spiteful in some of her thoughts towards the children. I’m surprised she even had the one friend – she certainly didn’t step up when Bridget needed her. Sheila was just odd. As for Marion’s main love interest, what an absolute plonker. I can’t believe that any grown woman wouldn’t have seen straight through him and walked away laughing. I’d like to have known more though about Philip, the first man she (instantly!) fell for, and I thought his role in the novel could have done with a lot more fleshing out.

I haven’t read The Butcher’s Hook, but will definitely look out for it as there’s no doubt that Janet Ellis is a very talented writer. Some of the phrases she used in How It Was were exquisite and she certainly knows how to get to the essence of a place/era.

One minor annoyance for me was the way Sarah wrote in her diary. It didn’t seem to be the language of a teenager, some of it seemed far too descriptive for someone of 14. On the other hand the depiction of her life at school and her friendships rang true.

I’d like to ask the author what’s next, after two such disparate books?

Well, I did persevere to the end, and I’m glad that I did.
I still feel that it was rather a disjointed story, with a lot of flitting about which required quite a bit of concentration in order to keep up. However, my overwhelming feeling is that this was a very sad story, with the main characters unable to express their true feelings towards each other which resulted in a lot of unhappiness and misunderstanding between them. It took a tragedy for them even to begin to try to understand, and by that point it was probably too late.
I agree with other readers who feel that the ending was rather rushed and a lot was squashed into the final few chapters. I don’t think there was enough depth given to the main characters in order for the reader to understand why they behaved as they did.
My question to Janet is have you met characters similar to Marion, Michael and Sarah in real life on which you have based this story, or are they perhaps, an amalgam of real life situations you have heard about/witnessed?

I have finally finished this book. I put it down for a few days while I 'refreshed' myself with another book.
I agree with posters who said it is disjointed and difficult to follow. It is far too long yet was rushed at the conclusion. It would have benefited from a firmer hand by her editor. Most of the book passed before an event that should have been excruciatingly sad happens. By the time we get there my reaction was oddly muted. Marion and Sarah were both unpleasant characters yet not 'bad' enough to be interesting and Eddie and Michael were too thinly drawn (perhaps this was intentional as it is mainly about M and S's relationship) I couldn't engage with any of them. I did however recognise that feeling when your teenage daughter is budding and has her life as a woman in front of her and you are aware that you have completed most of that journey. Adrian was completely charmless, so much so that any empathy I might have felt for Marion disappeared but again, not nasty enough to be interesting. I would like to have known a bit more about Sheila.
The hospital scenes were well written and would resonate with people who have experienced the life of a loved one slipping away.
So, not for me but I appreciate the opportunity of reading it. My questions for the author are:
Do you have personal experience of end of life care? And, I understand that most authors put something of themselves in their characters; where are you?

I did, as others, find the book disjointed as it jumped from one narrator to another and from one time to another - it does seem to be a fashion nowadays to do this. However,it was well written and did manage to convey the emotions of the main players and I am impressed by Janet Ellis's ability to do just this. My question is did she find this constant jumping from one character's viewpoint to another make it more difficult to write

I have received a second copy this morning too.

This is to Gransnet - I haven't reviewed this book yet, as tbh, I'm not enjoying it and have put it aside in the mean time. However, the postie has just delivered a second copy. The original was a first edition, this is marked as a second. Have changes been made to the book or is this simply an oversight?

‘I note that I wore selfishness next to my skin and a matching coat of unkindness’
The above sentence in Chapter 46 half way through this book summed it up for me. I did not like any of the characters and only continued to read because of the review.
However on completion I realised that it was a very well written if uncomfortable book to read and like an onion there are many layers and questions to be answered. Such as what is the purpose of each of our lives? Does true love and mother love exist? Why do we read fiction? Was the period it was set in and stay at home mums important.
My question to Janet is :-
Do you have a target audience in mind when you write a book like this and do you think Gransnet readers would have a different viewpoint than say Mumsnet readers?

I, too, am still plodding through this book. I will try and continue because from what others have said it may pick up pace towards the end. Maybe I'll have to read Janet's first novel as recommended by others earlier in this thread to see the contrast in her writing and not allow my first experience of her novels to put me off reading her books in the future.

It's not the fast-paced genre that I usually enjoy and has been a bit like wading through treacle or watching paint dry. I took it away as my holiday read but gave up half way through the week and read another 2 novels that had been left in our rented villa in the final 3 days. I'm not finding that this a book that I 'can't put down' and now that I've actually put it down I'm struggling to find the motivation to get started again. If I'm honest, I don't really care what happens to Marion and Sarah. I will do my best to get re-started and if I change my mind about the book I'll re-post later on in the thread.

**Funnily enough, I received a second copy of this book in the post yesterday, so I'll pass both copies on to others when (if?) I've finished the first one.

As stated by previous posters , a very slow, disjointed book, I found it annoying that the chapters had no dates , and had to reread a lot.
The book came together somewhat in its last third, with a predictable ending. Not sure it was worth the slog, sadly not a patch on Janets previous novel The Butchers Hook.

I did find this book hard to "get into", rather disjointed, seemingly to randomly jump between times / dates / people / & places..! It did become clearer towards the end, so pleased that I had plodded on. I would have liked more details in the final chapter, in fact I re-read the last bits as I thought I had missed something.!!

What intrigued me most about this book was the relationship between Marion and Sarah. A subject not often explored in novels, due to it's darkness and that naturally makes it a more difficult read, was the envy and resentfulness felt by Marion towards her daughter. Quite uncomfortable reading at times. Plus also some of Sarah's diary entries made me squirm. The intensity of hatred she felt towards her mother was disturbing - and an unpleasant reveal, obviously intentional as to read someone's diary is pretty dire and thus, as the reader, we should expect to feel uncomfortable or guilty at what we discover. I found it interesting how hard it was for Marion to want her daughter to embrace the world and all it's possibilities - she wouldn't accept the limitations placed on her own life by society and begrudged the opportunities being offered to Sarah purely from a selfish point of view, not from a need to protect or safe guard.
I wanted to ask Janet how she approached the act of writing itself - how strict is she with herself and her time, does she sit down at a desk and simply plug away putting the hours in, or does she use a notepad throughout the day to jot down ideas, or have an idea initially then wait for it to crystallise?

I found the jumping about in time and changes of narrator difficult to follow, but was glad I persevered.
The plot was quite predictable and so the way it was told through descriptive thoughts was needed.
The character I felt most for was Sarah. I remember comparing all the males I knew when I was a teenager. Did Janet use her own teenage memories too?

I too loved this book but also found it incredibly moving. I would like to ask Janet if she found it difficult to write something that was so sad and whether she got caught up in that sadness as she wrote. Thank you for my copy and congratulations on a book that I will not forget for a long time