Mr Rosenblum's List by Natasha Solomons

 

Do you ever cry at the end of a book just because you can't bear saying goodbye to the characters? I sobbed!

This is a book about loss, love, loneliness, wanting to fit in, acceptance, memories, finding happiness. It's both desperately sad and wonderfully happy. A truly lovely book. Mr Rosenblum and his wife escape Nazi Germany and move to London. Mr Rosenblum desperately wants to fit in and be a true English gentleman so he starts creating a list of all the things that he needs to do to achieve this. He believes that golf is the epitome of Englishness but no golf club will have him as he is Jewish so he resolves to build his own course in the country. In the meantime his wife is horribly lonely and depressed. Homesick, unhappy and ignored by her husband, she is sinking lower and lower. Will her husband notice before it is too late?

As an aside, the cover has a quote, "Hilarious". This is the second book I've read that quote on (the previous being "A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian" which is also about loss, loneliness and memories - an old man whose wife has died gets taken in by a younger woman who just wants a visa and money while he just wants company and his two daughters who don't like each other but join forces to get rid of the new wife). I mean sure, they definitely both have their bittersweet moments and occasional smile-raising incidents I even sometimes audibly chuckled but, hilarious?! It makes me wonder what the heck is wrong with the people who think this! At best they seem to have a misunderstanding of what the characters are going through at worst they find the sad and lonely difficulties of immigrants "hilarious". Very odd. 

Anyway, it's a slow burner of a book that sucks you in gradually. I found it insanely annoying to start off with. Mr Rosenblum is so incredibly selfish and totally unaware of what his wife is going through. I wouldn't say he doesn't care, he just doesn't even notice! I really struggled to have any sympathy with him and got really very cross! But something kept me reading and I'm so glad I did. Eventually events come to a head and everyone if forced to face the facts in front of them and by the end I was so hooked up in their lives I didn't want to part from them. 

Really, give it a go and don't be put off by the beginning!