A genuinely fun read about the relationship between a young American woman and a middle-aged englishman. The range of passions is wide, the outcome always in question, but the prose, the dialogue, frees one to enjoy oneself thoroughly. ( )

Not what I was expecting. I thought it would be some sort of scandalous affair and its after effects. There was certainly gossipy scandalous behaviour with some sex and drugs thrown in. There were messy relationship changes and dramatic consequences to family members. The narrator's delayed revelation was well played, I was wondering what she was up to for quite a bit.

I waited to read the author's Introduction (added to the reprint) until after I had finished the novel. That was a good choice and gave me more to think about as well. I find I can't discuss much without spoilers so I'll put those after the divider below.

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The book is very un-admiring of Brits and Britain. So much so that I felt a little lost at the beginning. I'm such an anglophile and this person didn't seem to like *anything* she was experiencing. At the same time I recognized the desperate loneliness of staying in a hotel as a foreigner with no roots, no resources in an unfamiliar city. The Introduction makes it plain that there was some sincere un-appreciation of post war London.

The jazz folks in the last third are racist caricatures, they are given some personality but the names Jinkie and Jimbo are hard to swallow.

I expected the young woman / older man steps of seduction story. But the way that she was so in his thrall and admired his faults as much as his virtues was surprising. I liked the semi-justice at the end of his gifting her half the loot and shutting off the affair. She takes her loot and her broken heart and goes back to NYC to apparently pace the floors and write this memoir. Is that what an anti-hero does? Maybe she had run out of anti social behavior by then.

The Betsy Lou / Honey impersonation and overtaking happens in lots of layers. How does our protag really feel about Honey Flood taking over her publishing job in her absence? That was an interesting bit of reversal and over-writing at the end. ( )

It's been a long time since a book surprised me as many times as this one. Very refreshing. And what an interesting snapshot of a place in time! The Old Man and Me was quirky, unusual and altogether fun. ( )

It's been a long time since a book surprised me as many times as this one. Very refreshing. And what an interesting snapshot of a place in time! The Old Man and Me was quirky, unusual and altogether fun. ( )

Introductions to books often bore me, I'll admit it. I'm the one who will skip them nine times out of ten. For some reason I didn't skip Dundy's introduction to The Old Man and Me and I'm very glad I didn't. I appreciated her explanation of who Honey Flood is, why Honey is the way she is (think Jessica Rabbit, "I'm not bad. I'm just drawn that way"), and why she wanted Honey that way. Dundy wants her reader to know the purpose of Honey in Old Man is as a response to the male anti-heroes of the era. By creating the female counterpart, Honey Flood is the Angry Young Woman who hates everything English. Additionally, Miss Flood is opinionated, hot-tempered, easy annoyed, more often than not, sarcastically irritated and a liar to boot. As Dundy explains, "But what I hope I had going for me is that Bad Girls are more interesting that Good ones" (p ix). Amen to that. So, about Honey...she's out to seduce an older man. She'll go to great lengths to land an interview with him, including befriending people she can't stand. Why? He married her stepmother after her father's death and by default (stepmum later committed suicide), has all Honey's inheritance. In short, Honey wants her money back. True to Dundy's intro, Honey is nothing short of nasty. There were surprises within Old Man and Me that popped up unexpectedly. ( )