This is Gloria's story, told to us in flashbacks and glimmers of suppressed memories from her chair in her old folks home. Gloria is one of the best characters in a book that I have ever come across and her story is in turns both hilarious and heartbreaking. Highly recommended. ( )

Hang on to love, I used to think.
Now I thought; it's not love you grab, it's any kind of a future, any kind you can make out of what's left of yourself.
And him? The great movie-star, Mr GI Joe, one Yank and they're off? Mr Oversexed, Overpaid and Over Here?
Well, it wasn't about love, was it. Not any more. We were beyond that now, weren't we.

Another wonderful book from this author, and yet again completely different from the other three of hers that I have read, which is why she is one of my favourite authors.

In World War II Gloria is a young munitions worker in Bristol, sharing the family home with her older sister Marje while their father is fighting in the Far East. Her boyfriend Ron is an American airman, while Marje's long-term boyfriend Bob is in the RAF. Sixty-odd years later, Gloria lives in the Sea View old people's home and is visited by her son Hank, who tries to get her to remember the old days and admit what really happened all those years ago. ( )

Gloria is an old lady in a home, prone to being racists and a bit homophobic, and verbally abusive to her relatives. She's also been suppressing a lot of stuff that happened near the end of WWII, like what happened with her sister and Ron and babies. The story jumps back and forth between present day and the past, and the secrets are slowly revealed as she remembers and admits what happened. It reminded me a bit of The Night Watch by Sarah Waters. ( )

The things normal people got up to in the war. Good girl Gloria falls for a GI and learns to be bad with disastrous consequences.

Told in flashback, Gloria is now an old lady and installed in an old nursing home due to, her son Hank, thinks dementia or even mad cow disease. Gloria however is not senile at all, just supressing all the bad stuff and is preparing to die and join her friend Doris. Hank, who has grown up without a father is desperate to find out where he comes from.

The author serves this sad story up with large helpings of really black humour, some sick jokes, and loads of sex! Gloria, once relieved of her virginity was a bit of a one-woman shagging machine. It won't be a surprise to you to find out she gets pregnant and abandoned by her man, but I won't say any more.

This is an extremely intelligent novel that shows, to use the words of the Rolling Stones, "You can't always get what you want, you get what you need." With the young men all away fighting, rationing, bombs and death all around, wartime brought different values to the fore as you might die tomorrow. Contrasting against that with the contemporary strand of the story is a bit of a dig about how we treat our elderly folk. You're taken with Gloria all the way through all the ups and downs of life's rollercoaster - quirky, funny, sad - a fantastic read. ( )

I loved this book. It's the third Liz Jensen book I've read now and I love her quirkiness, her characters really draw you in.

Will be looking for more in the library. ( )