Three Women and a Boat

Eve Warburton and Sally Allsop didn’t usually walk on the towpath, but today was different. Strangers to one another, soon to pass as they walked in opposite directions. However, they couldn’t help but talk to one another, questioning ear-splitting noise from a narrowboat they were about to pass as it was parked on the side of the canal. After the noise, sitting together and discussing their actions of spontaneity, the boat owner returns. Eve and Sally learn her name is Anastasia, and the name of the noise now missing is Noah. Waiting for Noah, Anatasia, Eve, and Sally have tea together on “Number One.” Tea and conversation. A conversation that leads to Anatasia’s proposal. A proposal that changes all their lives. show more Easy.

Browsing on my Kindle, I was drawn to pause to enjoy the beautiful watercolor of the designed book cover that welcomed thoughts of summer on a narrowboat. As I wondered what the story might be, I added the title to my tbr list without reading the description. I later realized that I had read the author’s debut novel, “Meet Me at the Museum,” and I was even more excited to read the book. I loved this story, too, for entirely different reasons.

As the 3 women embark on the following weeks of their lives, the reader discovers more about their past life experiences and relationships simultaneous to moving forward. It is a story of friendship but so much more. It brings to life the questions women ask themselves instigated by a life-threatening diagnosis, or the loss of a job, or the boredom of routine as the remains of an empty nest might not be enough. It is the strength and courage to embrace change. It is trusting another to speak freely, to listen and reply unfiltered, even if the conversation sometimes ends abruptly.

With atmospheric writing, the reader is showered with the intricacies of living on a narrowboat, from the work of traversing the canal locks of England to experiences along the way from the beauty of nature to meeting other boat owners to shopping in small towns for groceries, or for the change of eating a meal at a pub.

A well-written story, beautifully simple, and beautifully complex. I didn’t want the journey to end. I hope my review entices you to step onto Anatasia’s narrowboat.

Discussion Questions are available at the end of the novel. show less

Meanderings to relish!

I so enjoyed Narrowboat Summer. A very different read. A story to savor. A quiet winner. Three women meet on a tow path just out of London and for two their lives change forever.
A fabulous cast of eccentric characters and two middle aged women. Sally had just walked out on her marriage and Eve had been let go from her job as an engineer.
Walking from different directions along the tow path the women happen to intersect with each other and Anastasia, a hardened canal boat owner who’s worked the canals and locks for years.
Eve and Sally find themselves deciding to help Anastasia out of a problem, crewing on her narrowboat The Number One, learning the locks and the rhythms of the river, before taking it to a boatyard show more at Chester whilst Anastasia took care of some health needs. This was the start of a journey measured in days not hours, a journey of the soul.
And that's what drew me on! The people, the rhythms, the slow winding down and calming that takes place as the women undergo their own particular canal change (sea change!)
This read was whimsical, deep, and slow moving like the canals, and I flowed along with it as the women learned more about themselves, as they interacted with each other, (they are total opposites) and with the very different people they encounter. All the while Anastasia is the anchor, the pivot point around whom they all flow and eddy.
This just might become one of my favorite reads of 2021 as it invoked calm into the happenstances Eve and Sally are challenged by. A certain mindfulness is at play.
I loved the talented Trompette and the mysterious Arthur.
I felt liked I'd stepped back in time. I hadn't! I'd stepped away from the rat race. Even the lyrical cover reflects a different world. One could conceive that all the characters are lost and adrift but that's far from the truth. Their truths are so much more at once complex and yet sanely simple. Beautifully paced!

A Flatiron ARC via NetGalley show less

This delightful summer read is blend of a pilgrimage story and a little bit of epistolary book, though the "epistles' take the form of phone calls. Three women in late middle age, heretofore unknown to one another, are at turning points in their lives. Eve is an engineer who finds herself out of work. Sally is a homemaker who had decided to leave a loveless marriage, and Anastasia is facing a health crisis. Anastasia needs someone to get her narrowboat to the repair shop while she gets treatment for lung cancer. Eve and Sally volunteer to take on the narrowboat over 300 miles of canals while Anastasia uses Eve's apartment during her treatment.

As Sally and Eve learn the ropes of boating Britain's historic canals, they do the kind of show more reflection that only comes with travel and separation from one's everyday routines. The author does a brilliant job of sharing those reflections as they learn to appreciate their differences as well as developing insight into themselves.

A number of other characters enter to create a community. The story is reminiscent of the Mason Missouri books by Elizabeth Berg ([The Story of Arthur Truluv], [Night of Miracles], [The Confession Club]) I suspect that Maureen Corrigan might classify this one as geezer lit....and that's okay with me. show less

On the day that Sally decides that she is definitely going to leave her husband and change her life she walks home along the canal towpath. Coming in the opposite direction is Eve, just made redundant from her high-flying corporate job and determined to change her life. Both try to rescue a dog they believe is trapped on a narrow boat and this chance encounter will provide the stimulus for a new beginning.
Although this is a very gentle book, it does explore some big themes. Both Eve and Sally are going through a mid-life crisis and this is explored in detail. I also loved the juxtaposition between both their lives, different but predictable, and that of Anastasia, a free-er spirit, and Trompette, her younger counterpart. Men are really show more a big feature here, the key male characters are all peripheral. This is a book for women of certain age but it is no less enjoyable because of that. show less

This quiet, charming book was a welcome reprieve from the heavy reading I’ve been doing.

Eve has just been fired from her long-time job with an engineering firm. Sally has just walked away from her marriage. The two meet each other and another woman, Anastasia, who makes her home on a canal boat. Anastasia needs to receive some medical care in Uxbridge so Eve and Sally agree to take the boat to Chester for maintenance. As they navigate the canals (and locks and tunnels), Eve and Sally embark on a journey of self-discovery.

The inciting incident requires some suspension of disbelief. The meeting of the three women is certainly a chance event. Two women who don’t know each other agree to travel together for weeks and navigate a canal show more boat for not a short distance? Anastasia entrusts her beloved boat to two strangers with no experience of boats? I remember being taught that the inciting incident is the one event that can rely on chance or coincidence if it brings together people to develop theme. That’s definitely the case in this book.

The book brings together Eve and Sally who are opposites in many ways. Eve has always been the one in control, whereas Sally feels she has not really had any control over her life. The canal trip forces them to slow down and gives them time to reflect on their lives. They face new challenges and come to realize they have abilities they didn’t know they had. They take up new interests and a friendship develops between them.

Anastasia is an unforgettable character. Fierce and fiercely independent, she has to learn to accept help from others. Her bluntness is off-putting, but the reader gradually sees new depths to her character. The other characters the women encounter (especially Trompette, Arthur, and Owen) are all distinct. Each has an interesting backstory. Even Noah, Anastasia’s dog, provides humour and suspense.

The novel is about the power of friendship and about second chances. The women are middle-aged but they learn and grow. The challenges they face in an unfamiliar situation bring them together, despite their opposite personalities. They also realize they are capable people who can create new lives, hopefully lives that will bring them more contentment.

Reading this book is like taking a leisurely canal journey. It has its challenges, some funny and some more serious, but overall is enjoyable. Though not action-packed, the novel is thoughtful. And its overarching message is that we are all extraordinary in ordinary ways. I listened to this as an audiobook on my morning walks and it was a perfect way to begin each day.

Note: Please check out my reader's blog (https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/) and follow me on Twitter (@DCYakabuski). show less

The Narrowboat Summer - Youngson
Audio performance by Helen Lloyd
4 stars

This was a nice vacation. I enjoyed the atmosphere of the narrowboat lifestyle. I had to accept the unlikely meeting and even more unlikely friendship of three different women, but it was relaxing to read a book about people who take care of each other. I loved the female curmudgeon, Anastasia, and her dog, NOah. I liked them enough to overlook my minor complaints with character development and dialog.

This book about three unlikely friends was kind of charming, slow, and peaceful (like the canals). Three middle-aged women are each at a crossroads in their life and they bond over the course of a summer. Two of them navigate the inland waterways on Number One while its owner is laid up in hospital. Lives are reflected upon and bonds are formed. (That sounds cheesy; it kind of is.)

The story is not that compelling, and this is because despite some attempts at nuance, the three main characters are all kind of cliches in their various ways. But I was happy just to go along with them. There are so few books set on the canals and it's a pleasure to find one that evokes that well. Youngson did a really nice job evoking the mode of travel. Not show more just the sights and sounds of the canal but the actual bodily feeling of navigating and being on a narrowboat are well written.

I don't think it will be a particularly memorable book, but it was enjoyable while it lasted. show less