I wanted to like this - it had gotten really fine reviews and has a number of unforeseen plot turns. At times social commentary on ageing, and at times a caustic statement on the self centered lives of middle aged children, there was just something missing. This wasn't an awful book - but not up to the hype or the other books I have read by Moggach. ( )

I chose this for a lighter read and to fit an f2f book group challenge.
Retired, widowed, particle physicist, 85 year old James Wentworth is in need of home care. His two adult children live some distance away and eventually found a suitable live in carer, Mandy. She proves hardworking and enthusiastic in her care of James. Robert and Phoebe, whose own personal lives are far from satisfactory, try to make regular visits and are stunned in the change they perceive in their aging parent. They become suspicious, as does the reader, of Mandy's care and start making inquiries into her background. There is a sudden and unexpected event which reveals all and eventually all story threads are, almost, too neatly tied up. ( )

Siblings Robert (62) and Phoebe (60) are concerned about their 85 year old father James. After a fall renders the upstairs of his house out of bounds to him, they decide they need to hire a carer for him. After a few carers come and go for various reasons, they hire Mandy – hard-working, down to earth and plain speaking (sometimes too much so). Although Mandy’s outdated and somewhat questionable views are completely at odds with those of their father, Robert and Phoebe are grateful to her for her hard work, and pleased that Mandy and James seem to hit it off, with her presence lending him a new lease of life. But then they start to get jealous of her, and suspicious of her motives. Why is she going through their father’s private papers. And why did a previous client of hers leave her a flat in his Will? Is there more to Mandy than meets the eye?

I have mixed feelings about this book. First the narration – no complaints there; Patience Tomlinson did a great job with all characters. The first part of the book – with alternating chapters told from the points of view of Phoebe and Robert – was enjoyable with some amusing moments, and some believable insights into their situation, watching their once distinguished father grow older and frailer, and seeing him much closer to his carer than he often was with them when they were growing up. There is a twist which I genuinely did not see coming, but which set up the change of direction and narrative for the next part of the book, which is told from the points of view of James and other characters (unnamed here for fear of spoilers). I did not enjoy this part of the book anywhere near as much as the first part, and the conclusion when it came was something of an anti-climax.

I don’t doubt that Deborah Moggach can write believable scenarios and characters, and her prose is very engaging but I did feel a slight dissatisfaction with this book in the end. However, I would certainly try something else by this author. ( )

„Sie wussten, dass das Leben chaotisch ist, aber hierauf waren sie nicht vorbereitet gewesen.“ (Zitat Seite 176)

Inhalt
James Wentworth, ein ehemaliger Universitätsprofessor für Teilchenphysik, ist über achtzig Jahre alt. Nach dem Tod seiner Frau, mit der er vierundsechzig Jahre lang verheiratet war, hat er sich völlig zurückgezogen und ist nach einem Sturz auf Hilfe angewiesen. Bisher waren die Haushaltshilfen, die seine Kinder Phoebe und Robert engagiert hatten, nur kurz geblieben, doch dann kam Mandy, fröhlich und bodenständig. Schon nach einer Woche schien es, als sei sie schon immer hier gewesen. Sie unternimmt mit James Ausflüge, besucht Shopping-Center und teilt mit ihm den Kleinstadtklatsch. Er lebt auf und obwohl Phoebe und Robert sehr dankbar sind, dass sie die vorlaute, selbstbewusste Mandy gefunden haben, so bleibt doch ein gewisses Misstrauen dieser Pflegerin gegenüber. Was hat sie im Schreibtisch ihres Vaters gesucht?

Thema und Genre
In diesem Roman geht es um die Familie, um die komplexen, nicht immer einfachen Beziehungen zwischen Eltern und Kindern, um das Leben in einer Kleinstadt und natürlich um das Älterwerden.

Charaktere
Robert, verheiratet, zwei Kinder, ist zweiundsechzig Jahre alt und war früher im Finanzbereich erfolgreich tätig. Seit er den Job verloren hat, schreibt er als Privatier an einem Buch. Phoebe ist Single und Künstlerin. Die finanziell abgesicherte Kindheit der beiden war davon geprägt, dass ihr Vater als erfolgreicher Wissenschaftler oft unterwegs war und selten zu Hause. Dies schwingt auch heute noch in ihrer Beziehung zu ihrem Vater mit. Mandy dagegen wuchs behütet auf, aber unter völlig anderen wirtschaftlichen Bedingungen. Von unvorteilhaftem Aussehen, etwas unbedarft und schrill im Geschmack, dazu ehrlich bis zur Taktlosigkeit, ist sie das genaue Gegenteil der Mitglieder der Familie Wentworth.

Handlung und Schreibstil
Das Buch ist in drei übergeordnete Teile geteilt und in der personalen Erzählform geschrieben. Teil Eins, der längste Teil, stellt abwechselnd Phoebe und Robert in den Mittelpunkt der einzelnen Kapitel. Teil Zwei spielt in der Vergangenheit, jedoch nicht in Form von Erinnerungen. Hier stehen James und der Personenkreis aus der damaligen Zeit im Mittelpunkt, während Teil Drei ein Jahr nach den Ereignissen von Teil Eins spielt und wieder aus Sicht von Phoebe oder Robert geschrieben ist. Alle Kapitel tragen den jeweiligen Namen als Überschrift, dadurch ist die Handlung sehr klar und gut lesbar strukturiert. Auch die Sprache, in diesem Fall die übersetzte Sprache, ist angenehm und flüssig zu lesen passt zu dieser Mischung aus ernsten und humorvollen Szenen in der Geschichte.

Fazit
Ein Roman über das Älterwerden und das sensible und doch komplexe Gefüge, das wir Familie nennen, um unterschiedliche Sichtweisen der Realität und um damit verbundene Geheimnisse. Auf Grund des Klappentextes hatte ich eher eine Geschichte über eine geerdete, eigenwillige Pflegerin und einen alten, eigenbrötlerischen Professor erwartet, doch das macht nur einen kleinen Teil dieses Romans aus. ( )

At first I didn’t know what to make of ‘The Carer’ by Deborah Moggach. She travels a fine comic line nudging towards simplistic or tasteless stereotypes. But then, as she did in ‘These Foolish Things’, the novel finds its stride. In two parts, Moggach takes her original portrayal of this family, shows it through different eyes, and turns it upside down.
In Part One we meet widower James Wentworth, OBE, 85, retired particle physicist, living downstairs in his home after breaking a hip; and his live-in carer Mandy, 50, from Solihull. ‘Mandy hummed show tunes as the kettle boiled. ‘Blood Brothers’ was her favourite, about two boys separated at birth. She said she had seen it three times and blubbed like a baby.’ Mandy is fat, jolly, is a chatterer, and says it as she finds it.
Part One is told from the alternating viewpoints of James’ children. Unfulfilled artist Phoebe, 60, lives in a Welsh village in the area where she had many happy childhood holidays. Robert, 62, former City trader, is now writing a novel in his garden shed in Wimbledon, while married to a television newsreader. Our first impressions of their father, and of Mandy, are filtered through their middle class worries and prejudices. Both harbour resentments about their father’s absences when they were children when he travelled the world for work; resentments that straight-talker Mandy tells them they should have got over years ago.
Mandy is truly a catalyst of change, not just for James but for Robert and Phoebe too.
The situation is a believable one faced in today’s society as we all live longer. James in his eighties needs full-time care, his children are already retired. A succession of carers has come and gone, each unsatisfactory in one way or another. When Mandy arrives she seems an angel. Initially, Phoebe and Robert put aside the class differences as Mandy cares for their father so well. The daily walk to the nearby donkey sanctuary or trip to Lidl for pots of flavoured mousse, soon become day trips to Bicester Village and eating at Nando’s. Initially thriving under Mandy’s care with daily scratchcards and a chirping kitchen clock, James seems more forgetful so when Robert’s daughter sees the papers from James’ desk upstairs in a mess, they fear the worst. Why is Mandy looking in their father’s private documents. Can she be trusted. And what has prompted James’ sudden mental and physical decline. The twist which comes halfway through is masterful.
Part Two is James’ story, starting from his life as a young father and married to Anna. One day he attends a conference in Cardiff. What happens there affects the rest of his life, but in ways even he cannot have predicted. At the end there is one more twist, unexpected, that once again casts Robert and Phoebe’s understanding of their lives into a whirlwind.
At the heart of this novel is the question, can you ever really know someone. Whether with a stranger or a long-loved family member, don’t we all sub-consciously present different faces to different people. It is easy to assume we know someone because of the public face they present to the world, but the inner thoughts of other people, even our closest relatives - and often their marriages - are always a mystery.
Littered with throwaway quotes from Shakespeare, this is on the surface a quick, contemporary read (only 272 pages) which also casts a light on the prejudices, snobberies and problems of modern society. It is billed as a comic novel but it did not make me laugh. I was left feeling vaguely disappointed.
Read more of my book reviews at http://www.sandradanby.com/book-reviews-a-z/ ( )