I love Clare Pooley. Furthermore, I think I've convinced the members of one of my book clubs to love her, too, after they read Iona Iverson's Guide to Commuting. Now Ms. Poole's hit literary gold again with a wonderful London Senior Citizens' Social Club with a most unlikely cast of characters in How To Age Disgracefully (#1244). Besides the intrepid band of seniors, these include a middle-aged woman venturing back into the working world after a long hiatus, a bunch of adorable preschoolers from the day care center that shares their building, and assorted cops, robbers and drug dealers. Even Clare Pooley herself admits to not knowing what was going to happen to them all, but she managed to work it all out in humorous, heartbreaking and totally unexpected ways!
When the ceiling of the Mandel Community Center meeting room collapses during the initial meeting of the Senior Citizens' Social Club, taking out one of its members, everyone else bands together to prevent the City Councilors from razing the building and erecting a posh luxury apartment tower in its place. But where are the people who use the Community Center on a regular basis supposed to go? The Council rep has no answers but tells them they'll need to raise a hundred thousand pounds in a ridiculously short amount of time to have any chance of saving it. The Council certainly didn't count on septuagenarians rising to the challenge. Cake, anyone?
I cannot recommend Ms. Pooley's work highly enough. If you're old enough to join the Senior Citizens' Social Club yourself, you'll appreciate these folks making themselves thoroughly seen again!
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