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Melting Moments
It is 1941. Eighteen-year-old Ruby leaves behind the family farm, her serious mother and roguish father, and heads for Adelaide. After a brief courtship, she enters into a hasty marriage with a soldier about to go to war – who returns a changed man.
In this absorbing novel, Anna Goldsworthy recreates the world of Adelaide half a century ago, and portrays the phases of a woman’s life with intimacy and sly humour. We follow Ruby as she contends with her damaged husband and eccentric in-laws. We see her experience motherhood and changing social circumstances, until, in a moving twist, a figure from the past reappears, to kindle a late-life romance.
In her captivating fiction debut, Goldsworthy evokes a woman’s life in a pre-feminist world. In this tender, funny book, she combines an Austenesque wit with Alice Munro’s feeling for human complexity.
In this absorbing novel, Anna Goldsworthy recreates the world of Adelaide half a century ago, and portrays the phases of a woman’s life with intimacy and sly humour. We follow Ruby as she contends with her damaged husband and eccentric in-laws. We see her experience motherhood and changing social circumstances, until, in a moving twist, a figure from the past reappears, to kindle a late-life romance.
In her captivating fiction debut, Goldsworthy evokes a woman’s life in a pre-feminist world. In this tender, funny book, she combines an Austenesque wit with Alice Munro’s feeling for human complexity.
244 pages, Paperback
Published March 3, 2020
46 people are currently reading
333 people want to read
About the author
Anna Goldsworthy
15 books70 followersAnna Goldsworthy is an Australian classical pianist and writer. In October 2009 her memoir Piano Lessons was released in Australia by publisher Black Inc. In November 2010 it will be published in the US by St Martin's Press (Macmillian). From 2010 she will be Artistic Director of the Port Fairy Spring Music Festival. Anna is also a Board Member of the Australian Book Review, Artist-in-Residence at Janet Clarke Hall at the University of Melbourne, and a founding member of the Seraphim Trio.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 55 reviews
March 9, 2020
This was such a charming read. I found myself fighting tears at times and laughing aloud at others. Goldsworthy’s prose are easy to read and evocative, and she has a beautiful turn of phrase. I loved reading about a story set within the city in which I live. Ruby and Arthur made me think of my own grandma and grandpa, who also danced at the Palais and began their marriage in the devastating shadow of WWII.
April 17, 2020
A beautiful read bringing us a tale of enduring love that spans a lifetime. It is a tender and gentle novel that highlights that true love - all the hard bits and the boring bits - cannot be measured or overlooked. It's the moments that are shared between a couple, the unspoken and respectful ones, as well as the surprising and difficult ones that add up to a lifelong testament of commitment and the promises made to each other.
It is also a fine, quiet and reassuring portrait of a woman travelling through the decades - growing into love and finding it again, family, independence as well as the ups and downs of having to depend on others later in life.
Loved it, it will be one of my favourites for the year.
It is also a fine, quiet and reassuring portrait of a woman travelling through the decades - growing into love and finding it again, family, independence as well as the ups and downs of having to depend on others later in life.
Loved it, it will be one of my favourites for the year.
May 29, 2020
'Melting Moments' are super-sweet biscuits, which are totally delicious but are cloyingly sweet if you eat too many of them. They are a good metaphor for Anna Goldsworthy's venture into writing fiction.
Ruby Jenkins marries in patriotic haste during WW2, because that's what women did in those days. (Or so this book would have you believe). She has been to charm school, learned the importance of having a feminine presence, and is ready to please a man because that's how things are. (Or so this book would have you believe.) She has a tiresome caricature of a mother-in-law, who conforms to all the stereotypes, because that's how mothers-in-law were. (Or so this book would have you believe.) And eventually, she has a Whitlam-era daughter, who rebels against conservative norms and has A Life of Her Own. (Or so this book would have you believe.) On and off, Ruby questions her missed opportunities, which mostly revolve around men (and not, for instance, on whether she might have taken advantage of the Whitlam reforms to get herself the education that she missed out on, and then take up the late-start career that launched so many of us into independence and self-fulfilment).
Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique aside, we all know women who did not conform to these stereotypes, and Melting Moments would be a much more interesting novel if the characterisation cast a wider net to include them.
(My late MIL, born in 1924, for instance, was at Monash at the same time as The Spouse, and graduated with her Bachelor of Social Work in 1978, thanks to Whitlam who gave women these opportunities by making university free.)
There is a novel waiting to be written about the tectonic shifts in social norms that took place in the sixties and seventies. The relationship between mothers who missed out and daughters who didn't is also well worth exploring in fiction. But the relentlessly domestic Melting Moments is not that book.
To see links to professional reviewers who disagree with me, please visit my blog https://anzlitlovers.com/2020/05/29/m...
Ruby Jenkins marries in patriotic haste during WW2, because that's what women did in those days. (Or so this book would have you believe). She has been to charm school, learned the importance of having a feminine presence, and is ready to please a man because that's how things are. (Or so this book would have you believe.) She has a tiresome caricature of a mother-in-law, who conforms to all the stereotypes, because that's how mothers-in-law were. (Or so this book would have you believe.) And eventually, she has a Whitlam-era daughter, who rebels against conservative norms and has A Life of Her Own. (Or so this book would have you believe.) On and off, Ruby questions her missed opportunities, which mostly revolve around men (and not, for instance, on whether she might have taken advantage of the Whitlam reforms to get herself the education that she missed out on, and then take up the late-start career that launched so many of us into independence and self-fulfilment).
Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique aside, we all know women who did not conform to these stereotypes, and Melting Moments would be a much more interesting novel if the characterisation cast a wider net to include them.
(My late MIL, born in 1924, for instance, was at Monash at the same time as The Spouse, and graduated with her Bachelor of Social Work in 1978, thanks to Whitlam who gave women these opportunities by making university free.)
There is a novel waiting to be written about the tectonic shifts in social norms that took place in the sixties and seventies. The relationship between mothers who missed out and daughters who didn't is also well worth exploring in fiction. But the relentlessly domestic Melting Moments is not that book.
To see links to professional reviewers who disagree with me, please visit my blog https://anzlitlovers.com/2020/05/29/m...
November 22, 2020
A gentle, lovely novel that tells the story of a woman's life as the 21st century unfurls around her. It felt a bit flat at the start, but it got richer and deeper as it went on.
March 9, 2021
4.5 Stars
This was a quick but affecting read. I was caught off guard but I should have been prepared for it with the book being blurbed by esteemed Australian authors of the like of Joan London and Alex Miller.
Filled with quiet comforting nostalgia, it's the story of a gentle life filled with comfort and endless family duty. I felt like it could have been a story recounted by my Grandmothers and my 74 year old Mum around the kitchen table over endless cups of tea.
Gently beautiful and quite restorative.
This was a quick but affecting read. I was caught off guard but I should have been prepared for it with the book being blurbed by esteemed Australian authors of the like of Joan London and Alex Miller.
Filled with quiet comforting nostalgia, it's the story of a gentle life filled with comfort and endless family duty. I felt like it could have been a story recounted by my Grandmothers and my 74 year old Mum around the kitchen table over endless cups of tea.
Gently beautiful and quite restorative.
March 23, 2020
There were some beautiful moments described among the series of all-too-quickly-dealt-with moments in Ruby Jenkins’ life. However, Goldsworthy tied to cram into her novel too many of Ruby’s years, too many of her moments of self-doubt and contemplation whether the life she had led was “enough”. The portrait of Ruby’s journey started with her hasty wartime marriage to Arthur and followed her through the next 60+ years. And, although the world and attitudes around Ruby had changed, her roles as the dutiful daughter, wife and mother remained somewhat stagnant. It was not that she was unhappy, rather that she wondered about the other paths her life might have taken.
Unfortunately, I got dizzy from the rapid change of time, the passage of time as the author “flew” through significant moments in Ruby’s life. Goldsworthy’s character was well-drawn in each of these “moments”; yet, I would have preferred a more concentrated portrait of significant times, more time spent on selected snapshots, rather than such a rushed collection of fleeting years. As well, the contrived relationship at the end forced together all the loose ends of Ruby’s story, rendering it melodramatic.
Unfortunately, I got dizzy from the rapid change of time, the passage of time as the author “flew” through significant moments in Ruby’s life. Goldsworthy’s character was well-drawn in each of these “moments”; yet, I would have preferred a more concentrated portrait of significant times, more time spent on selected snapshots, rather than such a rushed collection of fleeting years. As well, the contrived relationship at the end forced together all the loose ends of Ruby’s story, rendering it melodramatic.
July 21, 2021
A quick snapshot of a woman's life from finding her first love to significant events such as marriage, children, home ownership and death of a spouse. Along the way it explored family relationships and what life may have been like if another path was chosen. This novel packed it all in.
March 13, 2021
I got through it. A sentimental waste of good writing ability. I hung on for about the first half thinking it was going somewhere, thinking it would interrupt it's own phallocentrism and compulsory heterosexuality. I don't mean go fully queer but just let Ruby centre herself and female relationships for a change.
It beginnings in a frustrating wedding night that is given us in an amount of detail not spent on things like birth, careers or pretty much anything apart from marital sex (and voyeurism) in the novel. This centres the book on the disappointment to be found in penises, the eternal deferral of women's desire which nevertheless seems to relentlessly centre back on men. Ruby has a job at one point - about a paragraph is spent on that. But Ruby making herself beautiful for faceless, personality less women and especially for men is at the centre as is Ruby putting herself last to look after Arthur's desires and tropishly horrible mother and Ruby returning again and again to dreams of Bill (I think it was). There is reflection in the book about what is a woman and what is a man and the conclusions are very unsatisfactory even for the generation they are concluded for.
I am not arguing that women did not have a life much like Ruby's centred on the family, on the house, on domesticity. I just argue with the lack of art, culture, literature, career, philosophy, spirituality or anything else- there is a garden but even that seems more domestic than an interest. Surely her inner self should have glimpses of something other than unselfish wife vs potential cheating wife (which she did not attempt to enact). I also wonder where are any female relationships other than mother-daughter? Why is her sister side-lined so early? Why are her friends just foils for meeting men or showing off her superior beauty? Why after the horrible mother in law dies must the next potential female relationship (the neighbour) also become one of enmity? This reads like a long-winded advert for the phallocentric life with it's sentimental conclusions always that disappointment is OK because it is infused with love and with making Eva's challenges of the status quo both failures and short-lived.
We hear of Eva's marriage and child. She had given up her career for these. Very late in the book it is mentioned that she'd gone back to her career. That's an afterthought not the focus, Ruby keeps musing back to Ned. What of Charlie? Does he have a partner or children? We are not told. One sentence looks like it might be steering us toward him being gay but probably that was just my wish to interrupt the stereotypical view for a second. We are simply not told about his personal life because men are defined (in the book) by deeds/occupations. Women are defined by who they marry or fail to be married to and who they beget.
I do think the writing itself was good and I was so wishing for a book set in Adelaide. I have read a few books of Adelaide and they are always so backward looking (ideologically). I'd be keen for a progressive or speculative book set in Adelaide but this wasn't it.
It beginnings in a frustrating wedding night that is given us in an amount of detail not spent on things like birth, careers or pretty much anything apart from marital sex (and voyeurism) in the novel. This centres the book on the disappointment to be found in penises, the eternal deferral of women's desire which nevertheless seems to relentlessly centre back on men. Ruby has a job at one point - about a paragraph is spent on that. But Ruby making herself beautiful for faceless, personality less women and especially for men is at the centre as is Ruby putting herself last to look after Arthur's desires and tropishly horrible mother and Ruby returning again and again to dreams of Bill (I think it was). There is reflection in the book about what is a woman and what is a man and the conclusions are very unsatisfactory even for the generation they are concluded for.
I am not arguing that women did not have a life much like Ruby's centred on the family, on the house, on domesticity. I just argue with the lack of art, culture, literature, career, philosophy, spirituality or anything else- there is a garden but even that seems more domestic than an interest. Surely her inner self should have glimpses of something other than unselfish wife vs potential cheating wife (which she did not attempt to enact). I also wonder where are any female relationships other than mother-daughter? Why is her sister side-lined so early? Why are her friends just foils for meeting men or showing off her superior beauty? Why after the horrible mother in law dies must the next potential female relationship (the neighbour) also become one of enmity? This reads like a long-winded advert for the phallocentric life with it's sentimental conclusions always that disappointment is OK because it is infused with love and with making Eva's challenges of the status quo both failures and short-lived.
We hear of Eva's marriage and child. She had given up her career for these. Very late in the book it is mentioned that she'd gone back to her career. That's an afterthought not the focus, Ruby keeps musing back to Ned. What of Charlie? Does he have a partner or children? We are not told. One sentence looks like it might be steering us toward him being gay but probably that was just my wish to interrupt the stereotypical view for a second. We are simply not told about his personal life because men are defined (in the book) by deeds/occupations. Women are defined by who they marry or fail to be married to and who they beget.
I do think the writing itself was good and I was so wishing for a book set in Adelaide. I have read a few books of Adelaide and they are always so backward looking (ideologically). I'd be keen for a progressive or speculative book set in Adelaide but this wasn't it.
May 31, 2021
I couldn't get into this although I glimpsed some greatness. Not sure if it was the book itself or just covid.
June 6, 2021
A Very gentle story
September 17, 2020
I loved this novel. Anna Goldsworthy writes with tenderness and restraint. Beautiful.
April 11, 2020
This book should have touched me more. It is a coverage of a life from 21 to 82. But, it whooshed along so quickly that I felt like I never really got to know the main characters. We never find out why Arthur is sent home from the war. I loved the idea of the changing landscape and opinions, but each event was briskly dealt with and we moved on. The detail of life was good, and Mrs. Jenkins was a treat. I liked the idea of late life love, with all its attendant problems.
October 21, 2020
3.5 stars rounded down. Beautifully written with convincing characters and an interesting insight into suburban life across the 20th century, but I found myself wanting more. What happened to Arthur during the war? What did Ruby - or do we - learn from Bill other than what she’s missed out on? What is moral of or values beneath the story? Some mystery adds to intrigue but in the absence of resolution I would at least like some more explicit questions for us to ponder or quandaries to ponder within our own lives, as with other books I’ve recently read that follow women through the decades, such as “Mrs Everything” or “Girl, Woman, Other”. Also I struggled to relate to Ruby (meandering along, so focussed on keeping up appearances at the expense of her own happiness or wellbeing of her kids), but maybe that says more about me than the book.
“Melting Moments” aims to be quiet and real - and it is - but for me it doesn’t leave enough behind for the reader to reflect on or savour. Good perhaps for readers who enjoy quiet Australian literature.
“Melting Moments” aims to be quiet and real - and it is - but for me it doesn’t leave enough behind for the reader to reflect on or savour. Good perhaps for readers who enjoy quiet Australian literature.
October 6, 2020
Ruby is a pain.
August 26, 2020
During World War Two, 18 year old Ruby Whiting, an ever-practical lady, always striving for what is right and proper, leaves behind the family farm, her serious mother and roguish father, and heads for Adelaide, where she finds board and attends business college to become a secretary. One particular night, she goes with some friends to the Palais and meets bookkeeper Arthur Jenkins. After a brief courtship, she and Arthur marry and he leaves to serve his country during the war in the Pacific Theatre-however he gets suddenly discharged after some time and returns home a changed man. Readers follow Ruby as she contends with her damaged husband and an eccentric mother in law. With an eyebrow pencil in one hand and gardening shears in the other, Ruby navigates the intervening years doing her duty as a woman, allowing marriage and motherhood to fill her with purpose and pleasure-and occasionally wondering, Is this all there is? As she also finds employment in the Department of Aircraft Production, telegraph operator for the GPO and collecting data for the ABS.She and Arthur have two children, Eva and Charlie, and Ruby experiences the changing social expectations that come with the swinging 60s, until, in a moving twist, a figure from the past reappears, to kindle a late life romance. In this moving and captivating tale, the author recreates the cities of Adelaide and Melbourne 50 years ago, thus bringing a family to life as they move through the decades, challenging and caring for and loving one another, often in surprising ways.
April 23, 2024
I’ve been wanting to read this book for ages because I like Anna Goldsworthy and finally did but I was a bit disappointed. I thought it was really well written but the story was a bit boring for me but then again I am a fantasy reader mainly.
I also don’t often read fiction books set in the 1940s or 50s as they usually include romantic type war stories and it doesn’t really interest me.
This was a little different in the sense it didn’t delve into war but more so the life of a Ruby as wife and her quick marriage before Arthur went to PNG.
I just found her life quite dreary and it reminded me of how glad I am to be born later and not in those times. Goldsworthy has said it basically stories of her Grandmother and that’s fine but I needed more and thought it probably missed some potential of creative enhancement, it is fiction after all.
I didn’t find it much of a love story as much as more a life of make do.
I also don’t often read fiction books set in the 1940s or 50s as they usually include romantic type war stories and it doesn’t really interest me.
This was a little different in the sense it didn’t delve into war but more so the life of a Ruby as wife and her quick marriage before Arthur went to PNG.
I just found her life quite dreary and it reminded me of how glad I am to be born later and not in those times. Goldsworthy has said it basically stories of her Grandmother and that’s fine but I needed more and thought it probably missed some potential of creative enhancement, it is fiction after all.
I didn’t find it much of a love story as much as more a life of make do.
April 5, 2020
Having enjoyed Anna Goldsworthy's non-fiction writing I was looking forward to this, her first novel and I wasn't disappointed. The story of Ruby, from a young woman leaving home for the first time, meeting a young soldier during WWII, and their subsequent lives together over the years, it is one with many familiar settings. I was reminded often of my mother, not so much in the relationship with her husband, but in her role as homemaker and what might seem to many a 'small' life lived with her family, home and garden. There are many poignant moments ( as she lowers her husband's ashes into a hole in the ground and wonders 'how can this be the man I have known all these years'?)
A gentle, rewarding story.
A gentle, rewarding story.
June 28, 2020
I can understand why others may have rated this book more highly but for me the overwhelming sadness of the depiction of the times and characters made it difficult for me to like the book. None of the characters, except Ruby and Arthur's 2 children, were happy well adjusted people getting on with life. Was Arthur typical of men of his time? Such a self centred person! Ruby seemed to live in world of denial. I couldn't understand why she married Arthur. She didn't love him -it just seemed that marrying him was the next thing to do in her life. Again, this was possibly not unusual for the time for many women. Perhaps this is the point of the book- a depiction of an era in which my own mother lived, married and made a life.
August 27, 2020
I loved Anna Goldsworthy's memoirs and, of course, her piano playing - what talents she has! From reading early reviews and from the title, I somehow expected "Melting Moments" to be linked short stories. I was also misled by seeing it on a list of books featuring music, which it does not. What I did find is a debut novel, rather episodic, but beautifully written and wonderfully evocative of its time and place. The characters, the dialogue, the behavioural norms, the food and the clothes are all spot-on, and the relationships ring true throughout.With her main character, Ruby, Goldsworthy shows what can be done with a life lived on a very small stage, and her depiction of an unconsummated wedding night is much more touching and believable than Ian McEwan's in "On Chesil Beach". Enjoy!
November 27, 2020
Melting moments is Australian writer and concert pianist Anna Goldsworthy’s debut novel, following her highly successful memoir of a decade ago, Piano lessons.
Melting moments – for those not familiar with this Antipodean classic – are little shortbread-based biscuits (cookies) sandwiched together with buttercream. In titling her book by these little treats, with the added intimation of moments that melt our heart, Goldsworthy flags the tone and subject matter of her book. The tone is going to be gentle, and the subject matter domestic. The question is: does this make for an interesting book, or just a sweet one?
Overall, I’d say interesting. But, for my full review, please check out https://whisperinggums.com/2020/11/27...
Melting moments – for those not familiar with this Antipodean classic – are little shortbread-based biscuits (cookies) sandwiched together with buttercream. In titling her book by these little treats, with the added intimation of moments that melt our heart, Goldsworthy flags the tone and subject matter of her book. The tone is going to be gentle, and the subject matter domestic. The question is: does this make for an interesting book, or just a sweet one?
Overall, I’d say interesting. But, for my full review, please check out https://whisperinggums.com/2020/11/27...
October 11, 2020
It's written well enough and it's very easy to read, but on the whole I found this book a bit...depressing. It's funny comparing it to The Miseducation of Evie Epworth (which is totally unrelated but it's the book I read just before this) - a book where our main character also has to suffer a lot of infuriating and unpleasant people, but in this case is able to get rid of them and go and live her own life and have fun and promise. Here, Ruby just has to Put Up With a lot. Might as well retitle this Ruby Puts Up With Things. At least she got a fantastic house and a nice garden, that's a small something.
December 18, 2025
A lovely book with a lovely story - but all a little bland just like the biscuit it is named after.
A nice life is reflected in this book, with it hitting all the high points and low ones but all a bit bland with no real stand out surprises or plot twists. Well written enough to keep you interested but having written this review almost 3 months after reading it, I had to read the blurb just to remember what is was all about - not a book to change your life.
This is the equivalent of a cup of tea and a good lie down to refresh yourself.
I would recommend this book to those who just want a well written read, without complexities.
A nice life is reflected in this book, with it hitting all the high points and low ones but all a bit bland with no real stand out surprises or plot twists. Well written enough to keep you interested but having written this review almost 3 months after reading it, I had to read the blurb just to remember what is was all about - not a book to change your life.
This is the equivalent of a cup of tea and a good lie down to refresh yourself.
I would recommend this book to those who just want a well written read, without complexities.
October 5, 2020
Beautifully written with a thoughtful insight into my mother’s generation and the importance of appearances, both physically and socially. References to my home town, Adelaide - in South Australia. A story of duty, honour, loyalty, sacrifice, changing generations and eventually freedom.
Anna spoke at Adelaide Writers week about this book being based on her Grandmothers Life. While some reviews expected this book to sing ‘women’s rights’ instead it is a subtle, realistic reflection of a life dedicated to what society expected post WW2. A lovely read, Anna! x
Anna spoke at Adelaide Writers week about this book being based on her Grandmothers Life. While some reviews expected this book to sing ‘women’s rights’ instead it is a subtle, realistic reflection of a life dedicated to what society expected post WW2. A lovely read, Anna! x
December 12, 2020
This is the delightful life story of Ruby, from when she left her family farm in 1941, aged 18, to the twilight of her years, through love, marriage, motherhood and old age.
A gently told story of an ordinary person, whose life is full of extraordinary moments. Set in and around Adelaide, it captures the culture and lifestyle of the location and uses it to enhance the beautifully structured characters.
Anna's father Peter Goldsworthy writes brilliant books. Anna has his talent in spades, but renders a different kind of story. I hope she has many more books like this to come.
A gently told story of an ordinary person, whose life is full of extraordinary moments. Set in and around Adelaide, it captures the culture and lifestyle of the location and uses it to enhance the beautifully structured characters.
Anna's father Peter Goldsworthy writes brilliant books. Anna has his talent in spades, but renders a different kind of story. I hope she has many more books like this to come.
December 5, 2021
Anna Goldsworthy writes beautiful books but in this case, there was no real story. I wasn't quite sure if it was a "sliding doors" type novel or was written to exaggerate the uninteresting-side of the life of a 50's housewife but if either, it didn't make it. Maybe I missed the point, but there were a number of things about Ruby that I would have liked to have read more about. Clearly she was a good gardener, had an interesting upbringing, and she had various jobs. Nice to read a book about Adelaide though.
June 15, 2025
When I began reading, I kept waiting for something to actually happen. Then I realised the book seems to just meander along without going into anything (or most of the characters) particularly deeply.
Skipping chunks of time e.g. where a pregnancy suddenly became a child who was speaking didn't help my enjoyment or the context of the book.
Was the author set a word count limit? The book was way too light.
It was somewhat interesting to read about evolving times and attitudes but when the book ended, I just felt a sense of being unsatisfied.
Overall 1.5 rounded up. Disappointing.
Skipping chunks of time e.g. where a pregnancy suddenly became a child who was speaking didn't help my enjoyment or the context of the book.
Was the author set a word count limit? The book was way too light.
It was somewhat interesting to read about evolving times and attitudes but when the book ended, I just felt a sense of being unsatisfied.
Overall 1.5 rounded up. Disappointing.
April 15, 2020
A very warm and engaging story of Ruby, from her marriage during WW2 until the end of her life. Set mainly in Adelaide, it’s beautifully crafted to put you inside her domestic world . Big issues occur right there, generational conflicts, prejudice and tolerance, relationship changes, how to deal with yearning for more.
Overall it seems realistic in its portrayal of a life well-lived in times of change, some difficult, many positive. Perfect reading for Covid19 times.
From BorrowBox.
Overall it seems realistic in its portrayal of a life well-lived in times of change, some difficult, many positive. Perfect reading for Covid19 times.
From BorrowBox.
October 20, 2020
Melting Moments was bleak yet beautiful. I wanted more from it and was disappointed by how quickly the author skimmed over the important events of Anna’s life. One minute someone was pregnant, within a couple of pages the baby was talking then they were in university? So often I read books that are overwritten and needed to be edited down. This is the opposite- I liked what I read but I wanted more.
May 8, 2021
Beautifully written moments in the life defining relationships of young Ruby from the WWII dances to marriage and motherhood across 50+ years, supporting her ageing parents, and her own ageing. Largely set in Adelaide, Ruby's story is very personal and compassionately written tracing an unremarkable commonplace life which is largely domestic and supporting others - very much a woman's story ascribing meaning in relationship to others.
April 2, 2022
A quiet thoughtful look at the life of a woman in my mother's era. I wish I could go back and ask my mother a few questions about her thoughts and life. There were things with which I could identify especially in regard to taking care of a home, husband and family. Ruby's daughter, Eva, was my generation and it showed how many more opportunities we have had. It will be a good discussion at our Book Club!
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