Though the title to this review sounds a bit snarky, I enjoyed this novel, even while recognizing the formulas at work—“magic” sick person helps healthy person learn how to live and British class boundaries “magically” disappear in the face of a terminal illness.
It’s the story of an unlikely friendship between Annie and Polly. Thirty-five-year-old Annie is mired in a life she never imagined herself living—working a job she hates, sharing a cramped flat with a roommate she barely knows, and dealing with a mother hospitalized for early-onset dementia. An unexpected tragedy a few years before the story starts has shaken Annie out of her marriage, her friendships, and the possibility of a happy life and she now lives with her head down both literally and figuratively.
Enter Polly, who is battling a brain tumor, but is doing it with gusto and a lot of color. The women meet in the hospital one day right as Annie has a melt down with a unit secretary. Polly, who seems to be friends with everyone in the hospital, not only greases the wheels of the hospital administration with her charm but then runs and brings Polly back a cupcake. Annie doesn’t know what to make of this strange and very energetic woman but from that moment, Polly seems to make it her mission to help Annie see the “bright side of life.”
Polly shows up at Annie’s house the next morning, announces she has three months to live and asks Annie to join her in one of those “Hundred Days of Happy” projects. Annie is a bit skeptical, but Polly is persuasive and soon Annie is moving from activities like “Try an adrenaline sport” to “Dance like no one is watching.”
As the novel unfolds, there are moments both expected and surprising involving a dog; an attractive but unkempt Scottish brain surgeon; Annie’s young Greek roommate, Costas, who just happens to be a barista at Costas; and Polly’s brother, an aspiring but so far not very successful actor. The author, Eva Woods, knows how to structure a narrative so it goes down smoothly but there’s just enough darkness and real pain here to keep things from seeming too twee or treacly.
If you like Jojo Moyes but want a book that comes closer to passing the Bechdel test, this one might be for you.