3 days ago
Best Friends by Andrew Meehan: Engaging, witty and charming septuagenarian love story
Best Friends.
Author
:
Andrew Meehan
ISBN-13
:
9781068684432
Publisher
:
Muswell
Guideline Price
:
£12.99
Andrew Meehan is a lecturer in creative writing in the University of Strathclyde, and is working on a project on love in old age, run by his university and Autumn Voices – an organisation promoting creativity in old age (like Bealtaine, in Ireland, maybe). Meehan's research for this new novel inspired the project.
The story, set in and around Dún Laoghaire and Glasthule, focuses on the developing relationship of two septuagenarians, June and Ray. June, thrice married but now single, cleans houses and keeps bees, selling the honey. Ray is a janitor at the tennis club. They're still working because they need the money. Both are friends with local restaurateurs, Indian and Italian – the Indian gives June free dinners. They fall into friendship, then love, as they enjoy walks, a picnic at the Forty Foot, and budget-friendly dates.
The narrative voice, the characters and the keen observations of neighbourhood, remind me of Elizabeth Strout's writing – and indeed the resemblance is flagged on the back of the book.
It's very engaging, witty and charming. Ray is one of those Dún Laoghaire natives who seldom ventures north of Booterstown – although they have a holiday in Venice (for characters in fiction, a risky spot). They make another big trip to Dublin, on the Dart.
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Initially the tone is light and bubbly – prosecco prose. As emotions deepen the sentences lengthen and become more Joycean – a good rich burgundy?
Meehan is a consummate stylist. Characters are on the sweet side, though June has a refreshingly cranky edge. Pitfalls occur but nothing awful. The description of the physical side of love, the sex or whatever, is excellent. 'They are people in pieces, and that's all Ray has for her. Bits.' What is lovely about the book is that it is far from ageist. Meehan presents the septuagenarians as proper human beings, not tattered cliches upon sticks.
Feel-good but quite convincing, this is a skilfully composed novel, clever in the best way. Perfect summer reading.
Éilís Ní Dhuibhne's latest book is Well, You Don't Look It. Essays on ageing by Irish women writers. (Salmon 2023) Edited with Michaela Schage Fruh. Ní Dhuibhne is a member of Aosdána
