Adrian Mole: The Prostrate Years by Sue Townsend.
Title: Adrian Mole: The Prostrate Years.
Author: Lois Duncan.
Genre: Fiction, humour, romance, epistolary fiction, diary.
Country: U.K.
Language: English.
Publication Date: November 5, 2009.
Summary: Adrian Mole is 39-and-a-quarter. He lives in the country in a semi-detached converted pigsty with his wife Daisy and their daughter. His parents George and Pauline live in the adjoining pigsty. But all is not well. The second-hand bookshop in which Adrian works is threatened with closure. The spark has fizzled out of his marriage. His mother is threatening to write her autobiography, and Adrian's nightly trips lead to a discouraging health discovery.
My rating: 8.5/10.
♥ I asked him if his Roman Catholicism gave him comfort.
He said, “No, but my faith in human courage certainly does.”
♥ When we were drinking Wayne’s terrible coffee and Pandora was talking about the prostate awareness campaign she is involved with and how I could be of help to her, I only half listened. I was studying her beautiful face and had an overwhelming need to stroke her hair and tell her that I loved her when she was thirteen, loved her now, and would always love her.
♥ I said, “But you’re so clever and beautiful. Men must be throwing themselves at your feet.”
She replied, “I terrify most men. And the rest are either married, gay or bipolar.”
♥ Hitesh said, “Christmas ain’t like what it used to be.”
Bernard patted his arm and said, “Hitesh, old flower, Christmas is exactly the same, it’s you who have changed.”
♥ And I didn’t think I would miss Gracie as much as I do. I miss the physical presence of that indomitable little girl, trying to make her mark on the world. The feeling of those small strong arms around my neck. I miss the made-up songs she used to sing in the bath, I miss the certainty of her world. She knows nothing of nuclear proliferation or the misery that comes from loving somebody too much.
♥ I reflected that nobody truly knows anybody else and that everybody’s life is mysterious.