The Women Who Went to Bed For a Year - Sue Townsend

The day her twins leave home, Eva climbs into bed and stays there. For seventeen years she's wanted to yell at the world, 'Stop I want to get off!' Finally, this is her chance. 

Her husband Brian, an astronomer having an unsatisfactory affair, is upset. Who will cook his dinner? Eva, he complains, is attention-seeking. But word of Eva's defiance spreads. 

Legions of fans, believing she is protesting. gather in the street, while her new friend Alexander the white-van man brings tea, toast and an unexpected sympathy. And from this odd but comforting place, Eva begins to see both herself and the world very, very differently. 

Published by; Penguin Fiction

Year: Paperback 2012

ISBN 978-0-141-39964-5

I had been recommended to read this book,  two or three people at work had read or were reading the book. Like countless of others I had read the Adrian Mole books penned by Sue Townsend when I was a child.  I had read the back cover and most importantly I had read a page at random and liked what I had read.  So I had followed by 3 criteria in choosing this book. 

Conclusion

Essentially Eva is a women who has always looked after her husband and her twins.  Suddenly her twins were flying the nest and heading off to university.  For some women that will fill them with pride at how well she has raised her child/children but for others as the chicks have fledged that empty nest becomes enormous and leaves a huge void and  you wondering what is your purpose now.    I  enjoyed  the book and could empathise with Eva's feelings of 'Empty Nest' and I thought her families response was typical of those who do not understand what it is like for some women once their children leave home.  Having built up the story and it's characters throughout the book,   I don't know how  I thought it would come to it's conclusion but for me I found the ending let the book down. In the past I have read more non-fiction than fiction and maybe that is why  This is of course just my opinion and others of you may well of interpreted the ending completely differently to me.  I would love to know what you thought.

All that said it would not put me off reading another of Sue Townsend book.