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We Are All Made of Glue

By Marina Lewycka

(27)

| Others | 9781905490233

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Critics

House of horrors

Marina Lewycka's first book, A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, about an eastern European woman marrying an octogenarian, was a huge success. Two Caravans followed, and now We Are All Made of Glue, which sticks to the same template: putting cl ... (read full critics)

guardian.co.uk published on Fri, 24 Sep 2010

The importance of bonding exercises

Marina Lewycka specialises in finding humour in things other people might not find particularly funny: the perils of immigration and old age, the travails of the powerless, ugly and dispossessed. While her brand of blackened comedy has won both criti ... (read full critics)

guardian.co.uk published on Fri, 24 Sep 2010

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2 Reviews

Some serious issues lie behind this quirky comedy. I'm not sure how well it all works.

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Top of the pile said on Sep 11, 2011 | Add your feedback

Personally I think that this author just keeps getting better with each novel published. Or maybe it is just that I have just got used to her distinctive style of combining the hilarious with the tragic.
As in her previous novels I thoroughly enjoyed the excellent portrayal of her cast of character ... (continue)

Personally I think that this author just keeps getting better with each novel published. Or maybe it is just that I have just got used to her distinctive style of combining the hilarious with the tragic.
As in her previous novels I thoroughly enjoyed the excellent portrayal of her cast of characters. What a wonderful cast of characters they are from the two main protagonists Georgie Sinclair and the elderly Naomi Shapiro right down to the smallest bit parts. Even the seven cats in the story have characters of their own.
Marina Lewycka even manages to find something amusing in glue, by using the fact that her main protagonist writes trade articles on adhesives as a clever ruse for appropriate section and chapter names. Some bits were a little scientific and went over my head, but that didn't matter. If I had been so inclined I could have done some research on adhesives but no I am not that interested. I understood enough and it was clever using glue as an allegory for human relationships and bonds, excuse the pun! At least that is how I interpreted it.
Georgie Sinclair is a journalist and would be authoress working from home, dealing with almost adult children and a marriage that is slipping away from her. She gets to know by chance an eccentric old Jewish lady, Naomi Shapiro who lives in Canaan House a rambling but crumbling residence in the same locality. As if Georgie does not have enough to cope with, Naomi after a minor fall puts her in hospital names Georgie as her next of kin. So she finds herself with a lot more than a son obsessed with the end of the world and her daughter who keeps her distance to worry about. As she is drawn into the old woman's life, we meet a cast of eccentric characters from devious estate agents and social workers to handymen who just happen to be Arabs. Hilarious yes, but we also learn of the complexities of the Middle East Crisis. If you are at all sensitive you might find some of the descriptions of what happened to the Jews, yes glue again and the state of Naomi's residence might well make you feel slightly nauseous. Sadly the first is a fact of life and the second a sad possibility for a lonely old lady living alone. As Georgie tries desperately to put Naomi's life on a more even keel her own is falling apart. You will have realised by now that the coherence, yes glue again, of this story is not an easy one but I felt that Marina Lewycka's manages to tie up all the loose ends and give us a more than satisfactory ending although some may consider it a little trite.
I certainly recommend the work of this author and if you have enjoyed her previous novels will be surprised if you do not enjoy this one. I look forward to your comments.
For more interesting info please visit
http://lindyloumacbookreviews.blogspot.com/2010/09/we-a…

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Lindyloumac said on Sep 17, 2010 | Add your feedback