The Narrowboat Summer

December 1, 2020
Two women use a narrowboat to discover what they truly want in this easygoing road-trip tale. Eve has just been let go from the corporate job she's been striving at for 30 years. Sally has just left her husband, not out of anger but boredom. Both women, in the prime of their midlives but unsure what they wish to do now, find themselves on the same towpath by the canal in a town near London when they hear a dog barking his head off on a nearby narrowboat. Freeing and subsequently losing the dog is how they meet his owner, the enigmatic Anastasia, a woman of the canals who is in need of a serious medical procedure. Anastasia has to stay in town to be near the hospital, but her beloved boat, the Number One, needs to be driven up to Chester for repairs. Despite having just met, it seems like kismet, and Eve and Sally agree to take the boat while Anastasia stays at Eve's apartment. As the two women wind their way north, they meet people, learn about the boat, and find out more about who they truly are. Youngson has populated this journey with so many interesting characters: Arthur, who appears and disappears as he pleases; Billy and Trompette, young lovers Eve and Sally keep bumping into; Owen, the taciturn shop owner they're taking the boat to. Having two women whose lives are adrift be surrounded by far more attention-grabbing folks is, unfortunately, a missed opportunity. Sally's and Eve's personal journeys just never quite match up to the backstories of their new friends. While the tale is a lovely little meander, it's a shame the most exciting things happen off page. Like a canal, lovely but shallow.

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December 14, 2020
Youngson (Meet Me at the Museum) tosses together two middle-aged women on the precipice of change in this pleasing buddy tale. Ailing but hardened Anastasia, who lives on an English canal narrowboat, meets Sally Allsop and Eve Warburton when the two strangers break onto her boat after thinking Anastasia’s barking dog is in trouble. Quickly feeling trust for the women, Anastasia asks them to take up the duties of her vessel while she gets medical treatment for a mysterious illness. With just a few navigating tips and some gruff advice, recently fired Eve and recently separated Sally travel off down the canals of England, eagerly leaving their former lives behind. Youngson moves the wispy plot—which largely concerns the novice crew’s mishaps and encounters with colorful locals—along at a slow pace, frequently drawing parallels to nautical life: “How was it that, when they could plan all this and carry it out, she seemed incapable of following the routes they had chosen on a perfectly reproduced, accurate, annotated, scaled map.”Oddball characters, such as Billy the singing historian and Arthur the vagabond accountant, buoy the pleasant narrative. Youngson’s meditative story satisfies with its take on the joys of new friendship and the happiness that can be found in the mundane.

December 15, 2020
If high-powered executive Eve, housewife Sally, and elderly canal dweller Anastasia had met in any other way, they likely wouldn't have given each other a passing thought. But when Eve and Sally decide to rescue a dog making a terrible racket inside Anastasia's canal boat, their lives are forever changed. Eve has just quit her job, Sally has just asked her husband for a divorce, and Anastasia desperately needs two people to pilot her boat up to Chester while she stays in Uxbridge for medical treatment. Eve and Sally get a crash course in driving a narrowboat, and all three women have a chance to step outside their normal lives for a few months. English novelist Youngson (Meet Me at the Museum, 2018) offers a window onto UK canal boaters, a tight-knit community with a shared understanding of the challenges and triumphs of life on the water. Fans of Jane Smiley and Hannah Mary McKinnon will enjoy Youngson's immersive, lyrical account of the women's narrowboat summer, especially the colorful characters they meet along their journey.

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