Confessions of a Forty-Something F**k Up (Confessions, 1)

Product Information

I would like to thank Tandem Collective UK, Pan Macmillan and Alexandra Potter for sending me a hardback copy of ‘Confessions of a Forty-Something F**k Up’ as part of the Tandem Collective UK readalong; I would also like to thank NetGalley for allowing me to access a digital copy of the novel in exchange for an honest review. I'm not sure if I ever would have picked up Alexandra Potter's new book, Confessions of a Forty-Something, if I hadn't been offered it for review.

Nell is all set to marry Edward when she discovers she still has the chance to have a baby should she decide to, but after realising her and Edward are not on the same page she decides she needs to explore this option further and her and Edward go their separate ways.I wondered if it would be alienating to me and my generation or if there would be pockets of the story I would be able to identify with (not that you have to identify with every story). Nell's housemate or landlord, Edward only stays at the house few days a week as he is married and has kids and visits them in the country over the weekends.

Nell reaches out to her great friend Cricket as well as her eclectic group of narried friends, all offering their own thoughts. I have read countless books about mothers - post natal depression, mums struggling to cope, mums struggling with society’s expectations to be perfect. I normally listen to classics or police procedurals, but was intrigued by the title because I happened to be feeling a bit like a forty-something f**k up. It’s probably no surprise (if anyone’s still with me :)) that I found the ending disturbing and symbolic. And when all else fails, will celebrity-scented candles, smashed avocados and Instagram filters save us?She’s just broken up with her fiance, moved back in with her parents, and hasn’t got a proper career to speak of. Much of the first half of the novel follows Nell as she tries to fall back into her old life in London, catching up with old friends who have moved on, gotten married and had children, leaving her behind.

I had not heard of this author, and it was a 'stumble across' as I browsed an interstate catalogue (the perks of working in a library, and knowing where to look for the location of a book, Australia wide). Or maybe, ‘you have to read this book’ when their childless friends to try to talk to them about their struggles. I actually read the first look of this over on Readers First and thought it was such an uplifting and fun book; and I felt that way for perhaps the first half, but then i just began to feel very cliche and the ending was just really disappointing for me. I did have some issues with the portrayal of childless women but it is comedy/light entertainment and I don't want to discuss my views here.Nell soon takes a job writing obituaries for a newspaper, and although the pay isn’t much, there are some perks of the job: mainly, that Nell meets Cricket, an eighty-something widow who introduces Nell to life drawing classes and true crime podcasts. Nell is a forty something single woman without a job and accommodation unlike her friends who are all married and have kids and have their own houses. What drew me in was that I knew I could understand how it would feel to be a childless woman in a world where it seems like everyone I know is becoming a mother or has plans to become a mother in the next little while.

An editor, Nell secured a job with an old colleague crafting epilogues, and this is how she found a firm friend in Cricket, a newly widowed octogenarian. I’ve been a fan of Alexandra Potter’s for years now but have absolutely loved her last few novels, including the first Confessions book and One Good Thing. Confessions of a Forty Something by Alexandra Potter was published on 28th April 2020 by Pan Macmillan. However, this is quite a long book and there were plenty of parts within the story were a little predictable. The Narration by Sally Phillips is stunning- funny, sad and able to penetrate even the most depressed soul.But when it became about women everywhere (we are all f*ck ups, we’re all in this together), I felt disappointed. This is a used book - there is no escaping the fact it has been read by someone else and it will show signs of wear and previous use. As a childless, single woman, there are days when I’m fine and there are days when I feel like I can’t face the world and an ad on telly makes me cry. Pentru că, din postura ei de ”fată bătrână”, Nell își invidiază toate prietenele măritate și cu copii, cu case aranjate ca în reviste, cu petreceri elegante și cu vieți care par mai așezate decât ale ei, însă podcastul ei scoate la iveală faptul că, dedesubtul strălucirii, se ascund aceleași îndoieli, anxietăți, depresii, sentimente de ”nu sunt suficient de bună”, ca și în cazul lui Nell.