Friday, July 15, 2005

It's All Right Now

It's All Right Now
Charles Chadwick
Harper Collins,2005
679pp.
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Tom Ripple is an ordinary man who lives in suburban London. The
story begins at his mid-life in the 1970s and moves in a languid
fashion to the present. Ripple has a family that drifts away but he
stays in touch. His observations are circular and complex and we
come to care for the life of this most extraordinary
everyman. I realize that It's All Right Now sort of bookends with Ian McEwan's Saturday but I can't resist Tom Ripple. He is one of literature's most abysmal punners.