Alice McGinty’s Goat

You can view a free online evalution copy of issue 8 of the magazine – just click here.

Category:	Fiction
Author:	Mary Frances
Publisher:	Trafford
Price:	£11.50
ISBN:	1425158439
Pages:	320
Reviewed in issue:	11

I think someone has scuppered this book by charging £11.50 for it, as it is a paperback read of no great length. However the greatest culprit might be the author, for using such a deft touch one would at times be very happy to share one’s copy among several like-minded friends.

Alice, late 50s, isn’t the most loveable character (pleading poverty while swamping herself in endless tea, coffee and red wine), but that’s nothing compared to Dora, an old school-friend who descends with a most annoyingly forceful personality and tales of woe. At the same time Alice is only trying to live her life as the village’s token journalist, and work out how she feels about a potential new toyboy.

The lovely and brisk style of the first-person narration means this comes across as a sort of mature chick-lit read, and it is most appealing until the dialogue-heavy approach brings on a woollier middle third. The writing is otherwise very amenable, and the quandaries of the plot show a realistic level of naivety to Alice and truth to the novel.

A better use of the red pen would freshen this up more, however, and prevent the previous day from becoming this afternoon, among several noticeable errors. But on the whole this would satisfy a wide audience of readers of a certain age.

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