The Keeper of Stories - Sally Page

AUTHOR: Sally Page

NARRATOR: Jessica Whittaker

GENRE: Contemporary Fiction

RATING: 3.25 stars.

In a Nutshell: The book tries hard to match up to the outstanding cover but after a point, it just bored me. I have a feeling that my rating would have been lower had I been actually reading this instead of listening to it. But it does have its good moments.

Story:

“Everyone has a story to tell. But if you don't have one, you become a collector of other people's stories.”

Thus begins the narrative, effectively capturing the personality of lead character Janice, a woman in her late 40s who works as a cleaner in other people’s homes. Janice relishes others' stories and has a fondness for collecting them, not for gossip but to feel like she's part of their stories and gets to know them better. When she gets a new job cleaning for Mrs. B, a shrewd and formidable lady in her 90s, Janice finally meets someone who wants to know her (Janice’s) story and what she’s hiding beneath that effective cleaner façade. Will Janice share the story that she has kept buried for so long?

The story is written in a limited omniscient point of view.

Where the book worked for me:

😍 There are some fascinating characters in the book, almost all of whom are Janice’s clients or their family members. There’s Fiona, a grieving widow, and her teenaged son Adam who is still learning to face life without his father. There’s Geordie Bowman, a rich and famous opera singer with a generous heart. There’s Mrs. YeahYeahYeah and her husband Mr. NoNoNotNow, thus named by Janice for their catchphrase. But no character is as wonderful as their fox terrier Decius. The way the author has brought Decius to life is so brilliant, you won’t help but fall in love with him and his f-bombs. (Oh yeah, a dog who cusses! 😂) Janice herself is pretty well-sketched, what with her love for books and her constant worries about things both great and small. She comes across as a really interesting character.

😍 As Janice is a “collector of stories”, there are many mini-stories that you’ll find in this book. All of these are part of Janice’s repertoire, and most of them are heartfelt and memorable stories in their own right. I enjoyed all of these little nuggets from Janice’s collection.

😍 The cover is simply gorgeous. If they make all book covers so delightful, I’ll have a tough time stopping books from entering my TBR mountain.

😍 There are some really beautiful lines in the book, the most memorable being the ones related to stories. Sample this: “ Every man should leave a story better than he found it. ”

Where the book could have worked better for me:

😕 The book is something of a slowburn. It starts off fabulously, with a brief insight into Janice and a quick flit across a few of her clients and their stories. After a while, you realise that you are ready to move on but the book is still flitting across characters. It gets repetitive after some time. As mine was an audiobook, I found myself zoning out time and again. But even when my mind jolted back to reality and the book, I found that the story had hardly moved ahead. The start is good and the end is worthwhile. It’s the rest that will really demand your concentration.

😕 There is one story-within-a-story in the book which is not part of Janice’s collection but is narrated by Mrs. B to Janice. This is about a character called Becky, supposedly inspired by the Becky from Vanity Fair though I didn’t see many similarities. Becky’s story starts off well but soon dragged tremendously. I didn’t understand the point of this narration; it just seemed like a way of lengthening the book. You could easily cut this story out of the text and the original plot won’t be affected at all.

😕 The editing needed to be tighter and better. Some of the plot developments are too abrupt, almost entirely dictated by character and not by requirements of the story. The plot feels very cluttered and has a lot of convenient settlements at the end.

The audiobook experience:

The audiobook clocks at 10 hrs 15 minutes and is narrated by the fantastic Jessica Whittaker. It’s not easy to narrate a book with so many characters but she does her job brilliantly. Most of what I enjoyed of the book is because of her, and if I didn’t DNF this book, it is all thanks to her.

Basically, this is a sweet book that means very well and has its moments of sunshine. But it could have been so much more had it been handled differently. I don’t know how I would have felt about this had I read it, but I know that the audiobook was certainly a wonderful way of getting to know this story.

My thanks to HarperCollins UK Audio and NetGalley for the ALC of “The Keeper of Stories”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the audiobook.