Rating: 4/5
Review:
Good in parts
I enjoyed some of Two Steps Forward, but I had some pretty
serious reservations.
This is an older-person's love story, set on the Camino, the
pilgrims' way to Santiago de Compostella.
It read to me a little like Bill Bryson's A Walk In The Woods with a somewhat
cloying Richard Curtis film script imposed on it. Two middle-aged characters with recently
ended marriages coincidentally begin the 2000km walk at the same time and for
very different reasons. She is a
Californian, he is a buttoned-up English engineer; the first time they meet
there is hostility, and as things progress…you get the idea. And as they walk they both learn Important
Life Lessons.
It's better than I make it sound; the writing is good, I
found both the central characters pretty believable and reasonably interesting,
and for the first half of the book I was quite enjoyably involved in an
OK-I'll-go-along-with-this sort of way.
I found the second half an increasing struggle as the plot relied on
more and more unlikely coincidences, implausible misunderstandings and sudden
interruptions at critical moments which prevented people saying something
important. One or two of these are
inevitable in a book like this, but it really did get absurd. I did find the final section of the walk
quite touching (it would be a spoiler to say why), but overall the Important
Life Lessons which every single character learns seemed rather pat and trite in
the end.
Like everyone else, I thought The Rosie Project was
brilliant and tried Two Steps Forward on the strength of it; this isn't in the
same league, I'm afraid. I've rounded
3.5 stars up to 4 (just) because I did enjoy aspects of this, but I can only
give it a qualified recommendation.
(My thanks to Two Roads for an ARC via NetGalley.)
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