paperback, 384 pages
Published Dec. 29, 2020 by Penguin Books.
The story of a solitary green notebook that brings together six strangers and leads to unexpected friendship, and even love
Julian Jessop, an eccentric, lonely artist and septuagenarian believes that most people aren't really honest with each other. But what if they were? And so he writes – in a plain, green journal – the truth about his own life and leaves it in his local café. It's run by the incredibly tidy and efficient Monica, who furtively adds her own entry and leaves the book in the wine bar across the street. Before long, the others who find the green notebook add the truths about their own deepest selves – and soon find each other in real life at Monica's café.
took forever to get through this, I feel bad. The characters were just a little too blah and the whole thing was predictable. 🥔
I just could not finish this book. It started with great promise and from there it just went down-hill. For me, it was becoming a frustrating train wreck. I had to bail out. I'm sure it is just me.
The book presents its characters as flawed, but their conflicts feel hastily manufactured and are far too easily solved. It’s a superficial quasi romance that aspires to be far more than it even begins to be. There is very little substance and whatever it starts to say gets lost. The author appears far too timid to manage to say anything of much interest.
