It was a fascinating read, but the ending felt a little abrupt đ„č.
The book switched between chapters of early life and present life of Hubert, an old man who lost his loved ones and lived with a cat.
Hubertâs life used to be full of love. He and Joyce had the kind of love that was unconventional at the time, him being a black poor man and her being a white privileged woman. They faced discrimination, scraped through hardship, and they stuck like glue through all of it.
Until she was no longer there.
After that, Hubert sealed himself off. He was lonely and hallucinating and had no desire to let anyone in. The only connection he got was the telephone conversations with his daughter, Rose.
Then, Ashleigh, a young and lost single mom, knocked on his door asking for help. From that first reluctant yes to babysitting her child, one thing led to another. Suddenly Hubert had a whole little group of friends who actually cared about each other and together, they fought the loneliness pandemic.
âHubert, I know it sounds like a crazy idea and when I was making the flyer, even I thought it seemed a bit bonkers. I mean trying to âend loneliness in Bromleyâ, it sounds completely ridiculous, doesnât it? But then so did sending people to the moon and freeing that Nelson Mandela fella and having a computer in your pocket that you can watch telly on. Everything new sounds ridiculous until someone makes it happen.
The one thread the book leaves hanging is Hubertâs son. I kept wanting to know what happened to him, what went wrong, what turned him into someone so distant. Is it just the way some people turn out, no matter how much love they were surrounded with? The book doesnât really say.
Still, the bookâs bigger argument is hopeful. We live in a time when people walk past each other every day and never once make eye contact, let alone having genuine conversations and caring more when they donât have to. But maybe if you crack the door open just a little, life surprises you with who walks through.
âAnd thatâs the funny thing about life. Extraordinary things can happen to ordinary people like you and me, but only if we open ourselves up enough to let them.â
He didnât care if anyone thought that the campaign was pie in the sky. Sometimes, thought Hubert, you have to try the impossible to work out whether it is impossible. Sometimes, as his Joyce used to say, instead of waiting around for somebody else to do something, you have to be that person. Sometimes you just have to go big or go home.
The friendships in this book are just as quietly beautiful. They pulled each other out of desperate times.
Each time he had been to see Gus before now, he had come wanting something from his friend: the first to renew their friendship for Roseâs sake and the second to find out what had gone so wrong in his old friendâs life. This time around he wanted it to be different: he didnât want anything from Gus other than to share a meal and remember the old days. Hubert had been prepared to sit in silence while Gus ignored both him and the food. This then was a pleasant surprise, a glimmer of how they used to be and, he hoped, a spark that might reignite the fire of their friendship.
The detail where Hubert bought Gus a burger and a strawberry milkshake, though small, is so sweet. It echoes the earlier scene where Ashleigh took Hubert out and did the same for him. Thatâs what the book does so well: acts of care that ripple forward, one person to the next.
And when Hubert needed time to process his feelings and put off an official start for a new romantic relationship, Jan said âyouâve got a friend in me for lifeâ. I absolutely love it.