The old man and me (Dundy)

I actually read this before I was struck down with mumps, so apologies for not remembering that much about it! I had been looking forward to reading this book for a while, since reading the Dud Avocado very early on in the VVV, but had been waiting for a second hand copy to turn up.

It tells the story of Honey Flood, an American girl, who comes to London to find her quasi stepfather - the man who married her stepmother after her father died, called Charles McKee. She sets out to seduce him in an attempt to get his month.

In some ways it was very similar to the Dud Avocado, I found myself a bit annoyed by the narrator. It's just been published once by Virago with a modern cover.

PS: I have now read/blogged 380 VMCs! This means I have 176 to go! Hope to make to to 400 by the end of the year...if only I could read 3 a week and then I'd be done in a year's time!!

The dud avocado (Dundy)

As an avocado eater, who hates the problem of getting the avocado to the correct ripeness, and detests either those which are too squidgy or rock hard (usually it has to be said the latter, when impatience gets the better of me!), I couldn't resist this title, and would have probably bought it anyway even if it hadn't been a VMC.

The book tells the story of Sally Jay, an American who has come to 1950s Paris to experience the French lifestyle, and to pursue a stage career. She spends her time flitting around cafes and falling in love. I was a little disappointed by this book as it was very American; I was anticipating a sort of French coming of age story, but this could easily have been set in New York. I didn't feel that Sally Jay ever really experienced France as much as she could have. And ultimately this is the case; at the end of the book Sally Jay returns to America and finds that actually this is where she belongs.

I shall be interested to see how the follow up, The old man and me, also published as a VMC compares. Two Virago editions; mine, purchased in the Waterstones 3 for 2 earlier this year, is the more recent bottom one.