Review: Us

Us by David Nicholls
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this book. It follows the Petersen family (Douglas, Connie, his wife of almost 25 years and their 17 year old son Albie) as they journey through the art galleries of Europe on a "Grand Tour" of a last family holiday before Albie leaves for college. But the holiday is overshadowed by Connie's admission that she thinks the marriage has run its course and she may want to leave Douglas.

Told from Douglas's viewpoint we have the present story, which is sometimes a bit far fetched, intertwined with flashbacks of how they met, married and have reached this point. Douglas, a scientist, and Connie and artist are like chalk and cheese. Albie is a typical teenager.

It's not a fast moving book, sometime it feels almost to be plodding but it feels real. There isn't a happy ending which felt right and it was interesting to read this type of story from the male perspective. Some reviewers have said they didn't like the characters but I don't think you have to like a book's characters to be able to enjoy it.

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