Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
The past has a habit of tracking us down. And tripping us up.
When Kate was twenty-two, she had an intense and passionate affair with a married man, Callum, which ended in heartbreak. Kate thought she’d never get over it.
Seventeen years later, life has moved on – Kate, now a successful actress, is living in London, married to Matt and mother to little Tallulah. Meanwhile Callum and his wife Belinda are happy together, living in Edinburgh and watching their kids grow up. The past, it would seem, is well and truly behind them all.
But then Kate meets Callum again.
And they are faced with a choice: to walk away from each other . . . or to risk finding out what might have been.
Second chances are a rare gift in life. But that doesn’t mean they should always be taken . . .
About Author
Ruth Jones is a Welsh television actress and writer known for her work on shows such as Gavin & Stacey and Stella.
Characters
Kate Andrews, 39
A successful actress haunted by a long-past affair. Selfish, impulsively distructive, and sometimes always infuriating in her decisions.
Matt
Kate’s devoted husband for seven years; patient, kind, and easily the most sympathetic person in the novel.
Tallulah
Kate and Matt’s 5-year-old daughter.
Callum MacGregor, 56
Once the object of Kate’s obsession when he was 39. His recurring guilt and repeated poor choices makes him feel like a teenager, though.
Belinda
Callum’s long-suffering wife; the solid moral centre of her family.
Ben
Callum’s older son
Cory
Callum’s younger son
Ailsa
Callum’s daughter, Belinda was pregnant with Ailsa when Callum and Kate first met.
Hetty Strong
Matt’s university friend, with her own romantic misadventures. She works at Vegeterian Living, although it had no bearing on the story. It was like ticking a checkbox I guess for inclusion: vegeterians included: check.
Adam Latimer
Hetty’s life long crush, toxic AF, a walking red flag. Just reading about him made me hyperventillate. At one point, Matt punched Adam, and boy did it feel good.
Yuvonne
Kate’s mother
Gordon
Kate’s father
Sylvia
Matt’s mother
Pete
Matt’s employee at the gallery. Another tick on the board. LGBTQ spectrum included: check.
Julius
Pete’s partner
Chloe
Matt’s tenant at the gallery who rents a studio above the gallery.
Ivor
Hetty’s colleague at Vegeterian Living. He likes her.
Glen
Hetty’s boss at Vegeterian Living.
Recap
Never Greener explores the rekindling of a past affair between Kate and Callum—decades later, married to other people—and the emotional fallout that ensues. It flips between past and present, showing how what seemed irresistible in youth looks very different with age, marriage, and children.
Review
It’s a long book, but then it covers 32 years: from 1985 to 2017, so…
Honestly, I couldn’t make sense of most of the characters’ decisions; they were realistic but unrelatable, as in, I couldn’t understand the decisions they took but kinda convinced myself that others might. Forget Kate—she was designed to be the epitome of wrong decisions and was like a walking magnet for poor choices. Callum isn’t redeeming—he’s stuck in a loop of guilt with zero conviction to change. Hetty and Matt weren’t much different, but most of the time they choice comes from a good place. I couldn’t find a single person whose actions didn’t make me pause and wonder: How can they do that?
Spoilers ahead…
- Matt’s one-time thing with Chloe who had a boyfriend. His “affair” with a certain someone who was a moron, who his friend was in love with.
- Belinda’ phone call with Sue discussing unimportant things while people were trying to contact her about a certain medical emergency. It’s probably not her fault. Just my real life pain talking: don’t waste time in chit chat over phone because people might be trying to reach you for something URGENT.
- Hetty’s whole life chasing an a-hole. And she was so dumb to not see the man who loved her for years.
I don’t think I have been more frustrated and enraged by the actions of book characters. But then, I remember very little these days; too many things on my mind.
That said: Matt and Belinda deserve medals for good sense and restraint. The pain they survived without losing their mind and destructing everything and everyone around them; kudos to them. And Hetty—poor, loyal, flawed Hetty—at least felt believable in her mistakes but she so dumb. I particularly loved Ivor and Pete, two people who had little to do with the overall story but didn’t make me want to scream at them. Without them, this book would’ve been nearly unbearable.
Seriously, I’m not saying it’s a bad book. It’s well-written and engaging else I couldn’t have survived 514 pages. It’s just that I coudln’t resonate with the story and the characters, especially the main characters-a man and a woman, both cheating on their spouses and crafting elaborate lies to fool their partners.
Ruth Jones writes with a certain cinematic flair and most of the scenes come alive before our eyes. Some scenes crackle with atmosphere, even if the people inhabiting them don’t.
Final Verdict
Overall, it’s a gritty, morally messy affair that might hook you with the premise… but leave you simmering in frustration by the end.
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Stay tuned for more book reviews.
Until next time, happy reading!
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Shabana Mukhtar