ShortBookandScribes #BookReview – Ordinary Time by Cathy Rentzenbrink

Ordinary Time by Cathy Rentzenbrink was published by Phoenix on 11th July in hardcover, eBook and audiobook. My thanks to Aoife Datta for the proof copy.

I love Cathy’s writing. Here are my reviews of Everyone is Still Alive and Dear Reader. I must get round to reading The Last Act of Love.

There are already three of us in this marriage. I’m not sure there is room for a fourth . . .

Ann is a reluctant Vicar’s wife. She tries her best but her husband only has eyes for God, her son is asking questions she struggles to answer, and it is all too easy to displease the congregation. It may only be a matter of time before she makes the headlines of the local gazette: Vicar’s wife gets giggles in church. Vicar’s wife refuses to bake scones. Vicar’s wife does not care about other people.

When her brother needs her help, Ann travels from Cornwall up to London. There she meets Jamie, and a new world unexpectedly opens up. Ann knows what the older women of the parish would say – she’s made her bed and now she has to lie in it. But once she has been led into temptation, it may prove impossible to resist . . .

The funny and heartbreaking new novel from Sunday Times bestselling author Cathy Rentzenbrink, Ordinary Time is an unforgettable story of the joys and sorrows of everyday life; one that asks big questions about friendship and marriage, forgiveness and redemption, and the real meaning of love.

Ordinary Time is the story of Ann, vicar’s wife, mother, sister – this is how she is defined but it’s stifling her. Her husband, Tim, thinks more of God than of his own son, let alone his wife, pushing both aside for often trivial pastoral matters. The family have newly arrived in Cornwall for Tim to take up residence as the vicar – another move, another new school, same old stale marriage.

Cathy Rentzenbrink portrays small parish life perfectly, one in which the vicar and his family are almost public property. Barbara and Doreen think nothing of simply popping their head around the back door, and the dining room of the vicarage is full of jumble that Tim doesn’t even notice, let alone think is a problem.

This is an intensely character driven novel, with human nature and all its foibles observed to great effect. Rentzenbrink writes with dry humour but it’s also a moving tale of childhoods marred by great tragedy and how the trauma of dealing with it can trickle down through the rest of your life.

When Ann meets Jamie, a man who she feels not only attraction for, but a kinship with, it drives her to reflect on what’s important to her. I thought this thread was beautifully written with both yearning and possibility (and impossibility too).

Ordinary Time is a story of a marriage, a family, a loss and a love. It’s a quiet novel but one which delves deep into feelings and emotions. I particularly appreciated the honesty in Ann’s narrative and how she let rip internally all that she didn’t feel able to say aloud. It’s a fabulous novel. I enjoy this author’s perceptive and funny writing so much.

Cathy Rentzenbrink is the author of the novel Everyone Is Still Alive and several acclaimed works of non-fiction including the Sunday Times bestseller The Last Act of Love. She grew up in Yorkshire, spent many years in London and now lives in Cornwall.