The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle by Matt CainMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is a little different from my usual choice of book, but it is definitely worth a look at. I got this book as an advanced reader copy and I put off reading it for ages because though the blurb was appealing I never seemed to be in the right mood for ‘Joyful But Also So Poignant’. I’m really sorry I left it so long to read because yes this book is joyful and poignant but in all the best ways. This is a book that isn’t trying too hard. It’s a book about real people who have ordinary lives with ups and downs and all the normal bland in between. This book is about Albert a 64-year-old postman who lives a very very quiet life and doesn’t really have any friends, except his cat. He keeps his head down at work and says little except ‘How do?’ to his colleagues.
Albert is a man created by his age and location. Taught by his policeman father that what he is was sinful and disgusting, he came of age at a time when being gay had just been legalised but it wasn’t legal for those under 21. He was finding his identity in a time when it could get you beaten badly if anyone even suspected he was gay. Since his teens, Albert has suppressed the side of himself that reaches out to other people, afraid of what they might see and what they might say or do to him. He didn’t know anyone who was gay, because everyone kept it secret, and he had no one to turn to. A small town in Lancashire in the 1970s was not a safe or accepting place for homosexuals.
Shutting himself off from everyone and everything meant no one could judge him, but it also meant a life of isolation. Coming up to retirement makes him open his eyes and start looking for connections. Up until then, his work has been his whole existence, watching life around him as he brings pieces of the world to his customers. This book is a journey into a man who is finally allowing the world to see his personality. It’s his first tentative steps into becoming part of the community he watches as he delivers letters and parcels, always standing outside looking in. That journey takes him somewhere different, where people care about him and he cares for others.
This journey is powerful and moving because it teaches us that it’s never too late to turn your life around and search for happiness. If an ordinary grey haired postman from Lancashire can do it, then everyone can. I loved Albert at the same time my heart broke for him. He’s had such a sad and lonely existence, squashing his inner life down behind thick shields so the world can’t judge him. He’s so very brave to take those first steps into sharing himself with others and you feel his anxiety as he reaches out each time.
I loved the characters around Albert almost as much, especially Nicole the 19-year-old, black single mother trying to make it through her beauty course so she can finally take proper care of herself and her daughter. She is at a turning point in her life that echoes with the point in the past when Albert’s life was changed. She’s alone and isolated from others because she is different too. Their friendship is at once unlikely and at the same time utterly predictable. For two such different people, they have so much in common.
This isn’t a fast-paced and exciting book, but each page will be turned a quickly as the most exciting thriller because you want to know what happens next. This is an emotional journey and each step is a giant leap for this frightened man. It is a wonderful journey that at times will make you smile and at others make tears run down your face, so it’s safe to say this book really is ‘Joyful But Also So Poignant’. You will be thinking about this book for a long time because it burrows itself inside your heart and mind and sets up camp whilst you think about your own life and all the missed turnings you didn’t take. At the same time, you are thinking about the things you missed, this book also reminds you that it’s never too late.
This is a wonderful book, you really should read it.
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