Book Review – The Wisdom of Sally Red Shoes by Ruth Hogan. Women's Fiction. Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for gifting me the ARC. This book has two main characters, Masha and Alice. Mashas likes to swim and also likes taking walks through the cemetery. Masha in this book is actually dealing with grief of the death of her son, 14 years ago, fed up with living in the past she tries very hard to turn over a new leaf. Her wolfhound called Haizum keeps her company. At the swimming pool she tells us the temperature of the water, and of all the sorts of people she bumps into. At the cemetery she loves reading the inscriptions on the headstones, pretends she knows all the deceased and makes up little stories about them. On her travels through the cemetery she meets a few real people, but in particular a woman Masha has named “Sally Red Shoes”. Instantly Masha is drawn towards this lady, even though she swears and sings at the top of her voice to the headstones. As a job Masha is a psychotherapist and tell us the colourful patients she sees. Alice has cancer, she had also suffered more than one miscarriage. Mattie is Alice son, he is lost in his world of being an adolescent. There is a huge major plot twist in this book, that I certainly didnt see coming, right plonked at 94% of the book. This book is done with witty humour, even though it touches on a sensitive subject. Ruth Hogans lays out the chapters, which are thoughtfully placed. There is alot of detail in Mashas chapters, whereas Alice, just small placed chapters. This is obviously been stragetically placed so that the reader doesn't get too depressed with Alice's story. Ruth Hogan also uses “word of the day” now and again in her book, but the way she writes it in, doesn't feel structured in anyway and fits extremely well within the story. There are laugh out loud moments in this book, but tastefully done. This book comes highly recommended by me. Goodreads = 5 stars. I recommend this book to anyone who likes theatrical shows (eg – Gilbert & Sullivan). Who likes dress fashion (eg vintage clothes). Who likes food in their books(eg – Pineapple Upsidedown cake, chocolate cake) would definately recommend this to, anyone who loves wit and humour in a book. Who likes a light hearted read. Who like descriptive, colourful characters and generally for anyone that may have gone through grief of some sort, as its tastefully done.
