MAUREEN

By Rachel Joyce

⭐⭐⭐⭐ ¼ (Goodreads: 3.95)

GENRE: Fiction

PART OF A SERIES? Yes (Harold Fry #3)

WORTH READING? Yes

SUMMARY:

Maureen is the third and final instalment in Rachel Joyce's Harold Fry trilogy, following The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy. This novella shifts the focus to Maureen Fry, Harold's wife, offering a deeply personal exploration of grief, forgiveness, and self-discovery.

Set ten years after Harold's transformative journey, Maureen has settled into a quiet life with her husband. However, an unexpected message from the north disrupts her equilibrium, prompting her to embark on her own journey. Unlike Harold, Maureen is reserved, a little awkward and guarded,  and struggles to connect with others, making her pilgrimage even more challenging and introspective than her husband’s.

As she travels, Maureen confronts the pain of past losses and the emotional walls she has built. Through encounters with strangers and the changing landscape, she gradually opens up, finding moments of connection and understanding. Her journey becomes a path toward healing, allowing her to reconcile with her past and embrace the possibility of renewal.

I found Maureen a bit slow out of the starting blocks but it gradually gathered a good momentum. I’m not sure how much I was influenced by the fact that Maureen was a bit of a difficult person to like at first. Gradually, though, as we are shown more of her personality, she becomes more appealing.

Joyce writes lyrical prose and is a compassionate storyteller. She offer readers a touching narrative about human emotions and the power of personal transformation. Maureen, as with The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy, is a poignant and well-told story.

I find Rachel Joyce fantastic at getting into her characters’ minds and voice. If you think of Harold, Queenie and Maureen, they are all quite distinct characters. This must have been especially challenging for Joyce, considering Queenie and Maureen are of a similar era, but I believe she mastered giving each of her characters their own voice and traits.

This final book in the Harold Fry trilogy is quite small (192 pages; so, more a novella), but Maureen serves as a moving conclusion and ties up the series with a neat little bow — the result of which is that the reader feels quite satisfied with the tales contained within. Maureen was marginally my least favourite of the Harold Fry series, but I truly enjoyed this whole series by Rachel Joyce!

Click here to read Maureen.

However, I’d strongly recommend starting with The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and then The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy  - since, even though Maureen could strictly stand on its own, it will really feel more relevant, touching and thought-provoking to people who are reading it as part of the Harold Fry trilogy.

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