Screw You, Dolores
Sarah-Kate Lynch
Random House, NZ
382 pages
Published in 2014
🌟🌟🌟🌟
This comedy-memoir by a New Zealand journalist/novelist, is about the change in mindset that came with turning 50. While claiming to be an approach to finding happiness – at least some of the time – it’s not a self-help book, but rather a chatty monologue about the joys of friendship, family, travel and rosé (lots of rosé!) interspersed with humorous lists, letters and anecdotes – many of which are too embarrassing not to be true.
The title derives from an anecdote from her youth, and she describes wanting to use it as the title of her first book, but deciding it was too rude. Years later, she doesn’t care who she offends – in fact not caring about people who don’t matter is a key part of achieving happiness. Likeable and very funny at times, I found her to be highly relatable. This also has some sad and dark moments – losing loved ones, including her beloved dog, being diagnosed with a serious illness and the uncertainties that come with having to move around for your spouse’s career, but she doesn’t dwell on these for long. It’s a quick read – I finished it in an evening, and there’s a lot of kiwi humour, but I think it could be appreciated by women of a certain age anywhere in the world.
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