Then and Now by R J Gould

This is a book about three people: one woman, Sandy, and two men, Jonathan and Michael, who meet up at their fifty-year university reunion. They had been close friends at university but had had a falling out in their third year and hadn’t been in communication with each other since then.

The lives of the three proponents are looked at separately, through alternating chapters: ‘then’ as free living, rather uninhibited university students, and ‘now’ as retirees in their sixties, looking to find purpose and meaning in this next stage of their lives. As well as this they decide that they must face up to and talk about the cause of their estrangement from each other all those years ago. 

 How many people wish they could have the chance to revisit a certain time in their lives to right wrongs or re-establish relationships? It is always fascinating to see perfect solutions through fiction. This is a favourite theme of mine as well as the ‘sliding doors’ idea. Fiction is at its best when it is thought provoking and when the characters in a story live on in the reader’s thoughts once the book is read. I think we all have moments when we wish we could just travel back in time and apply hindsight to at least one outcome on our lives. 

 As I got to know Sandy, Jonathan and Michael the story became more and more interesting until at round about half way through the book it entered into the un-put-downable stage. I always like depth of characterisation to the extent that I feel I know and care about what happens to the people in a story, which definitely happened here. 

 This is the third book I have read by R J Gould and I think I would maybe compare him to Nick Hornby. Another 5 out of 5! After all, I only post reviews of books I have thoroughly enjoyed and would recommend to other readers.