This was my latest audio book. I started listening without much enthusiasm. Unfortunately, of late, I have been in a bit of a reading slump, unable to find any books which really interest me. I have been trying things almost at random. This was suggested through the e-library and I have read two of this authors books before so why not give it a try? I did think at the time that it was a new novel of his. It isn't. It's almost twenty years old.
Stephen C McQueen, is an actor. He often has to emphasise how his name is spelled and that, no, he is not that Steven McQueen. His acting career is spent playing the "dead guy" and other quiet roles. Where people don't necessarily know it's him. He also has a daughter who doesn't know him brilliantly and an ex-wife who is definitely doing OK without him.
Now he is understudy to famous actor Josh Harper. He ends up getting a little bit caught up in Josh's life when he thinks he's been invited to a party and is in fact staff. But he meets Nora, Josh's wife, and they get on well. They become friends and Stephen ends up falling in love with Nora, but this puts him a very tricky position when he finds out a few things about the "great" Josh Harper.
I think Stephen is a decent guy, on the whole. He wants to make his daughter happy. He can't let go of his dreams though and holds on to them tight even when it all seems futile. I think Stephen is lonely. He misses his wife and being with someone. He misses his daughter and regrets the fact that she has a life very different from him now. He's disappointed in life. In Nora, I think he finds a kindred spirit, even if her feelings of loneliness come from things very different.
Stephen is, in a way, placed in a position that means making a deal with the devil. Can he keep a secret? Or, more specifically, can he keep a secret when he isn't sure it's the right thing to do? Is he trying to protect someone? Is he trying to benefit himself? It's complicated because Stephen finally get his chance, he might finally be able to impress his daughter, his ex-wife, he might be able to prove everyone wrong. But it will cost him. It could cost him any relationship with Nora. Caught up in a tricky situation, Stephen has to decide whether he will happily make his career work, but constantly have this secret hanging over him.
You can't help but hate Josh Harper. He thinks he's so perfect and everyone loves him and he can do what he likes. In reality he is really not a great person. Nora's too good for him.
The audio book came with an interview from David Nicholls and he explained how it was based on his life, just a little. At least, he was once a struggling actor who was understudy to several people. He was very careful to emphasise that Josh Harper was not based on anyone he'd met and that all the actors he was understudy for were actually very sympathetic and decent. I don't think the author had a complicated love life like the character either. It was simply that he was once a struggling actor, unwilling to give up but one day, he did.
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