Rose Addams

Finished February 5

Rose Addams by Margie Taylor

Rose Addams is in her early sixties and working at a Vancouver area public library. She's a woman who enjoys her work, and takes an interest in her children's lives. On her way home one day in late August, her daughter Morgan calls and asks her to call back when she gets home. Morgan, who lives in Toronto with her fiancé Ian, and is nearing the final portion of her Ph.D. dissertation tells her that the engagement is off.

A few days later, she on her way to work when a young man she's seen sitting outside the nearby grocery store approaches her and tells her how he knows her. Rose is surprised and saddened. This reminds her of the early days of motherhood and how her and her husband Charles had handled an earlier childcare challenge in their lives. 

When she arrives home, she has more surprises in store. Her husband Charles, just a few years older than her, informs her that he has retired from his job as a university professor, and chair of his department. He tells her that it is due to a conversation that he had with an undergraduate student around student expectations. She is surprised and disappointed that he made such a big decision without even talking about it with her first. She is further surprised by a call from Morgan saying that she is coming home in a few days, just after the Labour Day weekend. 

As Rose and Charles host a dinner party the following evening with friends and colleagues, and he announces his retirement, the guests are surprised and dismayed. They include another professor and friend, Garnet, and his newest paramour a young graduate student, Lauren; the department secretary Bernadette and her brother Richard; and Rose's best friend Marie, a children's author, and her accountant husband Jeff. Bernadette is particularly dismayed and surprised, but Garnet is also disappointed that he wasn't consulted about the move, since he originally took Charles under his wing when Charles joined the department as a young professor. 

Rose likes Morgan's partner Ian, but is less enamored of her son Jason's partner Lee, who she feels judges her. She hasn't spent much time with Lee though, and not everyone see what Rose feels. 

As Rose deals with all these changes, and more, she questions her own feelings, second guesses her impulses, and finds herself dealing with a future she didn't imagine. 

I really enjoyed this book, and many of the issues that Rose is faced with felt very real and relatable. A book from a Canadian writer new to me, that I will definitely look out for.