Book Review

The Switch by Beth O’Leary

Content warning: Death from cancer – this occurs before the start of the book, but since Carla was Eileen’s granddaughter and Leena’s sister, there is quite a bit of reference to it. We also have a secondary character who is dealing with domestic violence, and there is infidelity and dealing with the aftermath of that.

I want to be Eileen when I grow up. There, that’s my review.

What, is that not enough?

Oh, fine then. How about this? I really, really, REALLY want to be Eileen when I grow up. She fulfils all my secret fantasies of bossing people around for their own good, because I’m afraid I really am one of those people who secretly believes that the world would be a much better place if I were in charge of it. (It would, you know. Everyone would be happier. I am certain of this.).

I suppose that if you live outside my head that just sounds terribly overbearing and meddling and annoying and obnoxious, so if I really want to sell you on why it is that Eileen (or I) should be in charge of everything I’d better review this book properly.

The premise of The Switch is this: a year after her sister’s death from cancer, Leena is living in London and not coping. She and her mother are barely speaking, and she has been throwing herself into work, work, and more work. At the start of the book, the breakdown which was long overdue arrives, and her boss sends her off for two months paid leave – compulsory.

Meanwhile in the small village of Hamleigh in Yorkshire, Eileen, Leena’s grandmother and namesake, is celebrating four months since her unlamented ex-husband left her for a younger model. While the only thing she really misses about her ex-husband was his ability to open jars, she nonetheless is thinking that she’d like to test the dating waters again. The trouble is, her local dating pool consists of Basil Wallingham (still has his teeth and enough energy to pursue the War on Squirrels, but probably a fascist), Mr Rogers (full head of hair, dances beautifully, but also very pious and suspected of being dull in bed), Dr Piotr Nowak (exceptional at Scrabble, ‘excitingly’ Polish, but still in love with his ex-wife), and Arnold Macintyre (lives next door, appropriate age, but ‘sucks all joy from the world, probably feasts on kittens for breakfasts [and] likely descended from ogres’). In fact, here is Arnold at the window:

“Yes Arnold?” I say, pointedly refusing to open the window. Every conversation is a battle of wills when it comes to Arnold. You have to stand your ground on every point, even the really insignificant ones you don’t actually mind about.

“Those cats!” he yells.

“I can hear you perfectly well at normal volume, thank you,” I say, as icily as I can. “You are well aware this house isn’t double-glazed.” He’s always on at me about that too.

“Those cats of yours ate all my pansies!”

“That’s ridiculous,” I tell him. “Cats don’t eat pansies.”

“Yours do!” Arnold says furiously. “Would you just open the window or invite me in, so we can have a proper conversation like civilised adults?”

“Of course,” I say, with a polite smile. “Do come around to the front door and knock, and we’ll see if I’m in. Like civilised adults.”

Clearly, Eileen and Arnold are meant to be. All the rules of RomCom require it. But not quite yet. Because first, Leena and Eileen are going to swap houses, lives, and mobile phones. Leena will stay in Eileen’s house in Hamleigh, keep an eye on her mum, look after Eileen’s various village projects, and not look at her laptop even once (because Eileen is taking that with her), while Eileen will move in with Leena’s flatmates in London and spread her wings.

And boy, does she.

Eileen is 79 years old, very energetic and community-minded, and I am THERE for her. Before many weeks have passed, she is having a casual, no-strings fling with a handsome and charming actor, flirting with two other men on a dating app, organising the life of Leena’s flatmate, feckless Fitz, starting a community group for elderly Londoners in their apartment building, and matchmaking for Leena’s friend, Bee. Having spent decades married to Leena’s grandfather because it was the proper thing to do, she has decided that the time has come to be herself and not waste time – her own, or anyone else’s. She ought to be insufferable, I suppose, but in fact she is charming and hilarious and I cannot tell you how much I want to be her at 79. I especially love the way she and Bee adopt each other as besties and start sorting out each other’s love lives. Bee even introduces Eileen to the world of online dating.

I tilt my head. “Gosh.” I say.

“Looking pretty spritely for a man of eighty,” Bee comments, tilting her head the opposite way from mine.

“And sending this photo is meant to do what?”

“Excellent question,” Bee says. “I believe it’s meant to make you want to have sex with this man.”

“Really?” I ask, fascinated. “Does that ever work?”

“It’s a great mystery. You’d think not, but then, why do they keep doing it? Even rats can learn that ineffective mating techniques should be abandoned, right?”

“Maybe it’s like flashers in the park,” I say, squinting at the screen. “It’s not about whether you like it – they just like showing their todgers.”

Meanwhile, Eileen decides that since online dating is not getting Bee anywhere, a more direct approach is required. She asks Bee about her requirements in a partner and begins interviewing candidates for her. This works surprisingly well. When Mike, the grandson of her good friend Betsy, visits London, she interrogates Betsy on his personal and political beliefs and his job, decides he looks promising, and invites Bee along to the lunch with him. Naturally she doesn’t tell either him or Bee about this.

Fortunately, Mike is fairly amused by this unexpected blind date (one gets the sense that, as Betsy’s grandson, this isn’t his first time being Managed by a bossy elderly lady for his own good), and the fact that he and Bee find each other immediately attractive doesn’t hurt, either. Having said that, they bond as much over Eileen’s meddling as over anything else.

“Eileen,” he says, “you have the advantage over me and Bee – you’re the only person at this table who has any idea who has any idea who anybody else is. So. Why don’t you tell us why you wanted to matchmake me and Bee today?”

I pause, a little startled. “Oh, umm, well…”

I catch Bee’s expression of rather wicked amusement. She shoots Mike an appreciative glance. I narrow my eyes at them both.

“I have spent a great deal of the last few years keeping my mouth shut about one thing or another,” I tell them. “But I’ve come to realise lately that sometimes it’s better to just stick your oar in, as it were. So you shan’t make me feel embarrassed for trying to matchmake the two of you. As Bee put it – I have no shame.”

[…]

I return home feeling pleased as punch. I chaired the entirety of Bee and Mike’s date and it was a roaring success. Well, they spent the majority of it laughing, at least – some of the time at me, admittedly, but that didn’t matter. I’ve always been rather afraid of being laughed at, but when it’s on your own terms, and you’re laughing too, it turns out it can be quite fun.

Leena has a rougher landing. Accustomed to a demanding and fast-paced work environment, she is inclined to have a patronising attitude to her grandmother’s ‘little projects’ – she may view Eileen as a ‘force of nature’, but Eileen is also her grandma and on some level I don’t think Leena takes her very seriously. After all, what could her grandma possibly be doing that is as hard as what Leena does for a living?

This attitude, unsurprisingly, doesn’t endear her to her neighbours, or, initially, to me (though I do have the uncomfortable feeling that I’m more like Leena than I’d like to think). Naturally, it turns out that quite a few things are harder than they look. But as the book progresses, we see that Leena has inherited her grandmother’s drive to fix the world and improve the lives of people around her, as well as her kindness and genuine appreciation of people, and she begins to enjoy living in the village community. She even makes friends with the ogre-descended Arnold Macintyre, who might not be quite such an odious human being as her grandmother has always thought.

“Your grandma and I don’t really see eye to eye.” Arnold says. “We got off on the wrong foot a long time ago, and she’s loathed me ever since.” He shrugs. “No skin off my nose. The way I see it, if you don’t like me, you can sling your hook.”

“That’s often a very admirable statement,” I say, “but sometimes also an excuse for being grumpy and unreasonable.”

“Ey?” Arnold says.

“I’ve seen you in the mornings, out looking after Grandma’s plants.”

Arnold looks embarrassed. “Oh, well, that’s just…”

“And here you are, helping me fish my car out of a hedge.”

“Well, I just thought…” he scowls. “What’s your point?”

“Just not sure I believe the grumpy act, that’s all. […] Besides, it’s never too late to change – just look at my Grandma. Grandpa’s gone, and what’s she done? Set off on an adventure in London and started online dating.”

And he takes a much kinder view of Leena’s various disasters than Leena herself does, pointing out the good that she has achieved. I’m rather fond of Arnold, I must say.

Between Leena’s friends and flatmates and Eileen’s neighbours and friends in the village, there are a lot of minor characters, and one thing I like about this novel is that the pace is slow enough that we have time to get to know them. (There’s something very slice of life about this novel – as you can see, I’m still struggling to figure out what genre it belongs to.) In London, in addition to Bee, we have Fitz, who may be feckless but who does a fine job of bringing Eileen out of her shell when she first arrives, and giving her a makeover that is very her. We have the heavily pregnant Martha and her absent girlfriend Yaz, but also the various inhabitants of the apartments whom Eileen comes to know (and let’s not forget Tod, Eileen’s fling, who is charming, handsome, good in bed, and unreliable)

In the village, we have Betsy, who is one of those women who is on every imaginable committee and keeps things running, who Eileen describes as ‘a kind soul and a very dear friend, but she is also excellent at saying rude things in a tone of voice that means you can’t object to them’. Betsy is easily offended and quick to judge, but has a very difficult home life that we learn about slowly during the course of the book. We have grumpy Arnold, who might not actually be descended from ogres, and we have the 96-year-old Nicola, who may be frail of body but is incisive and sly-witted and very funny. We have the Neighbourhood Watch, which has little to do with crime, but much to do with pursuing the War on Squirrels and keeping an eye on the activities of the loathesome neighbouring township, and is run by Eileen with Betsy’s able assistance. And we have Jackson Greenwood, the ‘shambolically sexy’ primary school teacher, who has the Neighbourhood Watch and May Day committee wrapped around his finger. He also has a large dog, who gets away from Leena on her first go at walking him (dog lovers may relax; he finds his way home immediately):

Jackson watches as I push myself up and make a vague attempt to brush the dirt off my jeans.

“You’re forgiven, if that’s what you’re after,” he says. “Hank’s a little bugger anyway, shouldn’t have let him loose on you.”

“I’ll make it up to you,” I say, trying to pull myself together.

“You don’t have to.”

“No,” I say with determination. “I do. Just name a job and I’ll do it. Cleaning classrooms at the school? Or do you need any help with admin? I’m really good at admin.”

“Are you looking for some sort of … detention?” he asks, tilting his head, bemused.

“I really messed up,” I say, frustrated now. “I’m just trying to fix it.”

“It’s fixed.” Jackson pauses. “But if you really want a job to do, one of the classrooms does need a lick of paint. I could do with a hand on that.”

Just as it is evident that Arnold will eventually become Eileen’s love interest, Jackson is clearly meant for Leena… just as soon as she realises what a no-good waste of space her current boyfriend is.

Having said that, I’m not quite sure I’d count this book as a romance, to be honest. The story is told in alternating viewpoints between Leena and Eileen, and it’s primarily a story about two women rediscovering themselves after a loss (three women, really, if you count Leena’s mother, but she is very much a secondary character in this story). While they both have romantic journeys, these are rather sketched in, and we see very little of the relationships which will become their happy-ever-afters, though we do see enough to feel comfortable that their new men are both compatible with them and worthy of them.

One thing I really loved about this book was that Eileen’s journey and romantic life are as important as Leena’s. In fact, she has significantly more sex in this book than her granddaughter does (O’Leary’s sex scenes are always closed door, but we are left in no doubt about what is happening about that door). I haven’t read a lot of books where older women get to have a romantic storyline, and I definitely haven’t read any other books in which an older woman gets to have excellent hook-up sex with no intention of ever taking things further than that. This is representation I didn’t know I wanted, but I’m delighted to have it.

There is a fair bit of grief in this book, but it isn’t a sad book – in fact, there is a lot of humour, a lot of emphasis on community and on building friendships that cross age barriers, and a lot of the delight of finding new ways of living that bring you joy and fulfilment. It made me very happy, and a little wistful for the sense of community at the centre of the story. But I think it could be hard to read for someone who had lost a family member to cancer.

While on the surface The Switch can be read as a ‘city girl goes to live in a rural area, discovers rural values, is improved and settles down’ narrative, that really is only half the story. Leena does find that she enjoys village life, but she also enjoys her career, and this is a tension she has to resolve. Meanwhile, Eileen may be bringing some of her small town community values to the big city, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t having a ball in London while she is there. The narrative champions community, wherever you may find it, and it celebrates small town life without denigrating big cities. As a city girl myself, I appreciate this!

I also like the fact that with the exception of certain cheating exes, everyone that Eileen or Leena meets ends the book in a better place than when they started. There isn’t just one happy ever after in this book, there are dozens. Jobs are found, lonely people make friends, bad relationships are ended, difficult ones are mended, and new ones are started. It’s a very gentle, wholesome sort of book. I read it last week when I was sick, and it was really the perfect book to curl up with if one is under the weather. It’s sweet and funny and kind and low conflict, and if I can’t be Eileen myself, I’d settle for her coming over and organising my life for me.

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The Switch by Beth O'Leary

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  1. SusanS says:

    I really enjoyed this as well. So rare to see a 79 year old character in this type of book portrayed with such dignity and agency. O’Leary’s debut novel, The Flatshare, was wonderful too.

  2. Escapeologist says:

    This sounds wonderful, thank you for the review! Dozens of happy endings, yes please!

  3. Penny says:

    This wasn’t even in my radar! I’m for sure ordering this in my next round of books… the Flatshare has actually been on tbr for awhile… I keep doing rereads & watching old movies/tv series instead of trying new things which are probably great but *shrug* so my tbr is getting a little unwieldy… not that that stops me from adding to it! I might have an ebook addiction…

    I love the prospect of reading a romance centered around a 79 year old woman! One of the things I always enjoyed about Jayne Ann Krentz’s more recent contemporaries is that often the main character has parents/grandparents who are vital and active and sometimes even having secondary character arcs. (JAK/AQ has been one of the authors I’m rereading/reading her newer stuff). I always kind of wished she would shake things up and make a book *entirely* about a woman over 60…

  4. Penny says:

    Added: I mean I know that it’s not solely centered on her, that it’s about both Leena and Eileen, but having a real, fully fleshed out romance and not a purely secondary role for Eileen has me all excited.

  5. Georgina says:

    Oh, this sounds charming! Thanks for the terrific review.

    Beth O’Leary’s debut, The Flatshare, was delightful, but I somehow got it into my head that this novel had the two main characters actually switching bodies in some kind of Freaky Friday situation, so I’d been avoiding it. Definitely going to give it a go now.

  6. Dove says:

    I received an audio ARC of The Switch and I absolutely loved, loved, loved it. Eileen has such wonderful perspective on life and Lena is very relatable in her struggles and her grief. Both narrators were fantastic; I laughed, commiserated, just felt the story of these two wonderful ladies to my bones.

  7. AmyM says:

    Wonderful review! I agree with everything you wrote. I loved the representation that Eileen, being a 79 year old woman, receives in this book. While some might think of her actions as “meddling” I like to think that she brought her experiences and wisdom to Leena’s flatmates (and London in general) and gave everyone a new perspective on life. I loved the merging of the younger and older generations.

  8. Brooke says:

    Thanks for the review. I loved The Flatshare and Beth O’Leary’s voice, but I wasn’t clear on what The Switch was. It didn’t quite sound like a romance. Now I can enjoy it for what is and not expect something it isn’t. 🙂

  9. Lisa F says:

    An A for me too, fabulously written!

  10. Brooke says:

    And thanks for the CW too!

  11. Kareni says:

    This sounds wonderful, Catherine! I am now even more eager to read this.

  12. Maureen says:

    I LOVED The Flatshare, and can’t wait for this book. I’m on an extreme book budget right now, I’m a substitute teacher who works almost full time during the school year, and of course that won’t be happening for a while. I’ve already used my book allowance for August! I’m a member of two libraries, and neither has this in their catalog. Who else thinks the perfect job would be working on the ebook collection for their library??

  13. Juhi says:

    ok, this review has made me want to read this NOW

  14. Karen D says:

    @Maureen–ask one of your libraries to purchase it! That’s what they are there for:-)

  15. Maureen says:

    @Karen D-I did!! The great thing is if they do buy it, they put me on the hold list, so I end up getting it pretty quickly!

  16. Lori says:

    I loved this book! Your review is great and does a wonderful job summing up all that is delightful in this book. I also want to be Eileen when I grow up!

  17. Blackjack says:

    I’m about to start The Switch this weekend and like others, I’m coming to it having loved The Flatshare. It was one of my favorite books last year, and so it’s always with some anxiety that I read a sophomore effort from a favorite new author. I have to say too that I appreciate a wide range of ages and age representation in general in a novel. Great review!!

  18. Ulrike says:

    I absolutely adored The Flatshare and just requested my library get a copy of The Switch!

  19. Sharon says:

    I usually prefer to read the book than listen to the audio, but Beth O’Leary’s books are an exception. Her characters’ voices are so integral to the story’s rhythm that I like to listen first, then read to catch the nuances and enjoy the writing. Hence today’s headache after staying up until 3am with the audiobook! It was well worth it. Definitely an A from me.

  20. Juhi says:

    I finally got around to reading this and loved it–was prompted to do so by this review, so thank you! My favorite bits were Eileen’s I have to say! It took me a while to get into the book but once I did, I kept wanting to pick it up again. And I see what Catherine means by slice-of-life-ish feeling… I think that’s one reason why this story worked for me.

    On a different note, I did fleetingly wonder about Leena’s mom’s job/financial situation since it’s mentioned she bought a house for her daughter.

    Also loved how Leena works through her grief–felt authentic to me.

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