When Life's Got You Stressed, Grandmother Knows Best

When Londoner Leena Cotton has a panic attack that causes her to bungle a big work presentation, HR mandates that she take two months vacation.  Meanwhile, her seventy-nine-year-old grandmother Eileen, who lives in Yorkshire, is coming to grips with her husband deserting her for a dance instructor.  What are two such stressed souls to do?  Why, swap houses for two months, of course!  At least that's what happens in Beth O'Leary's The Switch, my most recent book club pick.  

The city mouse/country mouse trope always tugs at my heartstrings, pitting the glamour and excitement of urban life against quieter, pastoral pleasures.  It's a premise more complicated than it seems, as both settings represent what the characters want -- and don't want -- out of life.  This is certainly the case in The Switch.  Because in addition to dealing with their individual dramas, Leena and Eileen are still grieving the loss of their sister and granddaughter Carla.  So to distract themselves -- and also give back -- they set out to improve the lives of their new neighbors.  For Leena, this means chairing the Neighborhood Watch, a group of (mostly) young-at-heart oldsters more concerned with socializing than fighting crime.  Of course, there's one twenty-something member, a strapping single father and teacher who's miles nicer than Leena's sod of a boyfriend.  As for Eileen, meeting a fascinating but lonely elderly woman in Leena's apartment motivates her to organize a seniors group.  But Eileen's not all altruism all the time.  Her London adventure, as she's come to call it, includes online dating, an experiment that nets her a situationship with, among others, a silver fox actor.

Leena's and Eileen's struggles are sometimes funny and sometimes sad, but always relatable.  I could identify with their fish-out-of-water feelings and found Eileen especially delightful.  Her determination and wisdom are at the heart of this feel-good story.  Plus, she really rocks culottes.  When I'm eighty, I can only hope to be half as brave.  Indeed, both Eileen's and Leena's journeys show that sometimes a change of scenery can change so much more. 

So the next time someone asks you to housesit, don't be so quick to come up with an excuse.  

At least not until you've scoped out the neighbors.