A FUNNY KIND OF PARADISE (#gifted thanks to @netgalley and @penguinrandomca) isn't normally a book that I would gravitate towards, buy its setting of a long-term care home seemed especially pertinent given the importance of health care workers are these days. (Also, how are we still in the middle of this pandemic?! 😷😔)
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The narrator of A FUNNY KIND OF PARADISE is Frannie, a woman who has suffered a stroke and is only somewhat communicative (she can make facial expressions and move one arm). Because she is quiet yet still very alert in her mind, Frannie is the perfect fly on the wall in the care facility, and she describes the hilarious antics and the challenging moments of both the patients and the care workers. Author Jo Owens is a long-term care aide and her real-life experience really shows - Frannie's voice was so clear to me! Another plus in this novel was the character development. As Frannie reflects on her life, the differences between who she was before and after her stroke are stark and it was interesting to note how even long-term care patients can still grow and change and develop, even when it seems like their bodies are stagnant or failing.
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I really enjoyed this book and have a newfound appreciation for all health care workers, but especially those who work in these types of facilities.

After spending her life building her own business and raising two children alone, Francesca is looking forward to a quiet retirement, but when a massive stroke leaves her partially paralyzed, unable to speak, and living in a long-term care facility, her plans are obviously turned upside down. Now, she spends her days watching and listening to the care aides that support her and the other four women in her shared room, while also being forced to confront the choices she made in her past and the regrets that haunt her. The novel is written as though Francesca is speaking to her late best friend, Anna, who passed away from cancer two years before.

Francesca is a sharp, no-nonsense character and I enjoyed reading her comments about what is going on around her. She forms bonds with different care aides – each of which are unique and fully developed characters – while also forming a friendship with a fellow patient. The author, Jo Owens, has worked as a health care aide for twenty years, which is definitely apparent in the descriptions of day-to-day tasks in the home. Frannie learns a lot from the people around her and realizes that she spent her life as a cold and distant individual, more focused on her work than on her two children, Chris and Angelina. Her relationship (or lack thereof) with Angelina – who was a wild child right from the start – is particularly salient in her mind. Although she regrets the way she treated Angelina, I struggled with their relationship and Frannie’s cold, uncaring nature, as well as the way that she put Chris on a pedestal for being the “easy” one. I’m not a parent, but I just can’t imagine not trying to do more to help my own child.

A Funny Kind of Paradise ultimately sends the message that it is never too late to change and grow as an individual.

I loved this novel!

Francesca Jensen (Frannie) is a resident in an extended care facility in Victoria, B.C. A massive stroke has left her mute, partially paralyzed, and tube-fed. She is totally reliant on the staff for her care. She spends her days watching and listening to the four other women who share her room and the rotating crew of care aides. She also reflects on her life as a single mother raising two children (Chris and Angelina) while managing her own accounting business.

Though she cannot speak, Frannie is the narrator of this epistolary novel. She imagines she is writing to her best friend Anna who died three years earlier, and it is this letter that provides the narrative structure. Though Frannie has physical limitations, she has not suffered cognitive impairment as is witnessed in her astute observations. She comments on what she sees and hears and on her own thoughts and emotions.

Frannie is a dynamic character. She has been in the facility for a year and she admits that she spent much of that year “so angry I couldn’t even think. But now, a year later, I’m ready to come out of the dunce’s corner, like some sullen, grubby, pig-tailed schoolgirl, one knee-high crumpled to the ankle, temper under control but still holding a grudge.” Since she has so much time for reflection, she thinks back and realizes she was not the best mother. She worked hard to provide for her children but she was impatient and emotionally distant. She admits she was “fussy, impatient, bossy and opinionated.” She realizes that “my work defined me. I wasn’t particularly friendly with my clients, but I liked the person I was with them – a professional. I was confident, reliable, dependable and trustworthy.” This attitude carried over into her parenting style, which she now regrets; she wishes she had been more flexible, had listened more, and had just been nicer to people.

Her change is convincing. Having so many physical limitations, she has nothing to do but listen and think whereas in the past she never stopped to really do either. In many ways, the aides model behaviour for her. As Frannie comes into contact with the various aides, she comes to appreciate those who are gentle, compassionate, and take what little time they have to do the extras: “I think of the loving care I’m given and the respect I’m almost always treated with, and I’m thankful for the pure, sweet luck that brought me here.” She comes to realize that she did not always treat people, even her children, the way the aides now treat her.

The various aides emerge as distinct characters with distinct personalities. Some are more skilled and more compassionate than others, but Frannie comes to accept them despite their flaws because she realizes they too have lives which are not always easy. One of the regular aides is Blaire, and initially, Frannie thinks of her as unfriendly, disengaged, hard, and tough but learns that Blaire has worries of her own; at the end, Frannie comments, “when Blaire is not my nurse, she pretends that I don’t exist. It’s not personal. She treats all of us that way. . . . But that’s okay. That’s just Blaire.” It’s ironic that the aide Frannie likes the least is the one who most resembles her younger self.

The author has worked as a care aide for over 20 years so it is not surprising that her portrayal of life in an extended care facility is so realistic. She shows the everyday struggles of the aides but does not suggest that they are all perfect. During the Covid-19 pandemic where there have been so many deaths in long term care homes, this book sheds a light on the lives of front-line workers in those homes. I saw the wonderful work of these people firsthand when my father was in such a facility and when my mother was supported on her journey from this life.

The novel has an uplifting message. One is that “you’re never too old to change.” Another message is that every life is important; one of the residents, a care receiver, is told, “’You don’t know how you’re going to affect another person, even now. You just don’t know. Something you say, some part you play may completely change someone’s life, maybe my life. Maybe your own life. You just have to trust that your life is still significant.’” Certainly, Frannie’s fellow care receivers and their care givers do impact Frannie’s life in ways they will never know and never suspect.

This is a novel which will affect readers both emotionally and intellectually. And the music list at the end of the book is perfect.

Note: I received a digital galley from the publisher via NetGalley.

It was this description from Penguin Random House Canada that had me picking up Jo Owens' debut novel, A Funny Kind of Paradise.
"A poignant, uplifting, brilliantly insightful story of one woman's end-of-life reckoning with her past, her lost daughter and herself, for readers of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Still Alice and Elizabeth Is Missing."

If you're of a certain age, you will have spent time visiting loved ones in care facilities. I have. And it's hard. I read the first few chapters and thought - I just don't know if I can read this one. But, I did pick it up again - and ended up loving it.

Francesca is the lead character. She is in a care facility as she can't look after herself - a stroke has robbed her of her voice, her mobility, her ability to eat and more. But she still understands everything being said.

Francesca: "And nobody wants to lie there like a vegetable. We don't want it for ourselves, nor for our loved ones. Better to die quickly than to endure a half life. That's what we think. But I surprised myself. I just want to live."

Owens tell her story from past and present as Francesca remembers her children Christopher and Angelina and her best friend Anna. As well as recalling her drive to succeed, her parenting skills or lack thereof, her attitude towards life, brusque manner and more. She's seeing from a different point of view now she's reflecting on her life. At the mercy of others for her care, Franny's world grows smaller as her heart grows bigger. Stripped of the extraneous, Francesca finds comfort in the smaller things and connects with people in a way she didn't before the stroke.

We also meet other residents in the five bed room as they come and go. But it is the care workers that truly open up Franny's eyes and heart as they become the larger part of her life. Their conversations, both work related and personal, are told in italicized font. Their styles of care and attitudes are all different, but for the most part they care about the residents. The conversations are at times brutal in their honesty.

Now, here's the thing....Owens has worked as a health care aide for twenty years in Canada. She knows what she writes. There is one long term carer named Molly that I really liked - and I think maybe there's more than a bit of Owens' self woven into this character. Owens also points out in the author's notes that "I want to mention that the care aides in this book are appallingly ad about talking shop in front of the residents, which is a professional no-no. I let them talk that way, even though they're good aides) and should know better, because I want to write about what actually happens, rather than what ought to happen."

A Funny Kind of Paradise is a heartbreaking, heartwarming read that will have you thinking of what is important and what you truly value in life.

"But this is nothing like my old life, that's for sure. So I guess I could say it's a funny kind of paradise for me too."

This was an enjoyable read and was a very unique point of view .
The book gave me a great appreciation to those working in long-term care, giving a perspective I'd not thought of previously.

Thank you Penguin Random House for the Advanced Copy!

I am so sorry but this was a DNF for me :(

I just want to say first that the writing was great and the plot line was all there but I just could not get in to it. I thought maybe it was just my mood at first, so I put it away for a bit and tried again. But on that second try, I just felt I wasn't connecting with the characters or really understood where the story was even going. There was nothing that hooked me in or made me want to follow along. Maybe it was just because I couldn't relate to any of the themes or topics but it jumped around for me a lot and sometimes the conversations with the nursing aides seemed irrelevant.

BUT, like I said, I just couldn't seem to connect with anyone in there and maybe it just wasn't my type of book. However I have seen wonderful reviews of this book still and very happy that others are really enjoying it!

This was an enjoyable read and was a very unique point of view for the protagonist, Francesca, recovering from a stroke, unable to communicate everything she is thinking and feeling to those around her.

The book gave me a great appreciation to those working in long-term care, giving a perspective I'd not thought of previously, even when visiting elderly relatives in these scenarios.

Ultimately, it's a story of "it's never too late" to grow and change your ways, however, interwoven with light and dark threads which gave it more depth throughout.

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Random House Canada for a copy of the ARC in return for an honest review.

This was a very enjoyable read! As someone who's spent a fair amount of time visiting family members and friends in long-term care facilities, I found the setting and characters familiar, and by the end of the story I also gained an even greater appreciation for the community and connection that is possible in such a setting. The main character was also inspiring: if it's not too late for her to learn and grow, then certainly it's nowhere near too late for the rest of us, either. A Funny Kind of Paradise will stay with me for a long time, and I'll definitely recommend it to customers at the book store where I work.