This is a great read, one that seems very regular and ordinary, but is extremely well-written and enjoyable.

Owen is a groundsman at a small university in his home state of Kentucky. He lives with his grandad and uncle Cort. His parents are estranged: mother is a devout Christian, and father married again to Bonnie, who is terminally ill.

One day, Owen meets Alma, a visiting writer-in-residence - they strike up conversation, which develops into a friendship and then a relationship. It materialises quite quickly that Alma, a child of Bosnian immigrants, is in a relationship with Casey - a peer of Owen's on his course. Seemingly, Owen is bright and a gifted writer and studies alongside his physical job. It did make me question the implausibility of Owen lying to Casey/Alma about connections - it is obvious that something is going to come out in the wash quite quickly, and it does. What follows is a blossoming relationship between Owen and Alma, all the while both having to find their way and deal with, in particular, Owen's relatives, and tensions that arise, and Alma's background.

In some ways, I expected there to be more references to Alma's Bosnian heritage. Clearly, her parents have been successful, and have a bigger slice of the American dream than Owen's family - particularly where his grandad and Cort are concerned. Throughout the novel, a motif of smoking appears - somewhat unusual, perhaps, in this day and age, although Kentucky does have higher smoking rates than other parts of the US, so maybe this is realistic.

I really enjoyed this - it is somewhat 'meta' in that Owen is a writer in a book about writing, and Cole captures his life and ambitions effectively. Does he go to Tallahassee, as planned - who knows? Regardless, this is a beautifully executed story about a young couple finding their way through life.

An extraordinarily accomplished debut novel. Multi-layered with a wide cast of interesting and complex characters, at its heart is the love story between Owen and Alma. Owen is a Kentucky boy from a red-neck background who went off the rails for a while but is now determined to turn his life around and has ambitions to be a writer. Alma, the rich kid from an Ivy League university and already a published author comes to take up a position at the college where Owen is working as a groundskeeper. He’s from a Christian Evangelical background, she’s from a family of Muslim Bosnian immigrants. His family are Trump voters, hers are liberal. The book follows their relationship as it grows and matures, perceptively and with tender insight. It’s a quiet book, which doesn’t shy away from the harsher aspects of the tensions between them, and in the society around them, nor afraid of having a side-swipe at the academic world, whilst remaining objective and non-judgemental. The author has a sharp eye for the telling detail that vividly evokes a personality or a situation. The characters are fully-rounded and three dimensional ones, the dialogue spot-on and the sense of time and place vivid and authentic. I loved it.

From the first sentence of Groundskeeping I was hooked on the lyrical language Lee Cole uses to convey the thoughts and observations of the protagonist Owen. The novel is a first person perspective lament exploring love, loss, family, ambition and comfort set predominantly at a University in Kentucky where Owen works on the grounds in order to take a class and Alma is perusing a writer in residence program. Kentucky is as much a character as they are and Cole writes beautiful observations of the surroundings while the story meanders through various meta conversations about art and life. I'd recommend this to anyone who enjoys a love of language, and critical thinking, who enjoys calm slow novels. It is a passage of time novel that examines the minutia of the everyday and the people Owen chooses to prioritize within that time. All in all I enjoyed reading it mostly to wind down in the evenings.

I loved this book - I was so impressed by the quality of Cole's writing, every sentence is crafted and balanced with care, and I really enjoyed the observational style and how the smallest details contributed to the sense of place and the characters. Weighty topics, politics and family relationships, are explored with surprising humour, and the arcs of the characters reminded me hugely of Lily King's Writers & Lovers, which has been a big hand-sold title for us.

Groundskeeper by Lee Cole is a superb story about how people from different backgrounds and cultures can both fit into but also break out of their stereotypical mindsets and behaviours.

Owen works as a groundskeeper at Ashby College and meets Alma at a party in Kentucky following which they strike up a friendship. Owen has a chequered past, while Alma is something of an achiever having been awarded a fellowship in Ashby College; Alma also has a boyfriend Casey and Owen questions if there is any point in continuing being friends.

Owen and Alma are both aspiring writers though Alma has already had a book published; their relationship is weighted in Alma's favour, and though she is very fond of Owen, she is not able to break up with Casey.

Owen's relationship with his family can be touching but is mostly frustrating; he lives with his Grandpa and uncle in his grandpa's basement without having to pay rent as he tries to sort out his career. His mother and father are both with new partners now and each have their own issues to deal with as well as trying to guide their 'errant' son.

I found Groundskeeping to be a real joy to read; it was extremely engaging with some clever twists that demonstrate each character's flaws.

I feel bad dnfing books, especially arcs, but I just could not get through this one. I do not know what it was with this book specifically that made it so hard for me to push through, might be that the pace of it was off for me but I just had no interest in picking it back up whenever I put it down. I do think that this was a specific problem I had and objectively this book is probably at least a 4 star read, which is why I am giving it a 2 star despite having such a hard time with it.

Thank you to Netgalley and Faber & Faber for sending me an advanced copy

I requested Groundskeeping back in October purely based on the description, the cover and the publisher. I had never heard of the author (it’s a debut), and didn’t pick it up to read until this month, but I’m so glad I took a chance on it.

Groundskeeping is a love story very much grounded in a time and place that will be recognisable to many people. It’s 2016 and Trump is about to be elected President.

Owen Callahan is in his mid-twenties and after a few years drifting about, he has taken up work as a groundskeeper at a college in his home state Kentucky. The job allows him to take a creative writing course at night (writing is his passion). Not long after starting, he meets Alma, a published author and a Bosnian Muslim, who came to the US as a child with her parents fleeing the Balkans war.

The path of true love is never smooth, and Owen and Alma navigate class, identity, literary success, family prejudices and their own insecurities in a tale that is rich in its subtlety and striking in how it perfectly captures a moment in time, and a feeling that will be familiar to so many - the pull of home despite its faults.

It’s a quiet book that I’m sure won’t be for everyone, but if you loved Lily King’s Writers and Lovers, and you love the ordinary beauty in the writing of Anne Tyler and Elizabeth Strout, then you’ll enjoy this one. It was exactly my cup of tea. I loved it, beautifully written, so tender, so satisfying. 4.5-5/5 ⭐️

*Groundskeeping by Lee Cole will be published this week on 17 March by @faber. It’s also a @bookswithjenna book club pick for March. Sincere thanks to the author, the publisher and @netgalley for the ARC. As always, this is an honest review.*

A quiet and character-driven story about a young man from Kentucky, Owen, who is working as a groundskeeper at a college which enables him to sign up for a writing course when not working (called "jungle narratives"). We learn that Owen has had a troubled early 20s and comes from a right wing family, growing up in working-class rural Kentucky.

He meets a writer-in-residence, Anna, during his time at the college, and they seem to be polar opposites: Anna's parents migrated to the US from war-torn Bosnia in the 90s and have worked their way up to being business owners and living a very comfortable middle-class lifestyle in the suburbs. The two are brought together through a mutual attraction and shared love of writing, and as the story progresses we see them interact with one another's families. These interactions then go on to shape their writing and impacts on their relationship too.

This was a well-paced story of tensions in pre-Trump America, and then in the fall out of the election. My only tiny criticism would be that Anna's character wasn't quite as developed as Owen's, but this is a minor niggle. I thought the writing was excellent (hard to believe this is a debut) and the themes well handled. Highly recommended!

Owen grew up in rural Kentucky and has taken a job as a groundskeeper at a local college so he can make some money and take a free writing course. In class, he's forced to reflect on 'jungle narratives'; at work, he fells and trims trees in the college's grounds. Alma, a writer-in-residence at the college, is a 'cultural Muslim' whose parents fled Bosnia before she was born. She grew up on the outskirts of DC and was educated in the Ivy League.

Groundskeeping, Lee Cole's debut novel, considers how Owen and Alma negotiate their relationship, and how Owen navigates his developing identity as a writer. Both are prone to be insensitive to the other; both make uncomfortable missteps. But the heart of the novel seemed to me to be this conversation between the two, where Alma tells Owen:

'I just wish I could think of something without thinking of a dozen other things related to it. Like, I can't just think of a tree anymore. I think about all the poems about trees that I like. The tree as cultural signifier. I think about "Birches" by Robert Frost. But you - you just think of them as they are, I'm sure. Or you think of them in a technical sense, as something you have to work on.'

This tells us everything about who these two characters want to be and who they think the other person is, especially when Owen wonders if he likes this 'compliment': 'It was true that I'd never thought of Robert Frost while working on a tree, but I knew the poem.'

Cole creates such complex, realistic characters; Owen's uncomfortable tenderness towards his grandfather, Pop, is perhaps the standout relationship in this novel, but a host of minor characters are also beautifully rendered. I'd have liked a little less focus on Alma and a bit more on Owen's wider world, but this is a minor complaint. Absorbingly plotless, this novel is a wonderfully slow read that encourages its reader to observe the world more closely.

'Groundskeeping' is a really well-written debut novel set in Kentucky during the 2016 presidential election. The narrator, Owen, is an aspiring writer who has returned to Kentucky to take a job on the groundskeeping team of the local college, at which entitles him to take one creative writing class. The central focus of the novel is Owen's relationship with Alma, the college's Writer-in-Residence, who is a similar age to him; she comes from a fully assimilated family of Bosnian immigrants in Washignton DC and has benefitted from a middle-class upbringing and a more prestigious education. The novel also explores Owen's relationships with his family - he has quite a distant relationship with his parents and stepparents, and lives in his grandfather's house alongside his disabled, Trump-supporting uncle - and with his fellow groundskeepers (an older Trump voter and a Masters student who is Black).

This range of relationships that Owen allows for a fascinating exploration of American society and politics, both present and past (Kentucky was officially neutral in the Civil War but there were many Confederate supporters, and these fault-lines continue into the present day). I particularly admired the way that Lee Cole distils the political into the personal as Owen wrestles with his feelings of disappointment, inadequacy and shame, particularly as his relationship with Alma develops. In particular, the sense of being ashamed of where you come from is very powerfully rendered.

As other reviews have noted, this has a lot in common with novels such as Sally Rooney's 'Normal People' in its thoughtful examination of how power, class and money intersect with love and sex. It also explores the ethics of writing within a relationship - especially a relationship between two writers - and what material belongs to whom.

Owen is a fantastic observer of the world around him, and the writing is exquisite, so this book was a pleasure to read. Thank you to Faber and NetGalley for sending me an ARC of this novel to review.

These past few years have revealed such a divide among people I really appreciated Cole's ability to show the motive and reasoning behind his characters actions. Whether they were educated or not, immigrants or American born, Republican or Democrat they all had their flaws and their pre-conceived notions. I loved the quiet voice of Owen and Cole's portrayal of his relationship with Alma was nuanced. I featured this book on our newsletter and will be sure to handbell it.

3.5 stars
I was initially thrown by the unconventional approach of no chapter headings and the lack of quotation marks, which occasionally had me re-reading sections to grasp the dialogue fully. However, it was a bright start, and I was quickly engaged in this very human love story (honest, raw and authentic), set largely on a college campus in Kentucky.

That said, from an initial full head of steam, the story lost some pace and faded a little for me, The ending came as an almighty blow and left me with feelings of frustration and irritation, which kind of summed up my feelings about the protagonist.

An impressive debut, nonetheless, and a lovely writing style. I will keep an eye out for more from this author in the future.

Thanks to NetGalley and Faber and Faber for granting this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was initially drawn to the front cover of this novel which is probably not something you should admit to when writing a review. The implication of the title ‘Groundskeeping’ suggested ideas of potential unrest and disaster whilst trying to maintain order, authority and calm. In lots of ways this is exactly what it was about. ‘Groundskeeping’ has as its central protagonist and narrative voice Owen Callahan, a young American man, who aspires to be a writer. Down on his luck he moves back to his hometown in Kentucky to live with his uncle and grandfather. As a way of supporting himself, Owen takes on a job as a groundskeeper at a local college which in exchange for his role, he is able to attend creative writing classes.
Owen’s relationship with home and place is an interesting one explored by the writer. Owen feels he has somehow failed or at the very least harbours feelings of ambivalence about returning home. Opportunity and success are elsewhere, ‘In Kentucky, all I want is to leave. When I’m away, I’m homesick for a place that never was.’ It feels somehow a universal trait to feel that part of growing up is to feel we outgrow our roots and that pull to experience the world is one we should do in order to figuratively grow and develop.
This relationship is further complicated by the difficult relationships he has with his immediate family. Whilst living with his grandfather, himself a character that has remained static since the death of his wife, Owen has increasingly fraught run ins with his Trump supporting uncle. He also has to navigate complex emotions with both his mother and father who are both living with different partners and facing issues of ill health and unemployment. The novel frames their encounters with the pressing issues the country is facing in the present day. Politically, his family hold very different views which causes frustration and anger on both sides. We are being asked to consider how can we nurture meaningful connections when those we love hold such divisive viewpoints.
Owen’s relationship with Alma Hazdic, a writer in residence at the college Owen works at is another central aspect of the novel. Alma, a Bosnian immigrant, has led a life of privilege in relation to Owen and yet seems to be pulled by the same forces as himself. Owen believes they have, ‘some sense of shared understanding, real or imagined- that we were of a kind. Maybe it didn’t matter.’ This interesting dynamic is played out across the text and it seems the writer is asking the reader to consider the desires of each character and how parallel they are. Are they really after the same thing? Owen seems to hint at the truth, ‘I figured these sorts of things suffered from close scrutiny anyhow.’ We are all perhaps guilty of portraying an outward image based around perceived notions of success, focussing on how we want others to see us without wanting to face harsher realities.
There are moments of real sadness and poignancy within the text. Myself as a reader felt particularly drawn to Owen’s grandfather, a veteran of WWII and a character who acts as a keeper of the peace and filled with wisdom. During a typical evening scene watching his beloved Westerns he says to Owen it is the everyday, dull moments we take for granted that we miss the most when they are gone. I felt his character arc was particularly vivid and perfectly illustrated the complexity and nuances behind individual beliefs that we might be easily dismissive of if they are contrary to our own without scrutinising the reasons behind them.
A lingering image or images from the book were the trees. Trees being pruned, trimmed, cut down. Glimpses of plants and tree branches when characters go about their daily lives. You see them and hear them, ‘a breeze kicked up, and you could hear the wind ruffling the leaves- a sound like ocean surf.’ They are a continual motif throughout which I chose to see as a positive. Perhaps the idea that life continues and grows despite the minutiae of our daily worries and stresses. Nature as being a constant restorative or leveler in times of tension or stress. A beautiful book about relationships, identity and how we each define home.

Lee Cole’s debut follows Owen, recently returned to Kentucky where he’s living in his grandfather’s basement. It’s not where he’d wanted to be in his late 20s but it’s better than living in his Buick and wrestling with a drug problem. He’s working as a groundskeeper at the local liberal arts college enabling him to take a writing class, free of charge. At a college party he meets Alma, the writer in residence, younger than him but with a short story collection already published, slipping into a relationship with her that grows into love, despite the many obstacles in their way, until it’s time to decide if they have a future.

Owen tells us his own story with a wry humour, fully aware of his tendency to regress into adolescence around his family but determined not to slide back into aimlessness. His relationship with Alma is well drawn, their mutual ransacking of each other’s lives for their writing nicely handled and the cultural gulf between their families neatly summed up when Pop mentions a John Wayne movie and Alma recalls a Joan Didion essay on it. I thoroughly enjoyed this quietly accomplished novel. Very much looking forward to what Cole comes up with next.

Imagine a Sally Rooney novel transposed to Kentucky and you have Groundskeeping - a young man meets a young woman and struggles with the complexities of modern life and relationships. The author does a good job in his portrayal of America's political divides and helps bewildered outsiders understand the reasons why so many Americans voted for Trump. Young writers are often advised to "write what you know" and this book certainly has this feel to it although, for a debut, the writing is quietly confident. It will be interesting to see what Lee Cole does next.

Grounds keeping by Lee Cole

Thank you to NetGalley and Faber &faber for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I finished this a few days ago and have let myself cogitate a while before writing a review. I quite liked this very literary novel ( in which we look at a man learning how to write) and yet I didn't like any of the characters which for me is usually crucial. It is incredibly timely set in the months following the Trump election and the main character is grappling with the cultural and social changes this brings. He is a small town Kentucky boy who has returned to live with his grandfather and right wing disabled uncle because he has no money and all he can do is get a job in a college as a groundskeeper which gives him one free course. His step mother is dying of cancer and his father is struggling to cope. His mother wants him to get on with his life.

He meets Alma who is a writer in residence and whose family escaped from Bosnia. Their two families could not be more different: he is the first to graduate, hers are professionals and the awkward meetings with family bring some toe curlingly good scenes.

This is a coming of age story in which you are rooting for no one ( except grandad) and in which the cultural divide is a chasm into which they will surely fall.

This is I believe a first novel and there is much good writing in it so I will,look out for more from the author.

Groundskeeping by Lee Cole is about a writing student, his strained relationship with his family and his relationship with another writer who comes from a very different background. Well-written and engaging.

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley.

This was a novel about writers and writing, and it all became a bit circular at the end. I didn't warm to either Owen or Alma particularly, and since I felt their relationship was doomed, the ending confused me. This was also a novel focusing on the class systems in the US, and at times it felt slightly tick-box: there were Trump voters, evolution deniers, racism, Confederate flags. Alma's fear of Owen's past addiction issues on the other hand felt very authentic.

A beautiful romance of class and privilege divides, an American answer to NORMAL PEOPLE that finally feels deserved. I loved it!