Casting Off
By P.I. Paris, 2016
Fiction. 320 pp. Black & White Publishing.
… a page-turner filled with love and humour.
Based off P. I Paris’s play by the same name, Casting Off is about the shenanigans in a Highlands retirement home on the verge of a large rent hike. Several residents can’t afford the new cost, so under the cover of a knitting group, a spirited set of characters plot how to help their friends affected by the price. From locking themselves into the rec room and demanding to be heard on the local news to setting up a sex hotline, nothing is off limits to the seniors.
I devoured this book the day after I purchased it. While the back copy of the book suggests a romp through senior antics and the naughty chat line, this book was greater than that. There are long-held feuds and secrets, loves lost and gained, and poignancy: as can be expected in any senior care facility, not all the residents will still be alive at the story’s conclusion. Casting Off also adeptly addresses some very real issues about elder care, such as dementia and senior sexuality. Just because these folks are in a retirement home doesn’t mean they’re not active or that they don’t want to be, regardless of their physical or mental capacities.
The main cast is comprised of a Golden Girl-esque trio: the ex-headmistress Miss Ross; innocent Dorothy, who can’t afford the new rent; and worldly-wise Joan with a great many skeletons in her closet. The only disappointment I experienced was the chat line fun doesn’t come in until well into the book, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying the laugh-out-loud storytelling along the way.
Michelle Hoogterp is possibly Batgirl. She is definitely a librarian. Usually she has overdue books, reading on average 100 a year. Her favourite author and celebrity crush is Lucy Worsley. She collects pattern books (and fabric) and hopes to use them all one day. Her Grand Aunt Martha taught her to sew quilts, which are often donated to dachshund rescues for auction. You can find Michelle on Goodreads at goodreads.com/noodlemaus. Or on Instagram: punk_ass_book_jockey
