I made it to Chapter 4. It wasn't holding my attention: nothing had really happened up to this point; I found I had been reading and taking nothing in. Maybe I've spent too much time in motorway service stations to find the setting in any way captivating. I though the plot was a bit thin and none of the characters were engaging me. Maybe it gets better, but I will give it a miss.

Quinn has settled into a kind of contentment after living for 5 years in a caravan on a roundabout when his peace is disturbed - shortly after an interview with a journalist, he is attacked and his home is trashed. He finds himself relying on the hospitality of a nearby service station where he has been a regular cafeteria patron.

This is the opening for a quirky and moving story about an older man remembering his childhood and coming to a new understanding of it. It is quite slow paced but I liked the writing and the quiet humour. Quinn and his triplet sisters grew up with a mother who was an acclaimed writer of children's books, in which they appeared as characters, but the reality was rather less idyllic than the fiction or than her public persona.

One for fans of reflective fiction rather than action packed stories.

Reviewed March 2012. I received a copy for review through the Amazon Vine programme. ( )

A clever and involved story by Clare Morrall about a man, his real mother, father and triplet sisters, and the seemingly identical fictional family created by his author mother in her popular series ‘The Triplets and Quinn’. It is a gentle story which reels you in.
At the age of 60 Quinn is living in a caravan parked in the middle of a wooded roundabout. He enjoys the quiet and the solitude. He forages for items to reuse, and scavenges for leftover food at the nearby Primrose Valley service station. We learn he fled the family home, The Cedars, the setting for ‘The Triplets and Quinn’ series, after spending his adult years there caring for his eccentric widowed mother and showing fans of her stories around the house. The real story of this family has been subsumed by his mother’s fiction, easy answers to inquisitive fans who spout fiction as if it is reality, and his unwillingness to face up to unpalatable truths.
As real life and his mother’s fiction merge in Quinn’s head, it is a while before Quinn (and we) start to piece together the real story. Meanwhile real life intrudes at the roundabout and Quinn is forced to socialise with the service station employees. When, individually, his sisters visit him, he ends up with no answers and more questions. Why did his parents foster so many disadvantaged children, and then seem not to care about them? Was the story about the fictional Quinn’s kidnap as a baby based on a true event? And are the casseroles, left anonymously on his caravan doorstep, left there by foster child Annie of whom Quinn has fond memories?
Yet again, another delightful novel from Clare Morrall. She is so good at delving into human nature, family connections and the unintended misunderstandings and mis-firings which can affect a person’s life. Is it too late for Quinn? With his parents, Mumski and the Professor dead, is the truth out of reach?
Read more of my book reviews at http://www.sandradanby.com/book-reviews-a-z/ ( )

'The Triplets and Quinn'.

I enjoyed the audio version of this book, excellently read by Gordon Griffin. It was light enough to entertain me whilst driving, while having some deeper messages to make it worthwhile.

The Roundabout Man of the title, is none other than Quinn Smith, depicted in his mother's popular series of childrens' books, as a scruffy-haired little boy with falling-down socks. When we meet him he is nearing 60 and desperate to separate himself from this huge persona.
He now lives where no-one will ever look for him - in a caravan, in the centre of a roundabout.
Unfortunately one person does track him down, a nosey young magazine reporter, whose article sends his life spiralling in totally unforeseen directions.

The motorway service station, just off the roundabout, is his source of food, warmth and contact with people. But what starts out as an impersonal, transitory, brick building, turns out to house an interesting secondary family.

'The Triplets and Quinn' series also features Quinn's triplet sisters, who appeared to be close as children but seem to have fractured apart as adults.
Larissa Smith, their mother and the author of the famous series, writes knowledgeably about childhood adventures, yet seems totally unable to care for and love her own children.

Clare Morrall writes beautifully about isolation and the longing for a mother, but the reason given for why Larissa was so distant was the weak link for me. Otherwise, this was an excellent read from an interesting author.

Also read by Clare Morrall:
The Language of Others (5 stars) ( )

As usual, Clare Morrall features a socially isolated person as the main character who is at the borderline of 'normality'. Of course, I read and enjoy her books because I identify with such people, but I reckon there are a lot others who find a similar connection, at least in some aspects. For example, many people probably feel estranged from their siblings or their parents and find themselves a little confused by that feeling of estrangement. I reckon Morrall excels in the way she narrates the one-to-one interactions between individuals. There's not just dialog, but also what is going on in one person's head - and what they think is going on in the other person's head.
I suppose the weaknesses of her work are the unlikely twists and turns in the plot, and the unreality of the basic story (and maybe the predictability of the story....but life is predictable, isn't it?), but for me that doesn't get in the way too much. There's plenty of reality there to keep me satisfied.Keep going Clare! Don't let that lymphoma get the better of you. ( )