Another door is always open (When One Door Closes - Joan Jonker)

Member Name: kiwiii85

Product:	When One Door Closes - Joan Jonker
Date:	29/01/09 (109 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy Read, some twists in the plot

Disadvantages: Bit too depressing for my liking, could be predictable, wanted to strangle main character!

Joan Jonker has proven herself to be a very popular writer and is renowned for her Liverpool sagas. This one is no different and you'll be full of emotion as you read it.

The Plot
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Mary Brawshaw lives with her widowed mother and she's met the man of her dreams. The problem? It's war time and he's been sent off to fight. Seeing him for only fleeting visits leads Mary to make one of the biggest mistakes that will impact her life forever.

Things go from bad to worse for Mary and she has to battle on and make decisions that will affect her for the rest of her life, whether she wants to or not. Harry, the boy who has loved her since she was little comes to the rescue and with a little help from Eileen, the woman with the biggest sense of humour around, Mary is soon on the right steps. Once again, she makes a bad decision, is it the end?

My Opinion
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I've read many of Joan Jonker's books before i found this one and i have to say it isn't as good as the rest. This one seems to have a more depressing storyline and it isn't quite hidden with the humour like her usual books. The characters are all very strong and the storyline does have some major twists that you don't see coming, but then a lot of it is very predictable.

Mary is obviously the main character in the book and her main downfall is love. The man of her dreams, Bob, is a soldier and is sent off to war. He only has fleeting visits home and this leads them to make a decision that will change things in the future. This is very unlike Mary but she's a very loving and caring character who wants to please the man she's going to marry. When tragedy strikes, Mary is forced to settle for second best and it takes a long time for her character to come to terms with it. She's the kind of person you want to give a good shake and tell her to get on with what she has - she's luckier than a lot of people.

Mary's mum, Martha, isn't featured in the book quite as much as you would expect. There are reasons for this (I'd explain further but it would spoil the plot) but i'd expect her to be in it a bit more.

Harry is the character who comes to the rescue and he has so many traits it's difficult to know where to begin. Harry has always loved Mary and when he comes up with the solution to which Mary agrees, he's over the moon. He's loving, caring but very, very vulnerable and it really feels like he has been taken advantage of. He is constantly made aware of the fact that he hasn't been sent to war due to illness and this causes his character to feel constantly guilty.

However, there is some humour in the form of Eileen. She's eighteen stone but doesn't let it bother her. She'd rather made jokes about her own weight and have a sense of humour to match than be stick thin and boring as a broom. Eileen brings some much needed lightheartedness in the book and without her i think it would have been an extremely depressing book.

My Verdict
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I can honestly say that i didn't enjoy this book as much as i would expect of a Joan Jonker book. It was a bit too depressing for my liking and i was too busy trying not to shake Mary to really concentrate on the storyline. It really did seem a little bit pointless to me, but it was still an easy read when i was ill.

Summary: An easy read if you don't mind a bit of a depressing book.