The Old Place
4 4 out of 5 stars | 458 ratings
Price: 15.75
Last update: 08-26-2024
About this item
Winner of the Crook’s Corner Book Prize
One of Vanity Fair's Best Books of the Year
A bighearted and moving debut about a wry retired schoolteacher whose decade-old secret threatens to come to light and send shockwaves through her small Texas town.
Billington, Texas, is a place where nothing changes. Well, almost nothing. For the first time in nearly four decades, Mary Alice Roth is not getting ready for the first day of school at Billington High. A few months into her retirement—or, district mandated exile as she calls it—Mary Alice does not know how to fill her days. The annual picnic is coming up, but that isn’t nearly enough since the menu never changes and she had the roles mentally assigned weeks ago. At least there’s Ellie, who stops by each morning for coffee and whose reemergence in Mary Alice’s life is the one thing soothing the sting of retirement.
Mary Alice and Ellie were a pair since the day Ellie moved in next door. That they both were single mothers—Mary Alice widowed, Ellie divorced—with sons the same age was a pleasant coincidence, but they were forever linked when they lost the boys, one right after the other. Years later, the two are working their way back to a comfortable friendship. But when Mary Alice’s sister arrives on her doorstep with a staggering piece of news, it jeopardizes the careful shell she’s built around her life. The whole of her friendship with Ellie is put at risk, the fabric of a place as steadfast as Billington is questioned, and the unflappable, knotty fixture that is Mary Alice Roth might have to change after all.
Top reviews from the United States
The story of a woman who holds secrets of her past and it’s eating her alive without her sometimes noticing until people of the past and present come to dredge them out of her concealment. The book showcases love stories of the characters and relationships of friends and how we fall out of touch with people or push people away—and how to restart friendships and relationships.
There were moments where I was laughing and others where tears were streaming down my face. There are moments where I just wanted to hug and hold some of the characters. Finger truly brings these characters to life on the page and brings you in the moments and onto the very porch as they drink coffee.
A page turner, the progression and pace of the book pushes you to the next chapter without a care of the time—you have to know what happens next.
Final thought—read this book because I’ll never think of potato salad and sliced hard-boiled eggs the same way again, and I now I’ll bet you’ll want to know why!
Reviewed in the United States on November 2, 2023
The Old Place is a story of secrets and lies, shame, grief, learning to forgive and accept forgiveness, it is also a story of acceptance. At times it was heartwarming at time sad.
The Old Place is Bobby Finger’s debut novel and on the whole, it was a decent first novel. Although I love small town stories about family, friends, and love interest, I did feel at times the story was slow, melodramatic, and lost focus. There were a few side stories that Mr. Finger seem to throw in the novel that nothing came of it. The ending was little abrupt and tied up nicely in a little bow. This debut novel was a solid 3 1/2 stars.
The was an audiobook was narrated by Barrie Kreinik, she was a first time narrator for me, and I thought she brought the characters to life. My only complaint is sometimes I thought there was a Mary Ellen in the book.