A Tidy Ending by Joanna Cannon

My Goodreads review

We all know a Linda, even if we don't notice her.  But the world is full of people like the protagonist of A Tidy Ending, Linda Hammett.  

Linda is a middle-aged, unhappily married woman suffering from various mental-health issues.  She works at a thrift shop.  Her husband is a slob, and she's a bit of a neat freak.  But there's so much more to it than that.

I immediately loved this book and am giving it five stars.  For one thing, it's hilariously, laugh-out-loud funny.  And I say that as someone who is permanently disabled by my own mental-health issues.  Linda is in much bigger trouble than I, and for whatever reason I did enjoy being able to relate to her even while realizing she was off the deep end.

And Linda truly is off her rocker.  She has such an incredibly negative self-image, is so manipulative and bizarre in the way she approaches her life and other people, that it's really a tragic story in many ways.  But it's also thoroughly enjoyable to read, because of the excellent writing of Joanna Cannon and the humor throughout.

In the course of the book we learn a lot about Linda's childhood in Wales, why she is so down on herself and envious of others.  Linda very much wishes she were someone else.  I won't put any spoilers into the review, but I found the way she resolves that situation both satisfying and hilarious.

Joanna Cannon is a mental-health professional, and it really shows throughout the book.  There is so much insight into the strange things that people think and do.  Again, it was really a bit disconcerting to be fully aware of how insane Linda is, while also noting that she had some pithy observations that I quite agreed with.

I'm still thinking about this book a week after having read it, and will surely read it again.  Having read it left me more mindful of, for example, the man who shouts, "HI LADY!" every time I walk through the lobby of my apartment.  He's another Linda, isn't he?  Would it kill me to befriend him?