These characters, hungry for contact with the outside world and desperate for anything new to interrupt the sameness of their days, feel very much true to life and deserving of compassion, even at their most ornery or ridiculous. While the subject matter strikes a little too close for comfort for me, in relation to recent events with family members, there’s no denying the craft with which the author has created a representation of loneliness and the fear of aging. Meanwhile, we see the ups and downs of these people’s lives, trapped together but also quite alone. That’s not how it struck me at all the relationship is full of love, but of a different sort. I should point out that the synopsis, above and on the back cover, is a little misleading when it describes Mrs. Each of the hotel residents has a life they remember fondly as they pass each slow day by sitting in the parlor, waiting for the dinner menu to be posted, and silently criticizing each others’ foibles. When a sidewalk slip lands her in front of Ludo’s basement apartment, he comes to her rescue and ends up as her stand-in grandson, providing a spark of life in an otherways dreary existence.

Her daughter is rather disinterested, and her lone grandson, whom she’d counted on for regular visits now that she’s moved to London, can’t be bothered. Palfrey, a sturdy elderly woman who finds herself alone in the world. What a lovely book! With beautiful, often sharp, but never mean descriptions, author Elizabeth Taylor presents regal Mrs. Palfrey strikes up an unexpected friendship with Ludo, a handsome young writer, and learns that even the old can fall in love. Together, upper lips stiffened, they fight off their twin enemies-boredom and the Grim Reaper. Her fellow residents are magnificently eccentric and endlessly curious, living off crumbs of affection and snippets of gossip. Palfrey arrives at the Claremont Hotel where she will spend her remaining days. On a rainy Sunday in January, the recently widowed Mrs. “Take a Peek” book reviews are short and (possibly) sweet, keeping the commentary brief and providing a little peek at what the book’s about and what I thought.

Mrs palfrey at the claremont book