A Life of Her Own

In this novel by Australian author, Fiona McCallum, Alice Hamilton is struggling to decide what she really wants to do with her life. She left her home town in South Australia after the break up of her marriage and then completed an Arts degree in Melbourne as a mature age student. Fortunately she became involved with a network of other students who provided emotional and commonsense support for her as she struggles to decide what she really wants from life.

She had a new partner, David, a fine house to match David's aspirations for life and now she needed a well paid job to assist with the mortgage payments. She really would like a job involving history but there is nothing available. So she looks for work as an admin officer which she is confident would suit her. When she is offered a job with a large real estate firm, with the possibility of doing more than just being a personal assistant, she jumps at the offer but soon discovers that working for Carmel Gold is more than a challenge.

Much of this novel is spent listening to Alice as she tries to work out who she really is and what she really wants to do with her life. To complicate matters further a good friend and support to her when Alice was growing up died, adding grief to Alice's list of emotional problems.

The book discusses a number of issues including narcissism and gaslighting as well as the need for support from a strong friend in times of stress. Lauren was Alice's main support along with Alice's dog, Bill.

Overall I felt that the book was far too long with much of it providing a repetition of Alice's problems and uncertainties and her, usually unsatisfactory, relationships with people.

When I started reading the first few chapters it reminded me of another book that I read earlier this year - First Love by Gwendoline Riley - where the main character works through issues with relationships with family and friends before deciding how she really wants to live her life.