Catherine Raynes: Frankie, The Life Impossible

Frankie by Graham Norton 

Frankie Howe has lived a long life, her small flat is crammed full of art, furniture - and memories. Damian, her young carer, listens as she gradually tells him parts of her story - a story that takes us into a progressive, daring world of New York artists on the brink of fame, aspiring writers and larger-than-life characters. 

Always just on the periphery, looking on, young Frankie is never quite sure enough of herself to take centre stage. But the outsider holds certain advantages, sees things others don't, can influence without drawing attention. And when the map has been lost, it's anyone's guess where you may end up, or the accidental choices you find you have made. Frankie discovers that life is not always the one we hope for, or the one others expect of us. 
 
Travelling from post-war Ireland to the dazzling art scene of 1960s New York by way of London, Frankie is an immersive, decade-sweeping novel about love, bravery and what it means to live a significant life. 

 

The Life Impossible by Matt Haig 

“What looks like magic is simply a part of life we don’t understand yet…” 

When retired math teacher Grace Winters is left a run-down house on a Mediterranean island by a long-lost friend, curiosity gets the better of her. She arrives in Ibiza with a one-way ticket, no guidebook and no plan. 
 
Among the rugged hills and golden beaches of the island, Grace searches for answers about her friend’s life, and how it ended. What she uncovers is stranger than she could have dreamed. But to dive into this impossible truth, Grace must first come to terms with her past. 
 
Filled with wonder and wild adventure, this is a story of hope and the life-changing power of a new beginning. 

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Team podcast
from newstalksb.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Eighteen pastor leaving you with Jack Daime on News Talks,
they'd be time to catch up with our book reviewer,
Katherine rain Scalder. Catherine, Morning Jack. I know so many
people are really excited about this one. Graham Norton has
just published his latest so tell us about Frankie.

Speaker 3 (00:29):
So this book has been described as utterly absorbing and
I have to agree. And the main character is a
woman called Miss Frankie Haff and she's this elderly lady
and she has a fall and she requires an in
home nurse and the person seems to look after as
a young Irish career a guy called Damien, and he
happens to be working in London at the time, and
Frankie's extremely prickly at first, she's a very independent woman,

(00:51):
but actually they end up forming this friendship and to
pass the time, Frankie tells Damien her life story and
she's had a long life and there's lots of errors
and he gets sort of motion and connection and it
spans decades from postwar Ireland to nineteen sixties London, then
to New York and back to London again to the
late as to the present day, and the story unfolds

(01:13):
and parts from her girlhood to her old age and
her life and the lows and highs and heartaches and
the victories, and in particular she talks about the AIDS
epidemic in New York in the nineteenties, and it's just
Graham Norton deals with it with such compassion and the
impact on his characters and how you feel about it
when you're reading. And it has such wonderful characters, and

(01:34):
it's a novel of friendship, and particularly Frankie herself and
her best friend Laura, and the unfolding tale of her
life and her remarkable life. And the writing is incredibly
insightful and very engaging.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
Yeah, oh sounds wonderful. Isn't he just an absurdly talented person, you.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
Know, like he is?

Speaker 3 (01:52):
He is?

Speaker 2 (01:52):
I mean it is broadcasting. I wa was is broadcasting.
And as someone with you know, a bit of experience
in broadcasting, although nothing on that scale, I just look
at him and I'm in awe when I see him working.
See how clever he is at bringing people in when
they need to be brought in and just man, all
of those people at once, but then to know that
he can write fiction like this as well, it's just like,
oh man, some people have all the gifts and.

Speaker 3 (02:14):
Continuing to do so. He's written a number of really
good books now and he takes different themes and different ideas.
And I was very engrossed. And Frankie and She is
interesting because when you watch his program you can feel
how he ties as you talked about how he ties
those guests together, he does that really well in a
novel form as well, and how he brings the parts
of the story together very insightful about people. He obviously

(02:35):
spends a lot of time thinking and watching people.

Speaker 2 (02:38):
Yeah, that's a good point. Okay, that sounds great. So
that's Frankie by Graham Norton. You've also read The Life
Impossible by Matt Haig.

Speaker 3 (02:45):
So Matt Hages's words force you to consider life in
a very different and quite original perspective. And he adds
magical realism into his story and tells a tale around it.
And this one is about Grace Winter and she's a
retired mass setcher and she's in her seventies and she's
full of regret. Her husband's passed away and her her

(03:06):
son was killed very early in his life, and she's
struggling with that life and she really doesn't enjoy her
day day living. And then out of the blue, she's
bequeathed a property in Ibiza from a woman called Christine
that she hadn't seen in a very long time, and
the only thing she really remembers about her is that
at one point they worked together and she did her
a good turn, and that she had the Saint Christopher's

(03:28):
necklace from many years ago. And Christine kind of disappeared
under mysterious circumstances, and her curiosity decides to get the
better of her, and she flies out to Ibitha to
find out what happened and where Christina is and the
house is really nothing special, but her friend left her
at letter and then she goes off to meet this
man called Alberta, who Christina seemed to be very close to,

(03:49):
and they go on this late night dive together and
life changes. But Matt Hay captures the people and the
scenery and Ibitha and this world and the Mediterranean magic
in such an amazing way, and there's lots of ideas
and themes around this book and those universal themes of
love and hope and planet and how we all exist together,
and without giving the story away, it takes you into

(04:12):
enough place where you wouldn't expect.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
To go fantastic. Okay, that's the Life Impossible by Matt Haig,
Catherine's first book Once Again, Frankie by Graham Norton, and
both of those will of course be on the website.

Speaker 1 (04:25):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live
to News Talks ed B from nine am Saturday, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio