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Eddie Winston is Looking For Love by Marianne Cronin

Don’t be confused by the title Eddie Winston is Looking for Love thinking it is a throwaway lightweight trashy novel about some bachelor billionaire cowboy/ carpenter/ wall street broker/ laird of the manner/stud muffin of some sort (fill in the fantasy blank) seeking a nubile baby mama to satisfy his inner yearnings. It most definitely is not.

Marianne Cronin blew the roof off in 2021 with her debut novel The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot about a terminally ill 17-year-old and the deep bond of friendship formed with a vivacious 83 year-old. It was one of this reviewer’s favorite books read that year. It received great critical acclaim, was translated into 30 languages and is being adapted into a feature film. The dreaded sophomore slump did not occur to ambush this brilliant Anglo-Irish author as the engaging character Eddie Winston will grab readers’ attention and hearts and not let go until the final satisfying page is read. Cronin earned an undergraduate degree in English followed by a doctorate in applied linguistics and toiled in the fields of academia before becoming a full-time writer. Honing the intelligence, quick wit and spontaneity she brings to her novels, she participates with Improv Comedy groups in the Midlands where she resides with her family.

To Live a Full Life

Protagonist Eddie Winston is chronologically ninety years old but remains youthfully vibrant. He is highly intelligent, fully present and cognizant, optimistic, compassionate and very much engaged in living life fully. In recent months, he has even become rather fashion-forward with some daring choices including a cheetah print shirt purchased from the charity shop where he has volunteered for the past twelve years. Technically, he is Dr. Edward Winston, Professor Emeritus who both earned his doctorate in Literary Linguistics as well as taught it at the University of Birmingham for his entirety of his career. This shy, socially awkward educator was popular with the English and Linguistics department students who enjoyed his unintentional comedy and accessible, understandable lectures.

While he has known love, it has not been in the most intimate physical sense and he never married. In point of fact, Eddie has never even been kissed which is a lingering regret and one life goal he would like to achieve. In his final year as a graduate student before his thesis was accepted and his Ph.D. conferred, he fell deeply in love with Bridie Brennan Bennett. She was unattainable; the wife of Alistair Bennett, the department head to whom he reported. Alistair was an arrogant, pompous womanizer, serially unfaithful since the earliest days of his marriage. He traveled to conferences and vacations solo and even failed to include Bridie in any of the more glamorous college events. He considered her most fortunate to have become his wife and was certainly less costly than a household of servants.

Bridie settled when she married him thinking he would do for a husband and what could an ordinary, slightly plump and never trendy young woman aspire to in a small town in mid-sixties England? She worked as the secretary in Alistair’s office where she met the slightly clumsy Eddie who charmingly persisted in calling her “Birdie”. She was one of the few who attended his doctoral defense and got to know him through office visits sharing tea, biscuits and a sympathetic ear. Their mutual attraction was evident, but Bridie was a devout Catholic and steadfast in her vows. Although the opportunity presented itself, no kiss was exchanged. Alistair was soon promoted and the couple moved away from Birmingham.  Despite his perpetual philandering, they did have one child, a lovely son named Oliver. After 58 years of dutiful marriage, Professor Bennett died leaving a dry-eyed, still spry widow.

An Unexpected Friendship

When Eddie became bored with retirement, he happily became a volunteer at a charity shop, where he is a highly competent assistant who befriended the manager, Marjie, a widow with grown children who keeps them supplied with cups of tea as they sort through donations from the living and quite often the belongings of the recently deceased. The shop, located near a Birmingham City Council home for the aged, regularly receives bags of items left after the flats are cleared and cleaned. Eddie and Marjie dress the single mannequin in the shop window in hopes of enticing customers, set the prices and keep the shop clean and orderly. Eddie’s opinion and charming description of Marjie is: “What I love about Marjie is the paradox of her — she is orderly, plainspoken, doesn’t suffer fools gladly, and yet she dresses like she plays accordion in a traveling circus.” Her skirts appear to be homemade in colorful patchwork not known to be sold in any department store.

Eddie’s kindness shines through as he habitually sets aside letters, photographs and small mementos stuffed in purses or pockets or perhaps given away in haste and keeps them on a shelf in the back of the tiny shop. True to his benevolent nature, he accepted the donation of a guinea pig in a cage when Marjie was out and pretended it had been surreptitiously left in the shop. As there is a strict “no pets” donation policy, he adopted the rodent which he renamed “Pushkin” and took him home. Thus, when a lovely but clearly distraught woman with pink hair donated assorted clothing, a pair of Converse trainers (sneakers) covered in writing and a drawing as well as a bundle of letters and photographs; he set them aside for her.

It would soon kindle his life-changing friendship with Bella, an extraordinary person of exceptional intelligence, energy and charm whose heart had been broken by the death of Jake, the love of her life. We are left to imagine the circumstances of his death but her bereavement being evident prompted Eddie, quite uncharacteristically, to emerge from behind the till and envelope her into a hug before she dashed off. Eddie rightly suspected she might have given away too many of Jake’s possessions and was then able to surprise and delight her when she returned. Bella was currently working in the deli department of Sainsbury’s, the second largest grocery/department store in the United Kingdom.  She also possessed an honors degree in Advanced Mathematics which she had earned on a scholarship to Oxford University.

“Age Is No Barrier to Friendship”

The twenty-four-year old-Bella and ninety-year-old Eddie become fast friends, meeting frequently in the park to eat the interesting lunches she brings from work and especially to talk. When Eddie shares he has never been kissed, it becomes her mission to help him find love. Bella has a tremendous eye for fashion and design and quickly takes over the window design at the charity shop luring in new and better paying customers. The pair act as a tonic for one another and also ensnare Marjie in their optimistic outlook. She begins to dress more conventionally, uses a bit of makeup and tentatively begins to date for the first time since losing her husband. Eddie and Bella embark on a series of adventures that bring renewed hope to Eddie, start to heal Bella’s heavy heart, and will enchant the adoring readers. There are many delightful surprises ahead. Age is no barrier to friendship, kindness and love.

Cronin has done it again with this celebratory marvel of a novel. Eddie Winston is Looking for Love is an instant favorite with this reviewer and a book destined to be read again. It is like Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden for grown-ups and is a perfect love match for book clubs and would make a marvelous feature film.

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Marianne Cronin was born in 1990 and grew up in Warwickshire. After gaining her PhD in applied linguistics, she worked in academia until becoming a writer.

Her first novel, The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot, published by Harper Perennial in 2021, was voted ‘most uplifting book of 2021’ by the Independent, shortlisted for a Goodreads Choice Award for Fiction and received the American Library Association Alex Award. It has attracted deals in 34 territories and film rights are in development.

She lives in the Midlands with her family and her cat.

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Eddie Winston is Looking For Love by Marianne Cronin
Publish Date: December 31, 2024
Genre: Fiction
Author: Marianne Cronin
Page Count: 304 pages
Publisher: Harper Perennial
ISBN: 9780063383517
Linda Hitchcock

Linda Hitchcock is a native Virginian who relocated to a small farm in rural Kentucky with her beloved husband, John, 14 years ago. She’s a lifelong, voracious reader and a library advocate who volunteers with her local Friends of the Library organization as well as the Friends of Kentucky Library board. She’s a member of the National Book Critic’s Circle, Glasgow Musicale and DAR. Linda began her writing career as a technical and business writer for a major West Coast-based bank and later worked in the real estate marketing and advertising sphere. She writes weekly book reviews for her local county library and Glasgow Daily Times and has contributed to Bowling Green Living Magazine, BookBrowse.com, BookTrib.com, the Barren County Progress newspaper and SOKY Happenings among other publications. She also serves as a volunteer publicist for several community organizations. In addition to reading and writing, Linda enjoys cooking, baking, flower and vegetable gardening, and in non-pandemic times, attending as many cultural events and author talks as time permits.