The Scandalous Life of Ruby Devereaux - Mandy Robotham
Pub. Date: April 11, 2024
She read
Her publishing house wants to squeeze one more book out of 90 year old author Ruby Devereaux. She has led a colorful life and her memoir might be just the thing. A Boy Friday is hired to assist her in recording her memories and also in providing her tea and refreshments. She has traveled the world and had adventures few women of her time have experienced and chooses to recount her history by focusing on her interaction with twelve men in her life. Thus we learn of her history from the days of World War II through the present.
I have read and enjoyed a number of Mandy Robotham’s historical fiction books, particularly those set during the World War II and Cold War eras. This book is quite different and yet it is a chronicle of the times spanning the days from the 1940s onward. While alternating chapters between a book within a book style and interactions with Ruby’s present publisher and staff, Robotham captures well the culture of the various time frames…including the post war peace, the machinations of the Cold War, the haze of the 60s, the hell of Vietnam…while also revealing the personal loves and pains of Ruby’s experiences, as well as a bit of the writing process
Ruby is an indomitable character, and I enjoyed this romp through life with her. I also loved the different international settings, from London to New York, Venice, Budapest, Vietnam.
Thanks to @netgalley and @ariafiction for the DRC.
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