A review by andintothetrees
Adrian Mole: The Prostrate Years by Sue Townsend

5.0

(4.5 stars) I didn't have this book lined up to (re)read and picked it up as light reading when I saw it on the shelf at my family home a few weeks ago. I was supposed to be starting A Little Life whilst I was away but couldn't get further than about 100 pages. Anyway, I first read this when it came out about 10 years ago (as I've been a massive Sue Townsend fan for about 20 years now) but couldn't remember much about it. In it Adrian Mole has a failing marriage, a young daughter,an adult son in the army (and another son from whom he is estranged) and lives close to his parents in a Leicestershire village. He also gets diagnosed with, and treated for, cancer during this book. I loved the minor characters especially Bernard, Mr C-H and Leslie; and it's good that Nigel and Pandora are still there in the books and there for Adrian. I remembered this as having a sad ending, but it wasn't really - Adrian discovers a love of nature and the story closes in a way that feels non-abrupt and open-ended, shortly after his 40th birthday. It feels like a fitting end to the series though I'm sorry Sue Townsend isn't still with us, writing great books like this