Book Review: Reasons to Be Cheerful by Nina Stibbe

The Mid Sussex Reading Challenge is designed to be relaxed and informal – the rules aren’t strict, as long as you’re reading (or listening to audiobooks) and enjoying yourself! It’s absolutely fine to follow the challenge themes in any order, and don’t forget you can use your wildcard at any time and substitute a month to re-read your favourite book instead.

Debbie, a local reader from Haywards Heath, has jumped ahead to the November challenge – to read a prize-winning book – and recently read Reasons to Be Cheerful by Nina Stibbe. Read on to find out what she thought!

Rating: 4 out of 5

This book is in the November category of our challenge as it won the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction in 2019. It is set in the 1980s in a dental practice and includes one or two quite detestable characters. The main character Lizzie describes these unprofessional characters with a humour that entertains but also exposes their awfulness. There are sensitive relationships in the novel equally described to amuse but also lay bare Lizzie’s feelings and anxieties. So it’s a book about humane and inhuman behaviour.

It has a serious message to deliver and overall I’m surprised it won in the prize. That said, I did find it entertaining and I laughed out loud occasionally. I enjoyed the many evocative 1980s references and I will seek out her first two novels in this series: Men at The Helm and Paradise Lodge. I recently reread Kate Atkinson’s Behind The Scenes at the Museum and found some similarities between these two wryly told family narratives. I could maybe also hear echoes of Sue Townsend, although I haven’t read her for a long time.

Would you like to give Reasons to Be Cheerful a go? Reserve your copy to collect from any West Sussex library by visiting our library catalogue.

Are you reading the books in a different order? Let us know how you’re approaching the challenge in the comments below or by posting in our Facebook group – or submit your own review!

The views expressed in this review are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of West Sussex Libraries.