The book Borrower by Alice Mattison

A novel about two women who meet at the playground when Deborah loans Toby a book called Trolley Girl. That is about as good as it gets.

The book is a book inside a book which causes a lot of confusion going back and forth between present day and the past. Through the whole book you follow the mundane lives of the two women through just about everything and all of their adult lives.

I was expecting to find a book full of friendship and the joy of two of women who were sharing their lives. Instead I found two characters who were whining and dull and without depth or passion. I also found the plot challenging to keep up with. One minute you are dealing with a certain time frame and the next instant you are 10 years ahead without any warning. Then out-of-the-blue a character from the borrowed book ends up in the present without any explanation.

I spent 277 pages waiting to get to page 278 so that I could start a different book. If you still feel that you need to read this book, I would recommend borrowing it from the library.