Fight Night: 'A Gem: humour and hope in the face of suffering' Observer

I hope that my three stars don't put people off reading this book because it is very well written, it just wasn't for me. It is basically a precocious, but funny eight year old girl writing to her absent father telling him what is happening in their lives. Swiv lives with her zany grandmother, Elvira and her geriatric, pregnant, actress mother in Toronto Canada, she has been expelled from school and her education is left to her grandmother who has her own unique and sometimes hilarious way of teaching. Swiv is doing her best to keep the family together, to keep her mother calm so that Gord (the name she had given to the unborn baby) is kept safe, she is also trying her best to keep her ailing grandmother breathing. This is where the author's unique style of writing comes into play, her observation of everyday life is superb, she manages to make the mundane things in life funny, you can feel the uncertainty and the love these women share , it is a heartwarming story with lots of humour, it just meanders along with Swiv's musings but for me it was a bit too long and became a bit "samey", I felt myself wondering how long it would take to finish the book not because I wanted to see how it ended but because I wanted to get to the end. As I stated before, this book is wonderfully written with wacky characters and plenty of pathos and humour, I am sure that loads of people will love it but it just wasn't for me. I received a free copy of this book and my review is voluntary.