Author: Jessica Francis Kane
Year of Release: 2019
Publisher: Granta
Genre: General Fiction
Release Date: 1st July 2019
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Synopsis
At forty, May Attaway is more at home with plants than people. Over the years, she’s turned inward, finding pleasure in language, her work as a gardener, and keeping her neighbors at arm’s length while keenly observing them. But when she is unexpectedly granted some leave from her job, May is inspired to reconnect with four once close friends. She knows they will never have a proper reunion, so she goes, one-by-one, to each of them. A student of the classics, May considers her journey a female Odyssey. What might the world have had if, instead of waiting, Penelope had set out on an adventure of her own?
RULES FOR VISITING is a woman’s exploration of friendship in the digital age. Deeply alert to the nobility and the ridiculousness of ordinary people, May savors the pleasures along the way–afternoon ice cream with a long-lost friend, surprise postcards from an unexpected crush, and a moving encounter with ancient beauty. Though she gets a taste of viral online fame, May chooses to bypass her friends’ perfectly cultivated online lives to instead meet them in their messy analogue ones.
Ultimately, May learns that a best friend is someone who knows your story–and she inspires us all to master
Review
Our heroin May Attaway a botanist at the local university goes to the same local restaurant twice a week and orders the same meal each visit, is friendly with her neighbours but not close and lives with her elderly father. But something is missing from May’s life after receiving some leave from work May begins formulating a plan to reconnect with four friends she was once close with.
Most people would see the chance to travel as somewhat of an exciting undertaking, but to some May isn’t seen as the warm and cuddly type. On the outside always appearing somewhat displeased with the world around her. This upcoming trip could be a success or should May Attaway forget the whole thing, after all she is much more comfortable surrounded by flora?
The hook that caught me was the promise of reconnection with four old friends, I believe friendship to be important and I try my best to maintain my own much like a plant, like May Attaway I can find it easier to retreat into my books rather then with the people around me, at times I felt May and I had that in common, I love a story I can see myself in. I found myself asking what exactly are the rules for visiting? I’ll ask myself the next time I visit somewhere for sure.
After I started this book I’ll admit I became so lost and confused I almost didn’t think I would finish, thank goodness I pushed through and made it to part two and beyond the stand-outs in my opinion I was able to witness a warmth in May Attaway that made her seem more enjoyable, you might even say relaxed and when that happened I felt as if I could finally settle into the story.
My highlights for this book:
- Suitable main character for the story
- The travel any story that invites the reader along is a bonus most of the time you here about travel second hand, I felt as if I got to see a whole other side to May
- Any book that can appreciate and highlight flora is always a winner in this readers eyes (I want to buy a house plant and keep it alive, I feel a tree would be a bit much at this point).
Things this reader wasn’t sold on:
- I found myself re-reading the first part just in case I missed something the book at times wondered off from topic and begin something new perhaps completely unrelated and unnecessary.
- I could’ve done without the romance element here
- The explanation of what happens to a character in the past weren’t my idea of enjoyable much the opposite.
- I also wanted more time with May’s father and to find out what happens to these characters after the last chapter in more detail.
With One word to describe Rules for visiting it would most certainly be tranquil, I feel a book that reminds you to take the time out to appreciate the little things, is just what I needed when I began reading this book in early December right as the festive season kicked up its heals, I feel this book is not going to suit everyone, yes this is true for all books but especially a book like this I feel might not entertain a reader of Science Fiction nor Fantasy or those who aren’t keen on a slow burn read in my opinion.