Grab the Lapels

Mrs. Entwhistle by Doris Reidy

I love searching through used book stores, but there’s something extra delicious about looking at the books at Goodwill, a store where you can donate pretty much anything except baby car seats and TVs that still have tubes in them. What is it my community has given up? What did the love and felt like they could part with? Why are there so many Christian books??? Sometimes, you see a whole collection of decades old Harlequins, or, much to my excitement, a pile of Sweet Valley High books. Someone’s well-meaning aunt maybe self-published a book of poems with the most painfully cheesy metaphors, or a lady decides to put out her diary of daily goings on, even if it is over 400 pages! You may even find an old paperback horror novel, the likes of which aren’t published anymore.

It was at a Goodwill that I found Mrs. Entwhistle, which looked like it was from the Well-Meaning Aunt/Self-Published category, but I bought Mrs. Entwhistle because the tagline is “When you’re over the hill, you pick up speed.” LOL. Chapters have titles like “Mrs. Entwhistle Tries Yoga” and “Mrs. Entwhistle Goes With the Wind.”

Reidy writes a series of short stories about situations the titular character gets herself into. I thought it wise that the first was about Mrs. Entwhistle’s children taking away her car because she’s had a few “accidents” while driving, and because she’s 78, clearly that means she needs to be stopped. However, Mrs. Entwhistle calls her best friend, who picks her up, so they can go to the dealership to just buy a new car. That will show those ungrateful children! The test drive is disastrous, as she does have lots of accidents, and if I remember correctly, she also does not do left turns, which cause the bestie to puke in the backseat. Either way, the story was a treat to read because the salesperson is young and unable to use a firmer hand with a determined elderly woman. This elder lady is not Up To No Good, but she does fall into shenanigans.

At times, Mrs. Entwhistle finds herself teaching the neighborhood youth ethical ways of problem solving, or becomes the solution herself when she volunteers for Meals on Wheels and discovers how isolating old age can be. One time she just straight-up gets high — accidentally. The people around Mrs. Entwhistle are enlisted as resources for her as the stories progress, so characters from previous adventures will make a reappearance. I had lots of fun with this collection and hope I can be a force as powerful as Mrs. Entwhistle when I’m her age. While I’m swamped with books on my TBR and the pile in the closet is teetering as I type, there are six total Mrs. Entwhistle books should I need a respite from more serious endeavors.

25 comments

    • Sometimes I read books that folks recommend, and other times I’m drawn to books in which an older and younger person interact because I want to see how that goes. I love the movie Harold and Maud, though I confess I am still pretty AAAACK about their physical relationship.

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  2. Oh my goodness, you have to watch out for sassy elderly women! My Granny was in a nursing home for nearly ten years after she had a stroke that left her partially paralyzed but it didn’t stop her from getting into trouble a lot! My mom and her sister were always getting calls, could you please talk to your mother and tell her not to… 😀 Six books of Mrs. Entwhistle though would probably get to be a bit much.

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    • Okay, you can’t keep it a secret what your granny was doing! I remember learning that people in their 70s and 80s had some of the fastest growing rates (meaning obtained in those decades) of having an STI because people are getting older while healthy and still feel sexy but aren’t worried about pregnancy.

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  3. Haha this is a hoot Melanie —- and I love that you love reading a book longer this, albeit 78 is not elderly to me. I know many 75 to 85 year olds (and I’m getting close to the lower end of this) who are still driving competently. I wonder how old the author is…

    I love your interest in Goodwill stores. That sort of observation interests me too!

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    • I also thought 78 was “young” for being “old.” Anymore, I know older folks in their late 80s, early 90s. We’re just living so long now. Me neighbor is 90 and cannot walk well but still drives….which may explain why her car now has a dent in it.

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  5. I decided to look up Doris Reidy. She was I think 79 in 2022. The interview I read said this “She’s a perfect embodiment of her own advice and of the saying “write what you know.” An energetic widow of 79, she’s about to publish her 10th novel—and she didn’t publish her first until she was 72. She’s best known for her light, funny and often touching books featuring Mrs. Entwhistle, an energetic widow of 80. A chat with her reveals a lively mind, a realistic but optimistic outlook, and a dry sense of humor.” So she is clearly a competent person of a similar age to her character. My guess is she wanted a funny situation for Mrs E to be feisty about and driving was it BUT it’s a bit of a sore point for older people so it bothered me. Overall though the books sound really great fun – joyful.

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    • The driving part IS a sore spot, that I understand. Her children just seemed rude for taking away her car, though Mrs. Entwhistle is the one who narrates how she keeps having accidents. I suppose she feels like because they are fender benders, it’s not serious. I know my neighbor, age 90, has her car still, and last I saw it, she definitely ran into something. On the one hand, there’s a safety concern, as in the person is lucky they only had a fender bender. On the other hand, their is autonomy. What is it that makes an older person feel like they should be able to continue driving after having accidents? Perhaps having the car taken away feels like both a judgment and a death sentence of sorts. I do know that living that long and being told what to do has to be a horrible feeling, and for a lot of folks, they just end up arguing with their parents. The kids of the lady next door are in their 60s. She can’t really live alone, but she does because she wants to and they’re trying to respect that.

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      • Yes, the safety is the point … can you imagine killing someone.

        I think that children are less likely to tell their parents a start to do if their parents behaved sensibly and recognised that aging does diminish one’s capacities no matter how much we’d like to think it doesn’t. We didn’t tell any of our parents what to do because we could see they were being responsible. We children want to give back to our parents and help them as they get older but it should never become an unnecessary burden by which I mean to the point where parents aren’t making the decisions that reduce the burden on their children. I don’t have a lot of empathy for people who say they are going to leave their increasingly impractical homes in a box! No one in our families ever said that. Of course it’s important to our health to be independent but that needs to be managed and modified as we change.

        BTW I am dreading losing my car but I know that when that happens we’ll move to a retirement/lifestyle place (not aged care or a home unless we also have dementia!) where we can still live independently but where we won’t be isolated and where some transport is usually provided.

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        • I know this conversation is going beyond the book, but I’m curious if Australia has reliable, regular public transportation. In the U.S. we could Uber somewhere, but in general, we do not have reliable public transpo. It’s a sore spot in our car-crazed country.

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          • Most well sized to big Australian cities have decent reliable, regular public transport – and most, with the energy crisis, are working on improving this. My smaller city – under 500,00 people – has not been great though we have had a fair enough bus service for decades and we are now developing a light rail service which is proving popular (despite the naysayers). I remember being horrified when we lived in OC in California how absolutely minimal to almost non-existent (except for school buses) the public transport was. I thought that was just LA and environs. Some US cities – NY, Chicago, Seattle (I think) do have public transport – but I hadn’t realised it was as bad as you are saying.

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