All Together Now
By Gill Hornby
ISBN#9780316234740
Author’s website: https://www.facebook.com/GillHornbyAuthor
Brought to you by OBS Reviewer Daniele
Synopsis:
The small town of Bridgeford is in crisis. Downtown is deserted, businesses are closing, and the idea of civic pride seems old-fashioned to residents rushing through the streets to get somewhere else. Bridgeford seems to have lost its heart.
But there is one thing that just might unite the community–music. The local choir, a group generally either ignored or mocked by most of Bridgeford’s inhabitants, is preparing for an important contest, and to win it they need new members, and a whole new sound. Enlisting (some may say drafting) singers, who include a mother suffering from empty-nest syndrome, a middle-aged man who has just lost his job and his family, and a nineteen-year-old waitress who dreams of reality-TV stardom, the choir regulars must find–and make–harmony with neighbors they’ve been happy not to know for years. Can they all learn to work together, save the choir, and maybe even save their town in the process?
Review:
After reading All Together Now’s descriptive blurb, I thought the book would by right up my alley – a small English village combined with a community choir. I expected a feel good story and classic dry British wit. What I read was a somewhat entertaining snippet of life in a small town and a floundering community choir.
A small village has lost its identity and its purpose having become just someplace to commute to elsewhere to work. It has lost its charm, and a giant superstore is in the works which will further diminish the town. Similarly, the Bridgeford Community Choir is also petering out. There are plans to enter a local choir competition. Unfortunately, the choir’s director Constance is incapacitated early in the story, and the remaining members do not quite know how to carry on without her. They desperately need to increase their numbers and more or less draft and blackmail town folk into joining their ranks. All Together Now follows an eclectic bunch of awkward misfits who have nothing in common sans the choir. An aspiring reality singing completion star, an organized busybody, an unemployed and recently separated middle-aged man, a woman with secrets facing an empty nest, a pair of old bitties, a father/handicapped daughter duo, and a handful of members from another choir round out the cast. None of the characters are particularly likeable, but they did grow on me as I continued to read.
Ms. Hornby does an admirable job of providing a picture of small town life in England, depicting its secrets, social hierarchy, and resistance to change. I did think that the story got a bit bogged down at times with overly long descriptions. This is ultimately a story about redefining self and community, and though I know the protest against the proposed superstore was pertinent to the community and served as a catalyst for one of the character’s change, I ultimately found its inclusion to be unnecessary.
As expected, my favorite aspect of the book was the choir. Having been part of more than a few choirs myself, the attitudes, conflicting opinions, struggles, and the choir’s ultimate sense of togetherness were all too real to me. I laughed at myself because I knew every song (with the exception of Tracey’s “hit”) that was mentioned over the course of the book. I am not sure what that says about my level of nerdiness, but I’ll accept that it is obviously rather high.
In the end, I did come away from the book having enjoyed it, and I think it will most appeal to readers who have their own choral experiences.
“What is it with music? What exactly is its power? How come smart-arse scientists were capable of splitting atoms yet were unable to explain how music would conduct electricity through the souls of men?”
