The Funny Thing about Norman Foreman is both a charming and inspiring debut novel by Julietta Henderson. The story line is linked together in an engaging, interesting manner. One hopes that the writer’s future novels are written in the same manner, as this draws the reader in to the heart of Norman, and his single mother Sadie.
Norman is an awkward, psoriasis ridden 12-year-old. Norman and his friend Jax have a plan to become a comedy duo at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Sadly, life intervenes, and Norman loses his best (and only) friend. At Sadie’s work is Leonard, a pensioner, who is there on a back to work scheme (in true British fashion). As he steps in to help Sadie and her boy, the characters head off on a mission, to work out a) who is Norman’s Father, and b) take on the Fringe Festival.
There are several twists, meanders, and events on route to Edinburgh, that evoke a myriad of emotions in the reader, as you follow the characters on a journey that will change several lives for ever.
Julietta Henderson is a full-time writer who divides her time between her home country Australia and the United Kingdom. She developed her passion for writing when she grew up, producing “magazines” for her school friends and neighbours with her sister. Like many Australians, Henderson went on a working holiday to London, which lasted 10 years. She worked her way through many jobs, and various parts of Europe in this time. She is a fan of comedy, and her first novel reveals this to us.
Did I enjoy this debut novel? Yes, I did. Did I relate to it as a single Mother? Yes indeed. Read on and appreciate a first novel that is a great read.
The Funny Thing about Norman Foreman is published by Penguin Random House UK – 2020. ISBN 9781787633506 - Christine E Hann
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