The Authenticity Project: The feel-good novel you need right now

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And sometimes in life it is good to take chances because it can lead you in a more positive direction. But nearing his 80th birthday and still mourning the loss of his wife, he barely talks to or sees anyone for days at a time. Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.

Clare’s first novel - The Authenticity Project - was a BBC Radio 2 Bookclub pick, a New York Times Bestseller and the winner of the RNA debut novel award. Lesser characters include Mrs Wu, who is an inconsistent (especially in her speech) and uncomfortable caricature of a Chinese matriarch and restaurateur, an old lesbian couple whose peripheral presence in the story makes little sense, and a young gay couple. But what annoyed me the most was the ridiculousness of the situations, everything was so unbelievable to the point it was plain stupid.

Monica scanned the tables as she walked through the cafe, pausing to pick up a large crumb of red velvet cake from table twelve.

Julian Jessop, an eccentric, lonely artist and septuagenarian believes that most people aren't really honest with each other. She looped round at the top and was halfway back down the other side, walking along a less-used path, when she noticed a movement to her right. And don’t get me started on the Australian character who Pooley uses as a dumb blond ignoramus which, for obvious reasons, made me mad. The Authenticity Project is just the tonic for our times that readers are clamoring for--and one they will take to their hearts and read with unabashed pleasure. I still raise a glass of Mary's favorite Bailey's Irish Cream at the Admiral's grave every Friday evening, but now it's just me and the ghosts of times past.

There aren’t even many markers of what’s happening in the outside world; Jude moves to a loft in SoHo as a young man, but we don’t see the neighborhood change from gritty artists’ enclave to glitzy tourist destination. He got his comeuppance for his philandering and selfish ways, but also a second chance at life - redemption is probably a better word for this part of the story line. You get multiple points of view in this book which are clear, and I really enjoyed how certain characters would pop up in the book and then they would get with their own chapter, you get a real sense of the characters inner voice.

When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. There is a big surprise towards the end that I wasn’t expecting, and I did chuckle throughout, and “ahh” at the lovely bits. Before long, the others who find the green notebook add the truths about their own deepest selves--and soon find each other in real life at Monica's café. Clare’s memoir - The Sober Diaries - has helped thousands of people around the world to quit drinking. Little do they realise that such small acts of honesty hold the power to impact all those who discover the notebook and change their lives completely.The story includes 5 main principal characters and I am sure you'll easily relate with any one of them. With that ripple effect, I loved how this novel interwove and connected each character and their story to each other. You just kinda have to go with the idea that some people aren't concerned about their privacy and make it fairly easy for the next reader of the notebook to figure out their identity.