Thank you @sceptrebooks for providing me with a copy of this one to read and review! I really enjoyed When All is Said - I’m a bit of a sucker for a crotchety old man character, but it was also beautifully written and tugged at my heartstrings!
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Maurice is 84 years old and decides now is the time to sit down and raise a toast to five important people in his life: his brother, his first daughter, his sister-in-law, his son and his wife. I thought this was a beautiful and unique way of telling someone’s life story, at different, crucial parts of their journey. It revealed a lot of different sides to Maurice, and while he might seem like a grumpy old man now, and a bit of a cold-hearted businessman in his younger days, we come to learn that he is also so much more than that!
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Griffin has a lovely narrative voice which is easy to read yet not too simple - she really had the old man voice down to a T! I read the 280ish pages in just under a day, it really did compel me to pick it up whenever I had a moment.
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My favourite chapters were definitely Tony’s toast, which is Maurice in his childhood-young adulthood, his sister-in-law Noreen, which was when he was first courting his wife, and then his wife which more adulthood. I didn’t give it 5 stars because I thought the other 2 toasts, while still very enjoyable, weren’t as strong in my opinion, while the other 3 made me tear up.
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I really do recommend this one if you’re looking for a bit of a tear-jerker, and just a beautiful book about one man’s life made extraordinary by the people in it and the love he experienced of all kinds!