Eddie Winston is Looking for Love

Finished January 26

Eddie Winston is Looking for Love by Marianne Cronin

This is definitely a feel-good read. The title character is ninety and works at a charity shop, sorting through the donations and helping customers. Marjie is the shop manager, and he has become friends with her over the years, even if he doesn't understand her habit of drinking Oxo. Eddie has a secret. When he comes across personal things, he saves them, and takes them home. They are never items worth anything, but papers, photographs, small mementos. He did take home a guinea pig that a mother dropped off when she and her boys were on their way to a shelter. They called it Spiderman, but he renamed it Pushkin Spiderman Winston, and cares for it deeply. When the store is quiet he reads Mills & Boon novels, ones that came into the shop as donations. 

Eddie is a people watcher. He pays attention, noticing when his neighbour Daniel is attracted to his other neighbour Thitima, and tries to help it along. 

When he meets Bella, a young woman who brings in a box of things after her boyfriend's death, he makes a connection and the two become friends. that is when he reveals another secret. He's never been kissed. Bella resolves to help Eddie and puts a listing up for him on a dating site for people over seventy. 

This leads to other changes in his life. He begins to be more daring with his wardrobe, trying out things more colourful that appeal to him. 

There is also another timeline, one that follows Bridie Brennan, starting in 1954 when she is standing outside the church where her wedding is supposed to be happening, trying to decide whether to go in or not. We follow her through the 1960s, as she marries a university English professor and works in the administrative office of the college. It is there that she and a younger Eddie meet. They become friends. 

I came to truly care about not only the central characters of Eddie and Bridie, but also about Bella and Marjie, and the other characters that Eddie ends up coming into contact with. He is an interesting man, and one I would love to get to know myself. I can see him come alive in my head. 

What a wonderfully uplifting read.