“Mr. Phillips”
by John Lancaster
Published: October 2001
ISBN: 0771045905

(Updated: October 28, 2005.)

From the Publisher…

One warm July morning, Mr. Phillips climbs out of bed and prepares for his commute to London – but this is no ordinary day. Though he carries his attaché case as usual as he sets out from home, he does not head for the office. Instead, this is a day on which Mr. Phillips will chat with a pornographer, stalk a TV mini-celebrity, have lunch with an aspiring record mogul, and get caught up in a bank robbery. In short, as Mr. Phillips comes to realize, this is the first day of the rest of his life – whether he wants it to be or not.

But why is Mr. Phillips, a cautious middle-aged accountant, not behind his desk calculating the financial consequences of redundancies or recommending the savings to be made from more responsible use of yellow sticky notes?

In Mr. Phillips, John Lanchester has created an unforgettable character – the quintessential average man whose tidy life is one day shaken up by an event even he can’t talk about. Lanchester’s eye for detail is unparalleled, his sensibility all his own. This new novel confirms his reputation as one of the most innovative and gifted novelists writing today.

I’m not quite sure why this book appealed to me but it did. Perhaps I feel like a quintessential average woman whose life (not necessarily "tidy") has been shaken up by an event not yet known to me :o)

I liked this book and found it quite captivating. I give it a three out of three hearts.