A Risk Worth Taking

Pilcher introduces us to a man who at a prime time in his life decides there must be more. From prestigious home in the suburbs of London he travels to a frigid region in northern Scotland to explore a new job opportunity there. Something that would give more meaning to his life. Yearning for change and examining our life is a task that most of us experience several times during a lifetime. Finding the courage to make the changes was a primary point Pilcher was striving to get across. A thought provoking read.

Superb writer---my favorite author!!! Another great book by Robin. Good story, theme---everything. One of the best in language use. Just terrific.

Robin Pilcher is the son of a famous female novelist, but despite laboring under that burden, he seems to have developed into a good writer. I ve only read one of his books, but A Risk Worth Taking is a good novel about the fork in the road we can find ourselves in in middle age. Dan Porter is a victim of the Dot Com bubble bursting and taking his job and most of his money with it. So at age 50 he finds himself jobless, on the dole so to speak while his beautiful wife of 20 years, Jackie, keeps her upper crust job and has to become the supprt of the family. In a common scenario, Dan is blind to whats going on around him. He doesnt see Jackies increasing contempt for the failure whos lying around the house while she becomes the man of the house. He doesnt notice that she has no time for him anymore, no time or interest in sex and not much in their three children. She is just plain unhappy at home. She is happy only at work where she labors beside a good looking young man who has become her partner and emotional support, a young man who has wanted her for more than sex for years and is just biding his time until the cracks develop in her dying marriage. And then one day Dan sees a story in a magazine about a little company that is producing a wildly popular clothing line in the wilds of Scotland and decides to take a chance on buying it and revitalizing his life and his marriage. That falls through, but in the process of traveling to the North, he meets a dying man who runs a seafood business about which Dan knows absolutely nothing. But the owner likes Dan, sees a kindred spirit, and invites him to work for him for four months while hes short handed. Having not much better to do, he tells his wife hell be staying in Scotland for four months. Dans son joins him and develops an interest in and talent for the new business, as well as finding a new girlfriend. And for the first time, Dan has a chance to get to know his son and the kind of man he is becoming. While most readers can see whats coming, Pilcher does a good job of making the pieces come together into a picture of what Dans life could be, if he could persuade Jackie and their children to join him in the wilds of Scotland. Dan is an attractive and likeable character and the reader is rooting for him to make a new life, and for his eyes to be opened to who and what Jackie has become while he wasnt paying attention. I liked the book, but I only gave it four stars because it isnt the book it could have been, or should have been. This is an era when readers are supposed to like short, easily read novels. Pilcher develops a great linchpin character in Dan, and some other likeable characters like the owner who gives him a new chance at life. But nobody else really comes to life. Theyre sketchy characters designed to take up space around Dan. And, worst of all, Jackie is a cliched zero. She is THE BITCH. Thats basically her function. In a movie, viewers would hiss when she comes on screen. This is a woman who has been Dans partner in life for 20 years, the mother of his children. Dan loved her at one time.There must have been a reason. And he hasnt fought for her because he never even knew there was a fight to be waged. Im sure this happens a million times a day around the globe, but a story about two people who loved each needs to have SOME conflict. There needs to be even a hint of what the two of them had at one time. But its basically just ho hum. I lost my wife. Too bad. I think Ill go up to Scotland and see if I can find another woman. What Im saying, I guess in my long winded way, is that this is a good novel, with a very, very crappy ending.

Like others, I have read many Rosamunde Pilcher books and that certainly brought me to Robin Pilcher. But, no need to compare ... This is my second after An Ocean Apart and I loved both. I love the characters and the dogs!! The characters all have their stories as do we all and I enjoy that there is some background on all that comes through the telling of the main story. The thing that I think IS in common with both Pilchers writing is that even the characters that are bad have some likeable qualities and we are given enough info to have some understanding of their flaws. This book - like Oceans Apart - I was not ready for it to end. Oh, I also love the Scotland setting. And I guess the other commonality is that I will re-read these as I re-read Rosamundes books.

Dan Porter lives in suburban London with his wife and three children. As a two-income family, Dan and his wife Rebecca were basically living in the dream world they expected to create for themselves. But Dan lost his job months ago and now the initial welcome felt by a wife and children in having a stay-at-home husband and father while he looked for work has worn off. As Dan begins to sort through his own feelings of guilt in not finding employment he also begins to question what type of work he really wants to pursue. Rebeccas feelings change as her resentment builds as the responsibility of being the sole breadwinner begins to overpower any other emotions. As the children have changes in their lives, Dans encouragement to them is over-shadowed by the change they see in his confidence and they begin to see his part in their lives as intrusion. This story is not an action-packed, suspenseful thriller. But it is a page-turning novel as an intimate portrayal of the changes in a family as the dynamics of a two-income family that has always had a level of financial security changes to multiple unknowns. The initial setting of London could be any major city around the world. However, as the job opportunity for Dan changes there could only be one location that could be so lovingly portrayed and so unique to the outcome of the story as in the corner of the world in Scotland portrayed by Robin Pilcher. It is a story about a family in crisis that is thoughtfully written with care to express all of the human emotions of family dynamics (i.e. husband/wife, wife/husband, parent/child, mother/children, father/children, husband/son, husband/mother, wife/mother-in-law). The story also portrays how easily a man and a woman in the same relationship and having the same daily experiences can and sometimes do view things so very differently. It is a story of parental love, the nurturing love between parent and child and from child to parent. It is also a story of resilience and the daily choices that each individual faces on their life journey.

This is a delightfully, well written story. The characters feel like friends and caring about their lives is easy and thought provoking. Thanks for a great book. Didnt want it to end.

Many changes in life take time, they are slow and the person involved usually does not realize what is happening until it has been going on for a while. This book faces changes in a few lives, including Dans, at a slow real time pace. This novel does not have a quick, to- the-point plot, but instead it is a story of daily normal domestic (some very humorous) situations lived by interesting characters going through changes in their lives and lifestyles and how these changes are molded by the decisions made in the course of the story. I did like this book a lot, I believe all of the characters are interesting and all of the secondary characters could have been a tad more enticing if their personalities had been developed a touch more. Nevertheless, what I loved the most is that while reading this book, I was permanently reminded of Fort William and I was amazed of how well the author has caught the daily rhythm of life of a Scottish highlands town. For me, it was like being there.

NOT very believable. The problems Dan and family faced do not fix themselves just by wishful thinking as Pilcher would have us believe. A lay-about Dad goes to remote Scotland and finds himself within days; his lay-about son follows Dad and finds himself within days; two spoiled-brat teenage daughters go to visit Dad and brother and find themselves within HOURS. Poor wifie-Jackie--stays home and loses herself. Only a total misogynist could create a woman as shallow and unredeeming as that. The best and only redeeming feature of the book was listening to the audio-CD versions wonderful Scottish accent of the narrator.