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Amazon Review
Love in Idleness is a wonderful first novel, a witty and closely observed study of a young woman's search for an adult identity. Anna Raine has just finished her degree and is desperate to begin her adult life, which she imagines will be filled with success, fame and sexually fulfilling relationships. When her glamorous Aunt Stella offers to let Anna stay in her London flat while she is away in Paris, Anna jumps at the chance to escape from her oppressive mother. But she has no friends in London and Mendelson's descriptions of the embarrassing situations that Anna gets herself into in her gauche attempts to meet people and find a job are excruciatingly funny. Stella has secrets that the family won't talk about and, while trying to settle in to a new job in a bookshop, Anna keeps herself distracted from her loneliness by searching the flat for clues. She imagines romantic explanations for the secrecy and her obsession builds until she can think of almost nothing but Stella. When the errant aunt finally comes home, Anna' s pent-up feelings bubble over, but inevitably she has to cope with the fact that Stella, too, is only human. The book is filled with a warm affection for the hapless but slowly maturing Anna, and the descriptions of her everyday anguish will strike a chord with any reader who has ever been uncertain of their place in the world. The writing is assured, polished and in places very, very funny. This is a splendid debut. Charlotte Mendelson is an author to watch. --Elizabeth Sourbut
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