Read for book club.

Janice, a cleaner who seems to spend more time talking to her clients than actually cleaning their houses, sees herself as a 'keeper of stories'. I thought this concept was a bit pointless really - we all overhear conversations on the bus and we all tell our stories to our friends.

There were some good moments in this - the scene with Mike and his brushes had me fully engaged, and the Janice and Euan romance was sweet - but overall this was rather scattered, and some characters and plot elements just disappeared. What was going on with the mortgage for example? The 'Becky' story was unsavoury and entirely irrelevant to the plot and should have been edited out.

Still, at least I actually finished this month's book... ( )

Janice cleans houses, and as her clients confide in her, she savors the stories they tell her. Each story is different as each person is different.

"She believes the stories need to be based on real life because they convince her that the unexpected can happen, that there is extraordinary strength and goodness within normal, everyday people and, because of this, there is always hope."

Janice has also listened to her husband, and for the 30 years she’s known him, it seems like there is one part of his story that has become quite repetitive. But it is a client, Mrs. B., who unfolds the truth within Janice’s story connected to her husband's story that changes everything.

I loved the stories within a story, collected by someone who listened to others as she did her work. The stories reflect the lives of the different customers; each person’s life is different, depending on the blending of their age, past and present life experiences, their relationships, and the various factors contributing to their attitude and outlook. It is a story that gives us pause to reflect on how each person we meet contributes to our life journey and becomes a part of our story, sometimes for a short period, sometimes for the remainder of our lives. For me, it is a story of appreciation of each person’s life story and how our life story can be affected by our interactions with others, both as we receive and give to one another. ( )

Janice, who says she is, 'Just a cleaner,' is so much more. As well as being a dab hand with a screwdriver and soldering iron, she is also an excellent listener and so she collects stories. This is partly as a shield to hide her own story that she cannot face. When she feels sad or threatened, she reminds herself of a story. Her friends seem to be her clients and they all think highly of her and for some she changes their lives for the better. Janice's husband, Mike, is mostly hopeless. Janice takes on a new client, an elderly woman who lives in a college building in Cambridge and was once a spy and it is this woman who wants to reveal Janice's own story. The novel unfolds slowly and is always comforting, like a soft blanket, although there is no shortage of sadness and abuse here. The pace makes the revelations gentle and the reader finds that stories need to be heard and how the telling just once can take away their spike. The book also plays with the idea that everyone has a story, although there are some characters whose back stories we never hear. Janice shares my view that Geography teachers are nice people, so a big win there! This is a satisfying novel with plenty of references to other books. The dog, Decius, is a lively character too and, of course, there are the bad guys in there. A comforting and good read. ( )

ARC
Charming story about a woman who is “just a cleaner” who is a collector of other peoples’ stories. She befriends many of her clients who make positive changes in their lives with her influence. In return she learns her own story. ( )

Very nice characters with mutliple heartwarming little stories but the pace is rather slow. Quite an enjoyable read overall. ( )