The Trouble with Goats and Sheep: A Novel

Ten-year-olds Grace and Tilly are on a mission to find God in their cul-de-sac. Maybe by finding God, they will be able to find Mrs. Creasy, a well-liked resident who disappeared days ago. All they have to go on are the points that Grace understood from a Sunday sermon - sheep are the follows of the rules, and goats go to Hell. More, or less, anyway. They are having very little luck locating God, but little secrets keep coming to light, and we clearly see the strengths and weaknesses of the additional members of the neighborhood even if the girls don't recognize it. The unifying strength of the neighborhood sheep is their ability to love, and goats -What holds together their weakness is the fact that all are afraid and suspicious of neighbor Walter Bishop who lives at Number Eleven, The Avenue. This goes back to a vague incident ten years ago that involved a missing baby and the death of Walter's mother in a house fire. And then Tilly finds Jesus Christ in the community garage...The summer of 1976 in Nottingham was extraordinarily hot and humid, and that is a vital part of the unease, animosity, distrust, and discontent uniformly felt by most residents of this small location, a street and cul-de-sac isolated by location, rumors, and tree groves from the balance of the subdivision. The personalities of the protagonists are quickly drawn, all with that little flaw that makes them memorable. The mystery is vague through sections of this work, but the story is very compelling and you have to adore Grace and Tilly. This is a novel I am pleased to recommend to friends and family. A debut novel, I am looking forward to more from Joanna Cannon. She writes with heart.

The equilibrium of a small suburban neighborhood is thrown off when resident Mrs. Creasy simply disappears. Two young girls decide to pose as Brownies wishing to perform good deeds while they question the unsuspecting neighbors, hoping to solve two mysteries that perplex them: 1) Is Mrs. Creasy coming back, and 2) does God exist, and if so, where is he? "Everywhere," like the vicar says?Joanna Cannon's debut novel is rich and thought-provoking. Several times I found myself rereading a sentence or a paragraph to savor its meaning. Let me warn readers who might not like this book. If you want your stories plainly laid out in chronological order with strong clues, clear villains and heroes, and a definitive ending that ties everything up, this book is not for you. Although I ended the book as a fan, I grew frustrated by how slowly Ms. Cannon fed me the interlocking and subtle clues about the mysteries within a mystery. Not only is Mrs. Creasy missing in the present, but a child was kidnapped years ago, and a very strange fire has claimed a life. The neighbors' conversations with each other reveal that dark secrets exist, without saying exactly what they are.At the point in the book where the girls' hunt for Mrs. Creasy was going nowhere but they discover Jesus in a drainpipe right there in their neighborhood, I was reminded of two plays that I read from the genre of "theater of the absurd." As all the neighbors joined the girls in the vigil by the drainpipe, I thought of the seemingly contagious mass delusions in "Rhinoceros" by Eugene Ionesco. Once the citizens were informed by the Sheriff that Mrs. Creasy was coming home to a local bus stop, and the neighbors gathered to await her arrival, all the while anticipating how her knowledge of village secrets might impact them, I was reminded of "Waiting for Godot," by Samuel Beckett. In light of the end of this book, I stand by my analogy. Who got off the bus? I have my theories, but I'll leave it to you.

Well, there were a few things I liked about this book. It did finish it, which I guess says something about its ability to hold my attention. And I liked Tilly as a character, who resembled Sadness in the movie “Inside Out.” And, for the most part Joanna Cannon writes well. Unfortunately, she likes to show off, which became one of my major irritations with this book. How often, for example, would you expect to hear a ten-year-old using the word “herbaceous”? She could have benefitted by spending some time at a Joe Fridays “Just the facts, ma’am” school of writing. It was often difficult to get into the story because the focus always seem to shift back to “See what a great writer I am?” The structure contributed to that problem in that she chose to switch back and forth between a first and third person narrative. When you are in a first person narrative, you live in the head of that person (or in some cases, several different people). In a third person narrative you observe the action as an invisible spectator. But one that shifts back and forth inevitably keeps bringing you back to the mind of the author who is using this as a device.In striving to be entertaining, she often stretched the bounds of credulity. While it may be cute for a couple of girls to go in search of God on the Avenue, how many 10-year-olds do you know who still believe in Santa Claus? In general, character development seemed weak with each individual notable primarily for one negative trait.The switching back and forth between past and present, while necessary for plot development, was at times confusing. I am not dyslexic but I still had a difficult time distinguishing past and present between 1976 and 1967.In searching for unique turns of phrases, she seems to have developed an acute sense of hearing that most of us don’t possess. We are made to hear “elbows nudging each other,” someone “smiling so much, I was worried someone might hear,” “the sound of cutlery resting on a plate,” temperature “sharpening the volume” of crowd noise, “springs in the armchair wake up and yawn,” and a “choir of color singing for my attention” from an array of dahlias and geraniums.

An off- beat book though a tad lengthy. Liked it mostly.

Excellent writer and arrived quickly.

Un conte excellent et évocateur, à la fois tragique et humoristique avec des personnages fortement observés et un traitement sympathique de leurs défauts humains.

The Trouble with Goats and Sheep. Dass Buch ist punktlich und in guten Zustand angekommen. Ich bin sehr zufrieden. Vielen Dank

This was a beautifully written, sweet, gentle story which evoked The UK in 1976 so beautifully. Amusing, sad at times and a good reflection of society and how small and narrow people can be. I would thoroughly recommend this book to give the full feel good factor.