They say you can’t judge a book by its cover, but in this case it is possible to judge it by the title.
In case you haven’t already guessed, Five Days is about a passionate short-term affair – and right from the beginning, you can sense just what’s going to happen in the end.
Aged 42, Laura may not be a typical bored housewife, but she could be considered a typically discontented working woman. Her husband has been laid off and her own job as an X-ray technician can be quite depressing, especially when it’s bad news.
Laura longs to travel from her home state of Maine (where author Douglas Kennedy also comes from) but doesn’t even have a passport. She’s been looking forward to a weekend medical conference in Boston and that’s where she meets Richard, an insurance salesman – it’s not hard to guess the rest.
What makes Five Days special is the way Douglas has been able to turn what could have ben a run-of-the-mill romance into a borderline thriller, which adds an element of welcome excitement.
He also reveals the sacrifices Laura has made in her life, showing real insight into how the repression of her personal needs eventually causes them to bubble to the surface.
As Laura begins to understand that she’s been selling herself short, she finds courage to face the future but not without a little help from fate along the way.
While Five Days cannot be compared to the author’s highly acclaimed The Pursuit of Happiness, escaping into Laura’s world in these pages for a brief time does provide food for thought.
