In the world today, many people tend to live anonymously. However, in Iona Iverson's Rules for Commuting, British author Clare Pooley (The Authenticity Project) brings strangers together in such a fun, spirited way that it's bound to spark readers to expand their worldview.
This endearing novel, told from the points of view of an ensemble cast of vividly drawn characters, starts on a London commuter train. At the center of it all is Iona Iverson, a vibrantly quirky, 57-year-old magazine advice therapist. Every day, Iona and her beloved French bulldog, Lulu, sit in the same seat as the train traverses 10 stops over 36 minutes from Hampton Court to Waterloo Station. In her mind, Iona assigns clever pet names to the commuters with whom she daily co-exists, but never speaks to. This includes Impossibly-Pretty-Bookworm and Mr.-Too-Good-To-Be-True. The other passengers, likewise, do the same--Iona is referred to by one as Rainbow Lady and another as Crazy Dog Woman.
One fateful day, a man who doesn't normally ride the 8:05 a.m. train--whom Iona dubs Smart-But-Sexist-Manspreader--boards Iona's carriage. When he starts choking on a grape from his fruit salad, the normal, everyday order of the commute is upended. It takes a heroic, life-saving act to transform the travelers from strangers into friends. Over the course of the story, Pooley reveals the soul-filled truth of each person connected to the near-death experience. The stereotyping of appearances can be very deceiving.
Pooley's grasp on the constraints and longings of the human condition proves immensely entertaining. Traveling with Iona Iverson is a literary journey well worth taking. --Kathleen Gerard, blogger at Reading Between the Lines