Only a brave author would take on topics like elder care, dementia, family breakdown, death, addiction, mental health and forgiveness in one book, let alone their debut novel!

Key points

• As soon as I started reading the first chapter, I could sense the respect and deep love that author Anna Johnston has for our aged population.
• Fred is the kind of bloke who makes everyone’s day a little bit brighter.
• one of the best things this duo brought us, is the ability to feel empathy for each of the characters, no matter how badly they stuffed up, or hurt the people around them.

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Before reading The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife by Anna Johnston, I was interested to see how the author would handle these topics, particularly dementia and elder care.

Would this story respect the lives and minds of people in this situation? Or would the jokes be at their expense?

As soon as I started reading the first chapter, I could sense the respect and deep love that author Anna Johnston has for our aged population. And honestly? I loved it, right from the first sentence. Spoiler!

Anna Johnston is, she says “a former baby, aspiring octogenarian and emerging Australian author with a love for the heartfelt and hilarious.”

As soon as I started reading the first chapter, I could sense the respect and deep love the author has for our aged population.

Anna left an imminent career in medicine to follow her heart into her grandfather’s nursing home where she became the social support coordinator, taking great delight in shaking up the usual program. When injury left her unable to continue working in aged care, she began to write about it, channelling her love for older people onto the page.

Loveable, relatable characters

And she has done just that. Frederick Fife is such a loveable character – he was, as they say, born with an extra helping of kindness in his heart. If he borrowed your car, he’d return it washed and polished, with a full tank of petrol.

The problem is, at 82 he’s desperately lonely, broke and on the brink of homelessness.

Fred is the kind of bloke who makes everyone’s day a little bit brighter.

Despite his own pain, Fred is the kind of bloke you can imagine having a chat with at the supermarket every week, and who makes everyone’s day a little bit brighter.

But Fred’s luck changes when, in a bizarre case of mistaken identity, he takes the place of cranky Bernard Greer at Wattle River Nursing Home. Suddenly he has a roof over his head, warm meals in his belly and, most importantly, the chance to be part of a family again. Fingers crossed that his poker face is in better nick than his prostate and that his lookalike never turns up.

As Fred walks in Bernard’s shoes (and stained underpants), he discovers more about the man’s past – and what it would take to return a broken life to mint condition.

And when he’s asked what the secret to happiness, Fred’s wisdom hits the spot:

“No one’s ever asked me that before. I don’t have all the answers, but it’s definitely not money, that’s for sure. That comes and goes – as does youth.”

And a strong stream, he thought.

“I reckon being grateful helps. Grateful for whatever you have, whether it’s a new car or a new packet of chips… And having someone to share it all with, of course – someone to love, and be loved by. You’ll be richer than a millionaire if you can find that.”

One of the best things this duo brings us, is the ability to feel empathy for each of the characters, no matter how badly they stuffed up, or hurt the people around them. Anna, together with Fred, provides space for everyone to have a story. And even though she doesn’t try and tie everything up neatly, Anna does make sure everyone has their say and has the opportunity for redemption and forgiveness.

The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife deals with some big topics, the storytelling dips carefully in and out of the sadness, rather than going in deep. I read somewhere that reading this book is like a warm hug – and it truly is. As a reader, you feel all the feels, but come out feeling encouraged, that everything is actually going to be ok.

One of the best things this duo brought us, is the ability to feel empathy for each of the characters, no matter how badly they stuffed up, or hurt the people around them.

Finding Forgiveness

The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife wrangles with the topic of forgiveness and does it really well. Fred, and the cast of Anna’s characters demonstrate that when we forgive, we aren’t saying that what happened didn’t matter, or that everything is ok now. We’re not even saying that we will reconcile with the person who hurt us.

The characters in this book have to deal with asking for forgiveness, having forgiveness withheld, choosing whether or not to forgive, and what a relationship and boundaries can look like pre- and post-forgiveness.

And this aligns so well with how we see forgiveness as Christians. When the Bible says in Matthew 6:14 (NKJV), “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you,” we aren’t being asked to forgive and forget.

True forgiveness is part of a healing process and is a separate from reconciliation possibilities and building healthy boundaries.

The characters in this book provide beautiful examples of what true forgiveness can look like, in real life.

I know book reviews should talk about what the author could’ve done better, but I couldn’t think of anything. So, I’m going to say, please Anna, write another book!

Whatever Anna Johnston writes in the future will be automatically on my wish list.

I give The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife 4.5 stars out of 5!

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Article supplied with thanks to Joni Boyd. Joni is the Digital Media Coordinator at Hope 103.2. She is passionate about the power of stories shared, to transform lives.

Header image: The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife by Anna Johnston book promo image.