The Man Who Didn’t Call Book Review

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The Man Who Didn’t Call is about, well, a man who didn’t call (shocking, I know!) Sarah is going through a tough time in her life; having just separated from her husband (who happens to also be her business partner) she is picking up the pieces and trying to move in. Then she meets Eddie, and after a seven day whirlwind romance, they are infatuated and certain this is a happily ever after for both of them. Eddie leaves for a holiday and promises Sarah he’ll call from the airport – but then he doesn’t. And he doesn’t’ reply to her messages either, and suddenly Sarah feels like she made it all up. But she can’t have done, she knows what he said was real – so why has he suddenly decided to ignore her? And does Sarah really want to know the truth, or will the truth be much worse?

This book was definitely intruiging – even from the title alone, I really wanted to know why the man didn’t call! The narrative switches between Eddie and Sarah’s seven days together, letters written by and to unknown parties, and the present (after Eddie doesn’t call). I liked that it moved around the timeline, and the author cleverly uses this to slowly trickle in more information to reveal parts of the plot, which was probably what kept me turning the page.

As a protagonist, Sarah’s past was clearly full of pain and in the present, it’s painful to see her family try and dismiss Eddie (whom they think Sarah may as well have invented) and try to get her to forget about him. As a reader though, I could understand why Sarah was so desperately trying to cling to what seemingly felt like the only good thing to happen to her in a while.

The main theme in the book was grief and Walsh explores this in a subtle way as most of the plot is focused on Eddie’s whereabouts. I do think this layered narrative allows the reader to invest themselves in different aspects of the plot, and I suppose that could give it a more wide-reaching appeal. All in all however, this book just didn’t grip me. An incommunicable thing, I just wanted something more from this book which it unfortunately did not deliver. As characters, Sarah and Eddie were fine, and the storytelling was clever and unpredictable, and yet, I didn’t walk away from this book feeling much at all. And I think the fact that it didn’t evoke much emotion in me is telling in this review, as I don’t have much to say about the book in general.

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I think the way this book subtly deals with grief will make it a cathartic experience for some readers who can relate, however, overall this book just didn’t impress me. It wasn’t predictable, and yet when the twist was revealed, I felt very underwhelmed! I normally like books which explore people’s relationships, their past, and how their sense of identity can often be pulled from one significant event, so in theory, this ticked all those boxes – I just didn’t connect with the book unfortunately.