I had a hard time reading this book, took me a long time as I found Mole and the surrounding characters extremely…sad or pathetic or selfish. It continued on like this until about 80% where I started to enjoy the book a little more and the characters finally start to bloom and become more complex, and endearing.
It ends on a hopeful note, and after realising this was the last Mole story that Sue Townsend wrote before passing away, leaves me a little sad that this life sort of vanishes with her. I had read The Secret Diary when I was a teenager back in the 80s so Mole has always existed for me, almost like a character from a reality show.
So even though I struggled with this book, I'm glad to have read Mole's final chapters, and hope that he's happy somewhere in his literary universe.