Something To Live For by Richard Roper

A funeral marks the end of a life, but it makes a fine beginning to a story. Richard Roper opens his moving and humorous novel, ‘Something to Live For’, with a funeral where there’s only one mourner. Working for the local council in the Death Administration department, it’s Andrew’s job to search through the belongings of people who have died alone, seeking funds to cover funeral expenses, as well as contact details for family and friends. If he finds neither, Andrew has to arrange a Public Health funeral. These are not as uncommon as you might think. In the UK, local authorities spent £5,382,379 on public health funerals in the 12 months up to April 2018.

Andrew is not required to go to the funerals, but he has attended all those he has arranged in the past year, as a ‘small but meaningful gesture’. This tells the reader a lot about his personality. He cares about the lonely deceased, and goes out of his way to locate relatives willing to turn up and say a last goodbye to them. Part of his concern arises from the fact that his own lifestyle is not a million miles away from that of his ‘clients’. At forty-two, he lives alone in a damp, cheerless flat, and his only family contact is with his eccentric sister, who calls him every three months. Online chats with fellow model railway enthusiasts are the closest he gets to friendship. It’s not surprising that he creates an imaginary wife and two children, with whom he lives in a pretend four-bedroomed house. However, it is surprising, and a little shocking, that he creates this fantasy in order to improve his status at work, then manages to sustain it for years without being found out.

If you’re thinking that poor Andrew has no hope of redemption, you’re mistaken. Everything changes when a new colleague, Peggy, arrives on the scene and coaxes him into something resembling a social life. Together, they explore the romantic history of a man they are tasked with laying to rest, getting to know each other while they attempt to trace the woman he loved and lost. With Peggy’s support, Andrew successfully negotiates come-dine-with-me style social evenings, arranged by creepy boss Cameron, where his fantasy of a happy home life risks exposure. When he is forced to face the realities of his situation, he discovers that he has friends, and finds the inner strength to face the real reason why his life had hit such a low spot. From then on, for Andrew the only way is up.

I loved Roper’s dry humour, finding amusement even in the most unpleasant aspects of Andrew’s job. Although the story is narrated in third person, Roper’s style is so subtle that it comes across as being told from the protagonist’s point of view, making it easy to empathise with Andrew and appreciate his natural kindness. It’s heart-warming to follow his gradual rediscovery of confidence through friendship and romance.

Andrew’s nightmare co-workers Meredith and Keith seemed a bit over the top to me, but I lead a fairly sheltered life these days. You’ll probably find them hilarious.

‘Something to Live For’ by Richard Roper is published by Orion Books, 2019