Useful

This book was surprisingly enjoyable. I say surprisingly as I usually hate tales involving midlife crisis troubled marriages bewildered singledom and general unhappiness and I did not find this book "laugh out loud " amusing in anyway. However the characters are drawn so brilliantly and while quite brutally with great underlying affection that after a slow start I found myself really interested in them all and invested in their stories. It is a quick read and days later I found myself thinking about some of the issues raised including the main theme of our need to be useful.

Really enjoyable, easy and quick read. Heart-warming story, great characters and writing that made you care about them. Nothing too deep, what I was in the mood for at the time.

I thoroughly enjoyed being immersed in the lives of these delightfully dysfunctional characters.....a real bonus to connect with the many locale references in Sydney's inner west

A reminder of how we all just try to do our best, with our flaws and our mistakes. This is an engaging study of humanity without any pretentiousness and a good dose of humour. Write some more, please Debra Oswald!

Original story and quite well written. I enjoyed it a lot and will buy another book from this author.

Enjoyed this book. Recommend. Good characters, well written and formed. A good easy read as well. Hope you like it.

A selfish and self-absorbed man can't see that his life serves any purpose. This is the story of his hit and miss search for the reason of his existence and of finding purpose in the most unlikely of places and with the most unlikely of people.

A thoroughly entertaining book, for something different, wonderfully crafted characters

I loved this book! Quirky, joyous, and a 'bit out there' it was really entertaining and absorbing. Despite the plot being about really heavy stuff, because of the very warm and light tone of the writing, I always knew that everything would be OK. It was a real 'feel good' book and I found it an utter delight. Such fun!!

I had read a review for this book comparing it to Fifty Shades of Grey - I couldn't disagree more, it was funny, sad , inspiring. I thought it was a great read I would recommend it, it was well written and I really enjoyed it, Icould not understand the review comparison at all.

Review of Useful by Debra OswaldA light fun read. Unusual topic. Well drawn characters. Enjoyable.Margaret Jaffe

I had really high hopes for this book and selected it for our book club as I was a big fan of Debra Oswald's TV productions that she co wrote. But I was disappointed when i read this story as were the other members of my book club.

Wonderful. Such interesting ,flawed relatable characters. I love Debra Oswald's style.