The ironing man door Colin Campbell

THE IRONING MAN

1. General Information
Author: Colin Campbell
Title: The Ironing Man
Publisher: Early Blackbirds, wolters-noordhoff, Cambridge English readers
Place of publication: The Netherlands
Printing Year: 2005
Number of pages: 66 pages
Year of copyright: 1999

2.Your first Impression

• 2.1 Before

I got this book from my brother. I thougth it was a nice cover and I have read the back wich I liked because on the back it looks like an exiting book. So my first impression was mysterious and funny book.

• 2.2 After
After I read it, it was not like my expectations because it was very boring(nothing exiting happens) and it was also a little weird, because of the happenings , but I liked the last part because the punch line was that it was all a set-up. So I didn’t expect that. After the book I felt a little giggly, because I was thinking about all the persons and how it was set.

3. Content & Technique

• 3.1 Content

The book is about Marina who is a real housewife. Her houseband Tom, works in London. They are married and live in a smaal village near London. Marina hates ironing so she wishes someone who does it for her. Then there is ‘The Ironing Man’. He does it for her and she is very happy.

When Tom got home she tells him all about it, but Tom doesn’t take her very serious. She also tells him that she is going to met a friend; Johanna, but Tom knows that Johanna is in Nepal for six months. So Tom calls a personal-detective,who takes it all very serious and who will follow Marina closely . But when Marina wants to go to London, A woman who calls herself Tracy, rang the bell. Tracy says that she is sended by the Ironing Man to give Marina a massage. Tracy also tells Marina a message coming from the Ironing Man; Marina must go at 2 o’clock to the National Gallery London.

While Marina is at the National Gallery with the Ironing man (where she wishes that she and Tom could live a lovely life), the detective is fallowing Tracy from whom he thinks it’s Marina(because Tracy got out of Marina’s house). He follows ‘Marina’ (so Tracy) with her boyfriend all day long.

Tom is not happy when the detective tells him the news about Marina. Tom is now sure that Marina is cheating on him. The detective gives him also a envelop with photo’s. When he opens the envelop, he sees that it is not Marina on the pictures, so Marina is not cheating! He is so happy and when he calls the detective to make sure this was the women he had followed, he decides to take Marine for a holiday to India for two weeks.

They have a great holiday and very in love, when they walking on the beach they see three people. They give eachother a long kiss and when they stop, the three people are gone. Marina says: “it’s just…did you hear that woman’s laugh, that blonde woman? It sounded a bit…like tracy. And the tall man looked a bit like…but no. that’s not possible, Is it?”

• 3.2 Main Characters

The main characters, are: Marina, Tom, The Ironing Man, Tracy and the Detective.

The main concern is about Tom & Marina. Tracy, The Ironing man and the detective are involved and try to help them to fall in love again. Marina and to are also worried about their relationship.

Marina and Tom are married, they both don’t know Tracy, The Ironing man or the detective. But the last three are together.

Marina: she feel lonely and she hate ironing. Aged 20+. A symathetic and spontaneous woman. There is not very much information about her look in the book. Marina is married to Tom. The story is all about her ( and Tom) but she decides the main parts.

Tom: he’s always working. He loves to makes lists. He always makes lists with ‘good’ and ‘bad’ things. He’s an average man. Also not much information about his look. He’s most of the time working but at the end he’s very important.

The Ironing Man: he has a lot of influence in the story. Because of him Marina and Tom come together. He’s tall, very handsome and he has blond hair. He’s kind and a temting man.

Tracy: blonde hair, a big smile. Aged Marina’s age. A beauty consultant and masseuse. Has a lot of boyfriends. Very friendly and kind. She works together with the Detective and the Ironing Man. Together they have almost all what happens in their hands.

The Detective: always wearing a heavy, dirty raincoat and smoking a cigar. His real name is Phil but most of the time he’s named ‘the Detective’. Very serious. He also works with the Ironing Man and Tacy so together with them he’s has a lot of influence.

Tom and Marina develop in the book because first they wer e a very bored married couple but at the end they are in love and happy and feeling great.

Tracy attracts me the most because I think if she was real she was a really nice woman and also very cheerful personallity.

The Detective attracts me the least because it is a very old and not a kind man.

• 3.3 Narritive Space
The story takes most of the time place in Felton, the small village where Tom & Marina live, but some time it plays in London.

• 3.4 Time

The whole book takes like 2 months approximatly. The time is not very important for the story, but there is an open end wich is very important. Because of that you can understand the whole story in one sentence.

• 3.5 Point Of View

The point of view is in the 3rd person. Two or three times Marina writes in her diary so then it’s 1st person.

• 3.6 Style
The structure is first Marina who is unhappy, so cause, then the Ironing Man comes and things happen,so effect, and as result, Tom & Marina are happily after. There are difficult words in the story, so I could understand all the words. The dialogues are just normal. Example: “I know you have no idea who I am,” the woman said. “My name’s Tracy. I am a beauty consultant and masseuse. Your friend phoned me and asked me to give you a surprise massage.” you know who me phoned then?” the woman asked. “I think so, did he give a name?” Marina asked. “the Ironing Man. I’m sure you know what that means,” and she laughed again. It is easy to read and I liked it that is first looked a bit boring but the end is fenominal.

In this book aren’t many methaphores used but some. Example: ‘his eyes were the size of a dinner plate’

• 3.7 Theme
The main theme is ‘ with some help, you can have everything you want’. Because in the book Marina & Tom have no good love-life and are both unhappy , and when the Ironingman, Tracy and the Detective help them, They are happy and are in love again. I think it is a good theme but the writer could have added some more happening in the story, because now there is only this theme. The title(The Ironing Man) is related by the theme, because The Ironing man is very important for the book. Because of him Tom and Marina love eachother at the end. I think you can compare this book with the film ‘UP’. Because in that film is is the same theme: the old man lives a boring live, than the little boy comes and they fly with the house of the old man, and when they land , the old man met a woman his age, and he live happy after. So also like boring life, help from someone, and a happy life after.

• 3.8 Literary story

The English author Colin Campbell wrote this book in 1999 and a year later(2000) he wrote ‘the Lady in the white’. He has written just two unknown books so there isn’t very information about him. The cover of the book is designed by René van der Vooren.

• 3.9 Sources

Of course I’ve used the internet: google: scholieren.com: google translate(vocablury): van Dale.com(vocablury) : ofcourse I’ve used the book, The Ironing Man: wikipedia.com ( colin campbell, but there wasn’t anything about him) and google images for the picture.

• 4. Reading Experience

While I was reading the book I was very curious for what would happen next. The part me most impressed was the end, because I didn’t expected it at all. I was thinking of all different ends but not of that one, it also impressed me because the whole story you could understand by one sentence at the end. The least succesful part was I think, the part when Tracy got in the story. Because it was not like a funny part or something like that and you wanted to now what would happen next and then annoying Tracy got in for a long time! So I think that was a part wich took to long, wich could be shorter. I don’t wanna read any more books of his writer because I don’t like this style of writing and it is a too simple theme, so a stereotype theme. I would advise this book for others to read, because it’s a nice start book and it is not such a thick book so you can easily get trough it.