by Marian Keyes

“I despised him for liking me so much. I wondered how he could settle for so little.”

I’m afraid I am going to have to give Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married just 3 stars. 5 stars for the writing, humor, and character development and one star for Lucy herself. I just got fed up with her. I could easily rant and rave for paragraphs about how painfully blind and ignorant she was about everything throughout the whole book. But I won’t. (How could any modern woman think a pill or acupuncture could cure alcoholism?) Psychologically, I understood from the beginning why she fell into a relationship with a piece of pond scum like Gus, but why did she allow herself to be bullied by Karen? It’s explained at the end why she was so mean to the too-good-for-her Daniel, but I still couldn’t stand it. We are told how clever she is, but she is shown to be just the opposite page after page.**spoiler**

Also, the end could have included more of a mending of her relationship with her mother once the lightbulb finally came on. Lucy was cruel and mean to her. She dealt with Lucy’s father, the useless drunk, for 30 years. And Lucy barely lasted a couple of months. Where was the love, gratitude, sorrow, and compassion for her poor mother? I at least needed an apology. This was a major letdown and to me a big flaw in Lucy’s road to self-awareness and growth.**end spoiler**

I listened to this on audio and the narration for all of the female characters was excellent. The men’s voices were really bad though. Especially our hero, Daniel. Anne McCallister made him sound like a punch drunk blockhead. **3 stars out of 5**

February 21, 2021