Marian Keyes

Angels

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by Marian Keyes

But the point I’m making is I wasn’t playing it safe when I married Garv, This is the way I really am!”
Plain yoghurt at room temperature?”
“Um…”
Plain yoghurt at room temperature and proud of it?” “…With Raspberry puree at the bottom?”
Yes! I might even get a T-shirt saying it” “Two. One for Garv as well.”

Had I read the Walsh Family Chronicles in order I would have probably looked upon Maggie’s story as a relief after Claire’s marriage drama and Rachel’s hard-fought and very entertaining journey out of denial and into sobriety. I don’t remember too much about how I felt about it on my first read, by which time I was well into Marian Keyes’ oeuvre, which included many of her standalone novels. When I came to my second Walsh novel, at first I didn’t even realize I had read about these characters before. I remember I liked Angels better than most people did. This time on Audible, I liked it pretty well. After reading all of the Walsh sisters’ stories including sequels, I was very familiar with how the rest of her family view Garv and Margaret. I was interested in how Keyes would find much fodder in the boring life of boring Maggie and her even more boring husband Garv. He is accepted only grudgingly in the first go-round with the Walshes. Except Anna, and that’s a whole other story. They love and respect Margaret but she is somewhat of an outsider, being sensible, responsible, and stable compared the rest of the family’s batshit-in-a-blender lives and times. As I got to know Maggie and learned about her life, I realized she was no different from the usual likable, funny, and good-hearted heroines of Women’s Fiction or Romantic Comedies. She was “every woman” and not boring at all.

After she finds out her husband has cheated on her and she is fired from her job, Maggie flees from Ireland to Los Angeles to visit her best friend Emily. As the white sheep of the family who never strays from the straight and narrow, this unexpected turn of events is quite the shocker. As Maggie experiences life in California and meets many of their strange peoples, we also learn a little more about her teen years, her first love, Shay Delaney, whom she has never quite gotten out of her system, her happy marriage to Garv, and what has caused their marriage to fracture and then break. Her life there with her friend Emily, a struggling scriptwriter, is one curveball after another. But nothing of lasting importance happens to her there in Los Angeles, and most of the book is about Maggie meeting and interacting with various Los Angeles stereotypes. It has even less of a plot than Watermelon. She also meets Shay there, but there is no fear that he will be any more important in her future than the rest of the other large cast of characters. By that time, we understand what a wonderful man Garv is, how happy they both were in their marriage, and how much Maggie still loves him. But he doesn’t show up in the book live and in person until the 95% mark. By this point, I was half in love with myself and I was very happy to see him, hear his side of the story, and have him get Maggie away from her well-meaning but overbearing family. Yes, Mammy Walsh, Mr. Walsh, Anna, and Helen show up in L.A. late in the book and bring their own special brand of crazy and hilarious to the unsuspecting Angelenos. Most of the book is an affectionate send-up of Hollywood culture seen through Maggie’s Irish eyes. The only real people of any depth were her old friend Emily and her new friend Laura. Some of the book is quite dated and exaggerated, though there is also a lot of truth in it, I imagine.

I didn’t love it but I liked it, and I also enjoyed Gerry Halligan’s reading even if the accents of the American characters seemed a little exaggerated and “off.” Weirdly, she pronounced Rodeo drive like it was a cowboy contest and “4-1-1” as 4-eleven. Even those little quirks had their charms.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

My Favorite Mistake

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By Marian Keyes

I had lived countless lives. I had survived more loss and gain than their foolish young heads could ever imagine. I had loved and been loved; I’d been courageous and tough, tender and resourceful. I no longer had the bouncy skin they were accustomed to in their women but I aspired to be kind. I was wise and immensely capable, skilled at listening to boring stories about people’s drives to funerals and angry when I needed to be. Which was now…..

As soon as was mannerly, each person ran away from me to the nearest source of limitless alcohol, where they drank with dark desperation.

**Spoilers for Anybody Out There** I recommend that book is read before this one.

Yes, it went on a little too long and got a little repetitive, but Marian Keyes is such a good writer that I enjoyed every word. For me it’s the type of book that when Anna confides that the Michael Buble version of the song “Feeling Good” is the one she loves even though “Frank Sinatra’s dog did a better one”, I had to stop and listen to it. Buble’s, not the Dog’s.
This is a continuation of Anna’s story begun with Anybody Out there? Of course, Anna takes part in some way in all of Keyes’ Walsh family novels. Although in her own book she has a highly successful career in PR for a beauty company in New York, in the books prior to that she is portrayed as an unemployable eccentric hippie-type and a reliable source for drugs. In her first book, when her husband Aiden is killed in a car accident, she does not believe he is really dead, and tries every method she can think of to communicate with him. I really do not remember too much about it but it was very sad and traumatic, and I haven’t cared to go through all the pain with Anna by re-reading it. Maybe someday.

In this one, I loved that along with where Anna is now (48 and going through perimenopause), a lot of time is devoted to catching the reader up on Anna’s journey in the 15 or so years since Anybody Out There? ended with hope and healing. As this story begins, she has resigned from her PR job at the beauty company, and her happy 10 year relationship with Angelo has come to a friendly close. Missing her family and tired of New York, she moves back to Ireland. Shockingly, we also learn that she has had a falling out with her “ride or die” best friend, Jacqui, who was such a loyal help and support to her in her previous book.

Anna has not been able to find a suitable job in Ireland, so when Rachel’s friend Brigit needs her PR skills to save her family’s resort venture, she is glad to accept. Someone, or a group of someones from the locality are working to keep Brigit and her husband Colm’s upscale retreat from coming to fruition. They are spreading false rumors and sabotaging the ongoing construction. But when Anna arrives at their small village of Maumtully, everything goes surprisingly well. Being Anna, she makes friends with almost everyone. Plus, she is very good at her job, and soon puts the town’s skeptics’ fears at rest and smooths ruffled feathers.

Being nice is my literal job. The only reason I was hired.” “And you’re brilliant at it. Those poor men. They fell right into your trap and they still think you’re lovely.” “Yeah. Resting Eejit Face strikes again. Helen says that’s my default expression.”

Although there are still problems, a mystery, and some baddies still looming in the background, I’m glad that the danger of Brigit and Colm’s plans going bust did not take front and center. It would have been too much of a dark specter.

We get to know many of the entertaining and (mostly) likeable villagers. And it wouldn’t be a Walsh Family novel if at at some point the entire Walsh family didn’t descend upon Maumtully to support (and take advantage of) Anna. Her only problem is working with her old frenemy “Narky Joey,” with whom she has some mysterious “history.” Joey, now a successful financial broker is the liaison between Bridget and Colm’s resort and its investors, who were in danger of pulling out when the dirty tricks started. Joey has been a satellite character in at least 3 previous Walsh novels. We meet him in Rachel’s Holiday, one of the “Real Men” and Luke’s best friend. He also makes an appearance in the sequel, Again, Rachel and, of course, Anna’s first story. To say Joey has turned over a new leaf in the intervening years is putting it mildly. We know that he had a child with Anna’s best friend Jacqui. They eventually broke up and he married again to an upstanding citizen, had 3 more children with her, and divorced. He is a wonderful and loving father to all 4 of his kids. As Anna learns, he has truly become a sterling character and that old spark is turning into a new flame. But Anna is very hesitant given what her past experience with him has been.

Joey had known me during several incarnations. I was privy to information about him that almost no other person was. But our unique connection was bound up in pain. Better to park it in the past where it couldn’t hurt us....

Despite my fuzzy, and sometimes totally absent, memory, one part of Anybody Out There? has always stuck with me. In the last few pages when Aiden comes to Anna in a dream one last time, he tells her to “look for the signs” that he is watching over her. Years later, Anna still sees his signs in her hours of need. In the dream he told her that she will have a great love with a man once again. Anna asks him if he knows who, and the only thing he will tell her is that “she already knows him.” I had no idea.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Watermelon

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By Marian Keyes

“Temporary Insanity had come a-knocking and I had shouted “Come on in the door is open.” Luckily, Reality had come unexpectedly and found Temporary Insanity roaming the corridors of my mind unchecked, going into rooms, opening cupboards, reading my letters, looking in my underwear drawer, that kind of thing. Reality had run and got Sanity. And after a tussle, they both had managed to throw out Temporary Insanity and slam the door in his face. Temporary Insanity now lay on the gravel in the driveway of my mind, panting and furious, shouting, “She invited me in, you know. She asked me in. She wanted me there.”

I’ve been re-reading Marian Keyes’s books on Audible for the last couple of years. They have been so rich and funny. I had only read Watermelon, Keyes’s introduction to the Walsh family, one time, and it was a long time ago. I remember not being too impressed with it.
I re-read Rachel’s Holiday (again) in 2022 in preparation for its long-anticipated sequel, Again, Rachel. I had previously listened to Helen’s story, The Mystery of Mercy Close, in 2020, and somewhere in there  Mammy Walsh’s A-Z of the Walsh Family, because I felt the need to re-acquaint myself with Helen and the rest of them. In those latter books, Claire is an interesting but not particularly nice woman. In fact, she is rather unlikable. Not so in this one. I was amazed by how different she is in this first book from how I remembered her. Perhaps because I listened to it on Audible rather than read it, I loved Watermelon this time. I thought it was hilarious and engaging throughout. Part of this may have been the narrator’s charming Irish accent and inflections which made Claire, who narrates her story in first person, even more sympathetic and charming than on paper. I was rooting for her all the way. Another reason I was so taken with her was that she addresses the reader directly in a metatextual way which made me feel a personal connection to her.

This is not a plot-driven book. The book begins with Claire, having just given birth, being told by her husband while she is still in the hospital, that he is leaving her for another woman.

Who’s in charge around here? I’d like to complain about my life. I distinctly ordered a happy life with a loving husband to go with my newborn baby and what was this shoddy travesty that I’d been served up instead?

From there, we go with her on her journey from grief and devastation, confusion, and anger to healing and a fresh start with a new and wonderful man. But first, she leaves London and goes home to Dublin to live with her parents and two of her sisters, Helen and Anna, who still live at home. The book mainly consists of Claire’s musings, observations, and memories. As she remembers it and tells it, her marriage with James was blissful, and James, as she remembers him to us, seems like a great guy and her perfect match. Until he finally shows up, that is. We see that he is actually a pompous sanctimonious pig. For me, this added an extra layer of interest because I started to wonder about Claire’s reliability as a narrator if not her sanity. Or does James have a point when he accuses her of being childish, selfish, and a total flake? Claire had expected regret and shame from James but instead, he actually blames her for his having the affair. At first, James has Claire completely gaslighted. She starts to believe him and he has her under his thumb with her apologizing to him and promising to change her ways to save their marriage. Luckily her delusion was very brief and she comes to her senses with a vengeance.

No more humiliation for me, thanks very much. No more swallowing my anger. Honestly, I couldn’t manage another mouthful.

In many of her later books, Marian’s heroines are victimized and bamboozled by bad men throughout the whole book. I was thrilled such was not the case with Claire. She pretty much sees him for what he is, but is very confused and she feels she has to try again for the sake of their baby.

I loved the character of Adam, Claire’s love interest. He is such a great guy that the fact that he loves and admires Claire serves to reassure us that however flawed and crazy she sometimes is, she is a lovable and good person. Their romance is sweet, as is her love for her baby Kate. And of course, the rest of the Walshes are a constant source of entertainment and amazement.

Next to read on my agenda is Angels, which features Margaret, the “good” sister, who was not in this one. After that, hippy-dippy druggie Anna’s story, which I remember as being heartrending, and then a re-read of scary and combative Helen’s story. It will be interesting to meet Claire again in those and see how (or if) she changes or if this book is just another side of her.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Sushi for Beginners

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by Marian Keyes

This is going to be a short review of a very long book because I listened to it on Audible. It was read by Caitriona Keyes who is the author’s sister and she did a fantastic job. I am still thinking in an Irish accent. I first read this book many years ago, but didn’t remember it at all.

Despite Marian Keyes superb writing, wit, and comedy along with some great suspense and drama, I can’t really give this more than 3 stars. This is because the 3 main characters which we spend most of our time with I really didn’t like spending time with. Ashling was a good person you can’t help but root for but ultimately not very interesting. Lisa was unapologetically cold, hard, and ruthless but was very very interesting. And deliciously so. She was the best-drawn character in the book and very complex. I loved how we kept getting glimpses of her humanity beneath her bitchiness as the book goes on. She was a piece of work. By the end, she had found a happy ending and had changed for the better. Is it permanent? Mmmmmm. Not sure. I fear not if she goes back to London and gets swept up in her old life again. The 3rd woman was a nightmare. she was beautiful, selfish, spoiled, and foolish in the extreme. Although she loves her kids, she is not a good mother and ends up ruining her own life, her wonderful dream-man of a husband’s life, and probably her 2 children’s lives as well. She loses her best friend and even her parents can’t stand her. Her fall from grace is very very deserved, thorough, and satisfying. Although she claims she has learned and changed, we know she really hasn’t.

The book is set in Dublin and follows the launch of a new women’s magazine. Lisa has been transferred there from London and is in charge. She is shocked and horrified at her situation as she thought her next step would be a transfer to Manhattan which was her next career goal. The culture shock she suffers is the source of a lot of humor. Ashling is her newly hired assistant. She is a people-pleaser and “Little Miss Fix-It” as a response to her difficult childhood as the daughter of a clinically depressed mother. She suffers from boyfriend problems as many of Marian Keyes’ heroines do. Her happy ending did not happen in the way I thought it would though. And I didn’t buy the romance. At All. I also thought the resolution to Lisa’s romance seemed tacked on and out of nowhere. The previously mentioned Clodagh is Ashling’s best friend. I just couldn’t believe what she did. I honestly thought at first that there was going to be a twist and what we thought was happening at one point was a trick on the reader because even she couldn’t be that bad and stupid. Until it happened, I felt there was still hope for her, so I was very disappointed in how her story played out.

The best thing about the book, in addition to the humor, was the myriad of fascinating characters that surround the 3 women. They go from 0 to 100 on the hateable/lovable scale. Marian Keyes never disappoints in that regard. And exploring dark themes with humor is her superpower. The setting in offices of Colleen was vastly entertaining and seemed very authentic. The mean Lisa and nice Ashling dynamic reminded me of Miranda Priestly and Andrea Sachs of The Devil Wears Prada. This book came first.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Again, Rachel

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by Marian Keyes

‘ “The truth must dazzle gradually, Or every man be blind.” Emily Dickinson.’

I loved much of this book. First, The Walsh family is a main character here, with each of the sisters maintaining the personalities that we have come to know and love or not love as the case may be. I hate it when an author does a sequel or a series and personalities that were interesting and intriguing, that made you want to come back for more, have vanished and we have reconstituted versions. The people we were introduced to and came to know throughout the Walsh family chronicles are the same people, yet some have been allowed to grow and mature. And some haven’t.

Confidence was usually seen as a positive. But Mum was from that generation of Irishwomen who prided themselves on raising children with rock-bottom self-esteem. Nothing galled them as much as an offspring with confidence.

 I definitely need to re-read Watermelon and Angels. And maybe skip through Anna’s story to find references to Angelo. After the last book, my favorite sister is Helen and I loved her role in this.

Rachel is back. She is 20 years sober and the head counselor at The Cloisters, the rehab center that saved her life back in the late 90s. Marian Brings back the patients and their heartbreaking yet entertaining stories that I found so involving in Rachel’s Holiday.

In here, clients gave only the most sanitized, tragic version of themselves. To get the full picture, you had to talk to everyone who knew them. It was a little like investigating a crime.

Readers of previous books know that Rachel and Luke got married, and now we find out they have now been divorced for 6 years and he lives in Denver, Colorado. She is in a happy relationship with another man, Quin, who is not easy, but he is interesting and complex.  In the beginning, Rachel is told that Luke’s mother has died and of course, Luke will be back for the funeral and to take care of his Dad’s affairs. Told largely in flashbacks we learn that, according to Rachel, Luke deserted her (but how can that be?) and we are taken through their heartbreaking story that led to that surprising circumstance. Meanwhile, we explore Rachel’s present life, her relationships, her work, and catch up with the Walsh family. And of course, Rachel and Luke are in the same country again. Rachel wants an explanation and apology from Luke but he is distant. It can’t be over for them, can it? But what about Quin? And what’s up with Luke’s long-time partner who came with him to Ireland?

In all of Marian Keyes’ books, The heroines go through horrendous times before getting to the happy and uplifting. Sometimes through no fault of their own, sometimes of their own making, or circumstances out of their control but exacerbated by bad decisions and self-delusion. Rachel part II was more heartbreaking than usual. I had some problems with some aspects of Rachel’s story and some of it was a little hard to swallow. Yes, it was long and drawn out, but in order for everything to come right, it had to be. Could Rachel have had her epiphany a little sooner? Maybe. could there have been a little more fair play with the reader? Hmmm. Not sure. But the book was as insightful, involving, and hilarious as usual. Marian is a master at balancing tragedy and comedy. And with a writer this good, the more words we are given, the better. So not too long for me.

After Anna’s story, Is Anybody Out There and Helen’s, the last sister’s, story there was an over 5-year gap.  Right before Marian came out with The Mystery of Mercy Close, she wrote a refresher to catch everybody up with the Walshes and kind of get them up to speed. If like me,  you have read Mammy Walsh’s A-Z of the Walsh Family,  you can forget about what she told us about Luke and Rachel. This book completely retconns what we thought we knew about them. This is by way of fair warning. I wish I had had one.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

April 27, 2022

Rachel’s Holiday

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by Marian Keyes

**Spoilers**

As much as I enjoyed listening to Rachel’s Holiday, a book I have previously read several times though many years ago, I’m a little bit pissed. After I had finished it, I noticed it was the Abridged Version. Gaaaahhhh! I wanted to refresh my memory of Rachel’s journey in preparation for the debut of  Again, Rachel, Marian Keyes‘ new sequel to my long-time favorite of her novels, When I searched for it on my Audible account a few months ago, this one popped up and when I saw that it was almost 12 hours long, I bought it. It never crossed my mind that it could have been abridged at that length. Now that I have listened to it, and investigated further, I see that there is an unabridged version, not available until tomorrow, February 3, that is almost 15 hours long. Now that I have finished it, and looking back in the foggy mists of my memory, I do seem to remember scenes and aspects of the book, that weren’t in this audio version. It seems like Rachel had more than one relapse, or almost relapse, than the one depicted in this. It seems like there was more about Chris in the world outside of Cloisters. It seems like we get more of her background with Luke, primarily her mistreatment and hatefulness towards him. Also, in my first read of this novel, It never really hit me how serious Rachel’s problem was until I found out the job she was fired from was as a maid in a seedy hotel. And I seem to remember that we learn that one of the addicts Rachel meets in the Cloisters ends up dying of an overdose in the outside world. These may be memories in my imagination, but I am spurred to get a book version of this to see if those were real happenings in the full book or not. I may have mixed things up in my memory.

So all that said, on to the book. The narration was great, and I enjoyed my “re-read”. It was as funny, witty, painful, and shocking as I remember. As I said, I did not get the sense that anything was missing at the time except one thing. Rachel doesn’t seem to go through any withdrawal symptoms or struggle with craving drugs and alcohol in this version. Does she struggle in the full novel?

Having it told in the first person made the book very effective as we see the truth according to Rachel and the real truth at the same time. That is, once you realize that Rachel is the definition of an unreliable narrator, and nothing she says can be taken at face value. If I’d read it for the first time today, I may have realized how bad her situation was right away. But I didn’t when I first read it. I really liked Rachel. The dawning realization that Rachel was not a likable character at first was a large part of why the book had such an impact on me. Even when she is on the road to recovery she still sees things from a skewered viewpoint until well towards the end. Her continued rage against Luke’s (and Bridget’s) “betrayal” is the primary example. It is only when she lets that go and sees that their visit to The Cloisters was an act of love rather than a betrayal that we know she sees her past behavior clearly and is truly and firmly on the road to recovery.

Apparently, the sequel, due out this spring in the U.S. (and in a couple of weeks in the U.K-not fair!), finds Rachel in her late 40’s and a drug counselor at The Cloisters. It sounds like she doesn’t stay with Luke but meets him again in this one. But yet in Mammy Walsh’s A-Z of the Walsh Family, they did get married and had a little boy. Also, he is mentioned in Helen’s story, The Mystery of Mercy Close. So it will be interesting to see what happened there. But whatever, she is happy and healthy. Yay!

Rating: 5 out of 5.

February 2, 2022

The Woman Who Stole My Life

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by Marian Keyes

**spoilers*

I listened to this on audible, which I started about 3 weeks ago, so I’ll try to get this straight. The book starts out with Stella Sweeny attempting unsuccessfully to write a follow-up to a first book. She is back in Ireland after spending time promoting this first book in the U.S. Her first book seems to have been pretty successful and she is semi-famous. But she has come back to Ireland in disgrace. We don’t know exactly what happened, but it must be pretty bad. What happened to her? What did she do? Who is the man that keeps calling her telling her he misses her? What about her daughter? Who is Gina and why does she avoid thinking of her and knowing what’s happening with her? She lives with her hostile son, and her ex-husband, Ryan, is going off the deep end giving up all of his possessions in some kind of performance art and an attempt to reclaim his self-esteem and become as famous as his ex-wife.

From there we go back and forth in time. We learn how Stella, a working-class housewife, and beautician came to write her first book seemingly out of nowhere. Meanwhile, we follow Stella’s life in the present until her reminiscences of what happened in the last 5 years or so catch up with what’s happening now. So much happens. We meet so many people that have an important role in her life. There is a lot of humor and satire as well as a dark painful year where Stella is completely paralyzed because of a rare disease. Thanks to a brilliant neurologist who takes a special interest in her, she is saved from the intense physical pain she had to endure multiple times a day. He teaches her how she can finally communicate by blinking her eyes. He is an angel from heaven and a knight in shining armor. Even though she looks horrible, and can only communicate by blinking, they have a strong and special connection. By this time we know that Ryan, still her husband during these tribulations is a selfish jerk.

After she recovers, and after Stella and the doctor, Mannix, start divorce proceedings from their respective spouses, they meet up again and start an affair. They are head over heels in love with each other although Stella has constant doubt and fear due to the difference in their financial situations and social class.

After she breaks up with him because of pressure from her son and her family, Mannix sends her a gift to prove to her how much he loves her. He wants her back. You see, he had saved all of the notebooks he had filled up with their communications she had blinked out when she could not move or talk. He wrote an introduction and bound them together in a fine binding and had 50 copies privately printed for her to give to her family and friends. It’s a long story, but this is the book that ends up getting published by a top-flight New York publishing house.

I liked Stella and loved her voice, but I hated her behavior towards Mannix and her parenting of her difficult son. Basically, she treats Mannix like crap. She lets her son run roughshod over her out of guilt and she caters to her son’s selfish demands over Mannix’s needs every time. Mannix never wavers in his devotion. What does she have to feel guilty over? For getting sick and throwing her family into chaos. Ryan was a terrible parent during her year in intensive care, impatient, unsympathetic, and bored with her, and she feels guilty. Oy Vey. Although it started out great, Stella’s behavior after she recovers made this book kind of a chore to read.

It turns out the big scandal that sent her home in disgrace is very much an anticlimax. The only thing she has to be disgraced about is her own private behavior towards Mannix. The happy ending feels tacked on. She didn’t earn it. Not one bit. There is no justice in it. She gives up trying to write a second book, which is ironic, because, as her agent says, an account of everything that happened to her from her backstory, to her year in intensive care, to her family and friends, to her relationship with Mannix as her neurologist, to her adventures in America, would have made a much more interesting book that her lame little collection of sayings and words of “wisdom.” If she told a true candid tale, it would have been a real eye-opener to not only her family and friends, but shined a light on the terrible care she got from her doctors and nurses in Ireland. (except for Mannix.) Apparently, Ireland has a pretty good healthcare system. You would never know it from this book. I wish Marian Keyes had ended The Woman Who Stole my Life (don’t understand the title, exactly) with an addendum in which we learn that we had just finished reading Stella’s second book. **almost 3 stars.**

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

June 27, 2021

Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married

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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**

Rating: 3 out of 5.

February 21, 2021

The Break

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By Marian Keyes

“I should have learned mindfulness, and it’s too late now because it’s no good learning it when you’re already in crisis: you have to start when things are good. But only the very, very oddest would think, Hey, my life is perfect. I know! I’ll sit and waste twenty minutes Observing My Thoughts without Judgement.”

“Worse, neither of us has liked any of the other’s Facebook posts, the modern equivalent of pistols at dawn.”

Another really really good book by Marian Keyes. I didn’t like the narrator as much as The Mystery of Mercy Close so it just didn’t quite make it to 5 stars for me. She was a little too soft-spoken and restrained. After listening to 2 Irish books in a row, I am even thinking with an Irish accent right now!

Another thing that held the excellent novel from being a “5” was I felt Amy was very hypocritical and full of unjustified rage at Hugh for much of the book, and Hugh was a little too good to be true. Yes, he did leave her but…He was very nice about it! I tried to buy into Amy’s side completely and share her anger, but I couldn’t 100%. Her rage and grief seemed over the top and a little tedious at times. I can’t judge Amy for her feelings, but she did not have the insight to see her role in why Hugh left. But Marian makes sure the reader realizes what Amy didn’t until near the end after Hugh returns.

It was very insightful and thought-provoking with lots of humor and lots going on with Amy, her mother, her children, and her workplace. Each part of Amy’s life, especially her children, is drawn to perfection. As always a very satisfying if predictable ending with a lovely epilogue that ties everything up very very nicely. **spoiler**

OOPs! except for one thing. I really really wanted Amy to have an encounter with the Serbian artist she adores so much, or at least obtain one of her paintings for herself. I honestly believe Marian set the book up for that to happen, but she forgot about or it was edited out.**4 stars out of 5**

Rating: 4 out of 5.

October 20, 2020

The Mystery of Mercy Close

/ Rebekahrox / Leave a comment

By Marian Keyes

“He’d done his walls with paint from Holy Basil. God, I yearned for their colors. I hadn’t been able to afford them myself but I knew their color chart like the back of my hand. His hall was done in Gangrene, his stairs in Agony and his living room–unless I was very much mistaken–in Dead Whale. Colors I personally very much approved of.”

This book was hilarious, I wish I could just quote and quote from it, but I listened to it on Audio. At some point in the future, I’ll have to read-read it, but I loved the Irish accent and style of the narrator, Caroline Lennon. As with all of Marian Keyes’ novels, this one deals with some dark themes, so the humor can be very black. In this one, Helen, the youngest Walsh sister, suffers from clinical depression, which has led to a suicide attempt and continual thoughts of suicide. Keyes’s description and exploration of this condition are harrowing. It seems impossible that it could be a source of humor, but with Helen’s voice, it is.

I loved the inclusion of Helen’s family in the story, although some glimpses were brief, some are pretty substantial. It’s a treat for those who have followed the trials, tribulations, and joys of the Walsh family over the years. For example, we learn who the man is that Anna’s late husband( Anybody Out There?) foretells for her. “I can’t give you his exact identity…But I can tell you, you know him already.” And that is all we know at the conclusion of that book.

Besides the Walshes, the other secondary characters are wonderfully drawn, especially Bella, one of her boyfriend’s children. Speaking of boyfriends, I wasn’t sure until the very near the end who exactly Helen was going to end up with. Marian really had me worried a number of times.

The “Mystery” which drives the plot of the book is somewhat of a MacGuffin. Helen has been hired by her rogueish and attractive ex-boyfriend to find Wayne, “the Wacky one” in the has-been boy band who are trying to stage a comeback. It is a legit mystery. He has disappeared off the face of the earth. Is he still alive? Was he murdered? If the reader follows closely, all of the clues are there as to where Wayne is. We are really more entertained by Helen’s life, her thoughts and musings, her reminiscences, the people she meets along the way, and her interactions with them. And most of all, what her fate will be.

I will only say, everything climaxes is a perfect ending and a very satisfying conclusion to the saga of the Walsh family. And I wish that Holy Saint Basil’s paint colors were not fictional.**5 out of 5 stars**

Rating: 5 out of 5.

September 20,2020