Chick lit done right
I don't heap scorn on the chick-lit genre as a whole...just the books that treat their main character as if she has an IQ of a wet dishrag. One author that never disappoints is Marian Keyes.
I've been reading her books since junior year of college, and I look forward to her new novels every summer. It's very rare that i actually LOL while reading a book, but some of the passages from her novels have had me crying tears from laughing. Or from trying not to laugh, as happened on a particularly packed T in Boston one day. (Seriously, if you saw a girl collapsing in hysterical laughter at seemingly nothing, you'd think she was nuts, wouldn't you? You wouldn't think, "Oh, she's just enjoying the comedic prose of a lovely Irish author!")
"Anybody Out There?", though, offers a departure from her usual fare. It starts off on familiar territory, with one of the Walsh sisters in a terrible state. While it's filled with the absurd dialogue and descriptions I've come to love, this book is more serious, as Keyes injects some real tragedy into Anna Walsh's life. She's really good at it, as this novel pretty much ripped my heart out in places. Still, plenty of LOL moments, such as the following description of a New Yorker attempting to hit on Anna at a party.
"Well!" Deep breath before he launched into it. "I'm with blah bank, blah, blah...tons of money...I, me, myself, being fabulous, blah, promotion, blah, bonus, workhardplayhard, me, mine, belonging to me, my expensive apartment, my expensive car, my expensive vacations, my expensive skis, me, me, me, me, me, MEEEEEE...."
Which...yes, exactly! I have met these guys, and GOD are they tedious. Other highlights include transcription of emails between Anna and her absolutely insane mother, and her youngest sister's ill-fated career as the worst private eye in the whole of Ireland. All-in-all, a perfect summer read.
I've been reading her books since junior year of college, and I look forward to her new novels every summer. It's very rare that i actually LOL while reading a book, but some of the passages from her novels have had me crying tears from laughing. Or from trying not to laugh, as happened on a particularly packed T in Boston one day. (Seriously, if you saw a girl collapsing in hysterical laughter at seemingly nothing, you'd think she was nuts, wouldn't you? You wouldn't think, "Oh, she's just enjoying the comedic prose of a lovely Irish author!")
"Anybody Out There?", though, offers a departure from her usual fare. It starts off on familiar territory, with one of the Walsh sisters in a terrible state. While it's filled with the absurd dialogue and descriptions I've come to love, this book is more serious, as Keyes injects some real tragedy into Anna Walsh's life. She's really good at it, as this novel pretty much ripped my heart out in places. Still, plenty of LOL moments, such as the following description of a New Yorker attempting to hit on Anna at a party.
"Well!" Deep breath before he launched into it. "I'm with blah bank, blah, blah...tons of money...I, me, myself, being fabulous, blah, promotion, blah, bonus, workhardplayhard, me, mine, belonging to me, my expensive apartment, my expensive car, my expensive vacations, my expensive skis, me, me, me, me, me, MEEEEEE...."
Which...yes, exactly! I have met these guys, and GOD are they tedious. Other highlights include transcription of emails between Anna and her absolutely insane mother, and her youngest sister's ill-fated career as the worst private eye in the whole of Ireland. All-in-all, a perfect summer read.