Penguin delivered my book on the day after my son and grandchildren had left after a week in residence during which I ran a ‘hotel’ culminating in a party and barbecue for 40 people.
It arrived on Monday at 11 am. The first book I have read by Marion Keynes. I did check on the internet and see she is much admired for her chick lit plots and her humour.
I was looking forward to a book that would relax me, that I got lost in and that I would not be able to put down. First part of the book I found hard to follow. Time frame and place did not seem to be clear. I was captivated by Stella’s experience of being in ICU for months but this sub story seemed to be broken up too frequently. Even in the here and now sections of the book Stella was dreaming about her past life in America and Gilda’s role. I was soon fed up with hearing about carbs, jaffa cakes & fairy cakes. Then Stella was shopping with her sister Karen for lady chinos. Carbs, fair cakes, jaffa cakes, lady chinos kept repeating themselves throughout the book. And at one point medical services are paid for in euros and then discussed in quids.
At last on page 200 of 531 pages the novel gets started. A national publication in the US has featured a photograph of Annabeth Browning in a convent reading a book written by Stella and self published by Mannix. From then on, for me as the reader, the book got interesting and started to make sense in terms of place and time. However Mannix’ brother Roland seemed to come and then go within the story, fading away having had a stroke and then turning up at the end in pink and orange trainers. I was not sure that this character was needed. Nor was I sure that earlier on we needed Dr. Montgomery whose behaviour seemed out of the ordinary, not really believable. And later on Ned Mount, the broadcaster appears looking for Stella. He seems a bit superfluous.
I found that I did start to care about Stella, her family, her love life and her career as a writer; but I did not find anything funny. From page 427 events moved at a good pace, the book tours and meetings with the publishers etc. All gathered pace with brief but sufficient descriptions.
Occasionally with dialogue I lost the plot as to who was saying what so had to count the lines from the first speaker so as to make sure. At page 522 we are home at last Georgie has pulled it off enabling a reconciliation for our main characters, with a warm finish a year later on page 528 but by then I have forgotten that Chad is the name of Stella’s father and have to go back to find out, because the speech sentence seems to be by two different people, all of which diminishes, for me, the impact of the ending.
I have, however, looked through Marian Keyes list of publications and downloaded on my Kindle a sample of Sushi for Beginners, which I will read some time. Marian may be a writer whose publisher is asking her to produce a novel a year rather than allowing an excellent story teller to develop her work in her own time.
