Last Chance Saloon

Marian Keyes, Last Chance Saloon, Michael Joseph (1999)

The quality of this novel is mid-way between Marian Keyes’ earlier, popular novels, and the more insightful, more recent and mature novels.

The general theme is how two very different thirty-something year old women get a grip on the way they relate to the men in their lives, and learn to “seize the day”.

The plot is relatively light mais il tient la route: it describes the lives and love-lives of a group of three best friends from Knockavoy, Ireland, and how they have grown to be who they are. When Fintan undergoes chemotherapy, he asks his two best friends, Tara and Katherine, to act upon their disastrous love-lives. Each character has a relatively well-defined, individual personality.

If you’re looking for an easy-read, then this novel is perfect. Marian is good at what she does, without the pretence of intellectual literature. It’s the kind of book that you read on the bus, on the way to work (ahem), and i’s quite a fun read. Not very much introspection, but some good bouts of sarcasm at the ridiculous Lorcan Larkin (a couple of amusing pages on how the love-god views himself). Nevertheless, the irony is often a little O.T.T, and the insight remains slightly superficial.

On the whole, this novel paints a slightly ironic picture of the UK’s middle classes in their early thirties, with all the binge-drinking, one-night-stands, addiction to shopping and to ever-lasting lipstick. It is the kind of book that must be fun to write; but not much more.

L’s book-rating criteria

Characterisation: 17/20

Credibility: 16/20

Plot: 15/20

Feel-good factor: 15/20

My subjective opinion: 14/20

Total: 77 %

(to be improved & finished)

The Sea Lady

Margaret Drabble, The Sea Lady, 2006

The novel begins well, sharply, at an award-winning ceremony that the heroin of the novel is presenting. She is naming the winner for the marine literature prize of a large company. And from then onwards, the novel plunges into the abyss of boredom. The thing I find the most tedious: adults reminiscing about their ordinary childhoods. Even worse: a marine biologist going on and on about his childhood passion for fish. To me, it just sounds like a reconstructed a posteriori fantasy.

So for the next 150-odd pages, we are told the story of poor Humphrey’s childhood and of his sea-side holidays. And of his memories of Ailsa (what a strange name, sounds like an illness) and her clean white cotton knickers. And of the grotto, and the fish, and more grotto, and more fish.

It is only about half way into the novel that one actually reaches their adult lives. The part that we had been waiting for. The part that is supposed to make sense of the childhood memories. How Ailsa and Humpy Humphrey became lovers. The reader was expecting something cynical from the past. But no, even the most perverse childhood memory remains quite normal.

Every so often, the “orator” keeps intruding into the story-telling, to add his own bit of information. It’s very strange, as though metafiction was poking fun at metafiction, stating the obvious. I’m sure Margaret meant something by this but even by the end of the novel I was not convinced by the external voice.

So over 200 pages into the novel, I was still waiting for something to happen, for Mrs Drabble to make ends meet. I had no doubt that she was going to manage, because the novel is written with a strong command and a fair amount of insight. I just hoped that it would be worth the wait.

***

At the end of the novel, one is a little more content. Margaret Drabble manages to draw all of the loose strings together. In the final 100 pages, she tries to build up a climax to the reunion of the previously married couple, now that they are sixty, at a university award-giving ceremony (talk about boucler la boucle). The only problem is, that she completely misses her climax. The reader is expecting a machiavellian outcome, a nasty revelation brought on by the clever Sandy (the one person we had been waiting to appear). But no! Nothing happens! Even at the table, as they drink their sherry and eat their mouldy cheese, all they do is reminisce about the past.

This novel has all of the typically positive and negative aspects of the contemporary erudite novel. On the positive side, the depth of character portrayal and the subtlety of the emotional insight. On the negative side, the portraying of a handful of academics, and all the clichés that generally accompany them. A passing reference to the gay poets of France, to Delacroix, to latin quotes, or to Robert Graves. The “wannabe” unconventionality of the heroin, who is nothing more, nothing less, than the epitome of the intellectual free-thinking women of the 1960s.

The world of academe appears as a sickly, moribund world of necrophiliacs. Hence the name chosen for the heroin of the novel?

***

L’s book-rating criteria

Characterisation: 17/20

Credibility: 12/20

Plot: 11/20

Feel-good factor: 10/20

Subjective opinion: 13/20

Total: 63%

Watermelon

Marian Keyes, Watermelon, 1996

I bought this book because a friend of mine recommended it. But right from the very first pages, I was sorely disappointed. This isn’t the Marian Keyes of 2009, this was the Marian Keyes of 1996, and 13 years is a long time in a female author’s life.

You can tell that this is the novel of a naïve young authoress just from the style. Very short, snappy sentences, striving for wit. Average length of a paragraph? 10 words. The opening two sentences of chapter 1 are  enough to put anybody off, as the narrator confides in the reader all the dreadful things that have happened to her, complaining like your average boring young woman.

And it goes on, and on, and on. Pages after pages of moaning about how her husband left her. The plot is so poor it hurts. It’s the kind of story that a teenager would write (or that I would have written as a teenager).

I forced myself to wait, hoping that something would come out of it. But the novel is just full of conventional stereotypes, like the handsome young Adam, and the villainous accountant (or whatever he was) Jack. For a bus-book, it’s not so bad. It makes time pass on your way to work. But even the twist at the end of the novel was not quite what I was hoping for. It just adds to the cliché.

This novel is almost a caricature of the trashy, popular feminine literature of the 1990s, just without the raunchy details.

And yet, despite all of the aforementioned aspects, the Marian Keyes of today has turned into a funny, insightful and subtle writer. A lady of the extremes, she both tops and tails my chart.

L’s book-rating criteria

Characterisation: 11/20

Credibility: 10/20

Plot: 10/20

Feel-good factor: 10/20

Subjective opinion: 10/20

Total: 51%

The Daisy Club

Charlotte Bingham, The Daisy Club, Bantam Press, 2009

This really isn’t my type of novel. The minute I started to read it,  I felt really disappointed, realising that it was set during the Second World War. I generally choose contemporary literature.

Here, the writing feels sort of disincarnate, and I felt a genuine resemblance to Georgette Heyer’s style. I have nothing against GH., quite the contrary, as I have over 20 of her romantic novels stocked away in the cellar. They’re perfect for your typical winter by-the-fire-in-an-armchair-with-a-cup-of-tea reading.

You can definately feel that Bingham has done her research and is trying to relate what it felt like living through the war in England, especially as the war progresses. She compares the lives of people living in London and those who are in the country. From the documentary point of view, the novel was relatively interesting.

Personnally I can’t really stand the soppy teenagery emotional style of this type of novel, though I admit that CB is probably heartily enjoyed by a specific category of reader, and that there were good moments. The further I got into the novel, the more I enjoyed it.

L’s book-rating criteria

Characterization: 12/20

Credibility: 11/20

Plot: 12/20

Feel-good factor: 12/20

Subjective opinion: 13/20

Total: 60%

 

Noah’s Ark

Barbara Trapido, Noah’s Ark, Penguin Books (first published 1984)

You know a book is good when you live along with the characters for a little while; when the story remains present in your mind for a while after having read the last page.

This was the case for me with Barbara Trapido’s Noah’s Ark. I picked up the book from my mother’s bookshelves, a little hesitantly as we do not have the same tastes. I was at once startled by the unconformity of the writing; every now and then, the narrator makes the most unusual comments about the characters. It really piqued my interest.

This novel is unlike the others I have reviewed here. It’s not a particularly funny, racy, or modern book, in fact it seems to be written a little à contre-courant. But I wouldn’t have guessed that it had been published a quarter of a century ago. The story intertwines both touching truths and the strange but credible bizzarities of its characters.

A heart-warming novel, which subtly mocks today’s conventional feminism.

L’s book-rating criteria

Characterization: 18/20

Credibility: 17/20

Plot: 15/20

Feel-good factor: 15/20

Subjective opinion: 17/20

Total: 82%

Heart and Soul

Maeve Binchy, Heart and Soul, N°1 Bestselller, Orion (2008) – 69%

I’d heard of Maeve Binchy but had never actually read any of her books. I picked up this one for the simple reason that it said “The number one bestseller” on the front. Marketing…

A nice, thick novel, and a indisputably slow pace. A lot of different characters and stories neatly interwoven. But it is all a bit too homely for me.

The characters are all related in one way or another to Clara Casey’s clinic for heart patients. There is the lovely doctor Declan and the beautiful Fiona, the hard-working polish maid Ania and the kind young man Carl who gives her English lessons..

Almost from the beginning I was put off by the author’s soppy, moralizing narrative style. Poor Ania, the wonderful Polish immigrant, is running away from a man who took advantage of her back in Poland, slaving away at various part-time jobs to save up money for the mother she dishonored. The comparison between the young Pole and Clara’s obnoxious Irish daughter, who won’t lift a finger to contribute to the household budget, is a bit O.T.T.

The novel feels like it has been written by a middle-aged woman who is trying to paint the world in shades of black and white. There are the good characters (lovely Declan who swerves the car to avoid hitting the family dog) and the bad (Carl’s racist and authoritative mother, Mrs Walsh, whom everybody at the clinic despises).

Not a bad novel, just not a very exciting one either. However, I am interested in finding out what happens to little Ania, so I suppose the moralizing does actually have an effect on the reader.

L’s book-rating criteria

Characterization: 14/20

Credibility: 14/20

Plot: 13/20

Feel-good factor: 14/20

My subjective opinion: 14/20

Total:  69%

My top 10 books for contemporary chick-lit

Here are, so far, my contemporary top 10 / top 20 popular women’s novels (unfortunately this only includes fiction and the books that I have had the time to read and write short reviews for since September 2009 – so please don’t hesitate to come back later once I’ve had the time to write a few more!) :

1. Marian Keyes, This Charming Man, 2008 – 85%
2. Barbara Trapido, Noah’s Ark, 1984 – 82%
3. Sophie Kinsella, Can You Keep a Secret, 2003 – 82%
4. Jane Green, Second Chance, 2007 – 79%
5. Jane Green, The Beach House, 2008 – 78%
6. Marian Keyes, Last Chance Saloon, 1999 – 77%
7. Marian Keyes, Anybody Out There, 2006 – 72%
8. Katie Fforde, Going Dutch, 2008 – 71%
9. Maeve Binchy, Heart and Soul, 2008 – 69%
10. Sophie Kinsella, Twenties Girl, 2009 – 67%
11. Margaret Drabble, The Sea Lady, 2006 – 63%
12. Charlotte Bingham, The Daisy Club, 2009 – 60%
13. Marian Keyes, Watermelon, 1996 – 51%

Twenties Girl

Sophie Kinsella, Bantam Press (2009) – 67%

I had to go out and buy this book, because it was SK’s Can you keep a Secret that triggered off last Summer’s whole new pop-lit phase in me. So when I saw in WHS Paris that Kinsella was topping the charts, it was only a matter of time.

When I started reading the novel, I was really disappointed. I wondered why on earth SK should begin the story at a tedious funeral service. An ancient old lady’s funeral, which nobody even cared about.

When the ghost appears and starts bothering Lara during the service, the story becomes even less credible. I am not one for ghost stories, fantasy literature, or anything that strays too far away from realism.

But gradually, SK drops the odd detail here and there, and you realize that all of the details are meant to come together and fit in eventually.

I’d say that Sophie Kinsella took a risk when writing this one. She gambled on the idea that you could start a book on all-negative basis and gradually flip every little detail over to end on an all-positive one.

100-pages through the novel, I was still fairly skeptical. It really seemed to me like an “easy-write”, like the story had just been poured out of the top of the author’s head, without any background research. It’s nothing compared to Marian Keyes’ research for This charming man.

But somehow, Kinsella does manage to make ends meet. It’s a neatly-plotted little roman. It even gets quite funny at the end. I found myself laughing out loud on the bus, with everybody staring at me (oops). It’s great when Sadie the ghost screams into the ears of real-life-people, telling them what to do.

Lara gets her revenge on all the people who were unkind to her; sorts out her love life and career. So tout est bien qui finit bien.

But still, I wouldn’t put this up among my favorites. Good, at times “hooking”, but it’s more like the kind of book I would buy for my ten year old niece than for myself.

L’s book-rating criteria

Characterization: 13/20

Credibility: 11/20

Plot: 14/20

Feel-good factor: 16/20

My subjective opinion: 13/20

Total: 67%.

P.S. To be honest, the harsh ranking is only due to the fact that I dislike too much “supernatural” in a novel. For those who love ghost stories, this is the perfect book. It’s really funny, and has all the usual Kinsella qualities (apart from perhaps the sarcasm that I enjoyed in CYKAS?).

This Charming Man

Marian Keyes, Michael Joseph (2008), Penguin Books (2009) – 85%

Mmm. I had hesitated before picking up this one. The wonderful thing about living in France is that when you want a new novel to read, you are obliged to go out and buy it in one of the rare English-selling bookstores. It’s my little feel-good factor.

I love the cover. Silly. It’s fun. A nice pale grey with plenty of multi-coloured little stars. A bright pink title. And a cheesy one at that.  (Only once you’ve got into the novel do you realize that it’s probably sarcasm). I bought it thinking never mind what impression it gives. (Am in therapy – learning to accept the image I give of myself).

Admittedly, it took me a while to get carried away by the story. There are several narrators, all different women (hence chick lit?). The first narration is probably the least enticing of the book. Lola, a stylist, has just learnt that her boyfriend, Paddy de Courcy, is getting married, and hadn’t let her know. Marian varies styles quite convincingly for each of the four women. But at the start, you just want to get into the plot and let yourself be carried away. Here, you spend 80 pages-or-so waiting to see what all the fuss is about.

It’s convincing : Lola speaks in semi-sentences, omitting pronouns and so forth.  But it does make you wonder what’s going on.

The women’s narrations are punctuated by short 1-page descriptions of violent abuse. I usually hate this kind of description but you definitely wonder what’s going on, who is the man doing it, and how Paddy de Courcy brings these women together (other than the fact they all dated him).

… a few days later

I was so sad finishing this novel: such a shame it had to come to an end! I admire Marian Keyes for having spent so much time refining it. Probably one of the rare books I’ll read again.

This is the type of novel that starts off slowly but comes to a great climax. It was definitely worth the wait. The 4 women each have their own story, style and personality. Grace brings them together.

The whole “trannie/cross-dresser” theme is hilarious, because Lola the stylist finds herself unwittingly helping out these men, and a friendship grows out of it.

The alcoholism theme is really well dealt with, lucid, touching, but not overtly pathetic. The multiple-narration means that you actually relate to both women, the alcoholic and her sister, and feel their different points of view.

So to conclude I’d say this is a wonderful feel-good / slightly feminist novel, for the women who like a long story to indulge in (- 900 pages).

L’s book-rating criteria

Characterization: 17/20

Credibility: 17/20

Plot: 16/20

Feel-good factor: 18/20

Subjective opinion: 17/20

Total: 85%

About the author : Marian Keyes

It took me a while before I got round to reading my first Marian Keyes. Why? Because, as silly as it may sound, the book covers are so alluring and feminine, that actually buying and reading the book would come down to admitting my passion for feminine literature. Or Chick-lit.

During a one-week Masters’ course, three years ago, down in the South of France, I had brought a MK novel along with me. I hoped that I would have the odd moment to read a bit. But our days were just so long and complete that I didn’t have the time. So whenever I did try to get into the novel, the passages I had read didn’t seem to piece together. Added to that, a male friend of mine, E., kept on poking fun at the novel, repeating the title over and over again. To him, it was hilarious. It was an on-going joke for at least a year or two after that. And as I hadn’t really managed to get into the story, I convinced myself that after all, it was crappy reading, and I gave up.

This Summer, once more, I was allured into buying a MK novel. Just because the cover was so pretty! (Anybody out There). Makes me wonder how many women just buy these books without reading them.

Anyhow, once I got into the story, I realized that one thing I love about this author is her character portraying. The novels are thick, dense, full of details. I love it. I am not a smoker but what I do remember from smoking is the way that you feel that you have company in your handbag. A friend. Well these MK novels are precisely like that. You carry them around and feel happy.