Joined in 2023 
82 
63 About this deal
No, you would make another Marian book into a movie instead...This Charming Man for instance...that would be a great film! One day, sitting in traffic, married Dublin mum Stella Sweeney attempts a good deed. The resulting car crash changes her life. The rays of light - Mannix's brother Roland (about the only tension I felt was when he had a stroke, the crazy agent with her cats - but for the most part I did not really care for Stella at all, and was almost delighted when Gilda turned the tables on her near the end. Mostly though, I just felt angry and frustrated. I'm not really too keen, it seems, on stories of those in their early 40s dealing with broken relationships, teenaged children (although Jeffrey's "rebellion" was at least quirky - I mean foraging) and intensely sexual relationships. Give me "Rachel's Holiday" any day. In the end I grew to find her so annoying and the supporting characters made of cardboard. I was so disappointed. I had expected some cheer and got a lesson on sex with lessons I had never even thought of. That was a real eye opener. I had no idea the Irish were that randy (just kidding). I will work now. I will, I will, I will. If I don’t I’ll have to punish myself by disabling the Internet on this computer . . .
One day, sitting in traffic, Stella Sweeney attempts a good deed. The resulting car crash changes her life. However, I’m delighted that I can stop pretending to work for a little while, and I run down the stairs. ‘Sweetheart!’ I try to act like the hostility between us doesn’t exist. In saying all of this, once I got into it, I can't complain, it was a book I listened to while I was doing other things and I didn't lose anything from it from not being completely focussed on the book.The tension in the novel is supposed to stem from learning what happened to irrevocably change Stella's life not once, but thrice. Unfortunately the 'mystery' is stretched a little too thin to sustain the length of the story and though I was riveted during the first half or so of the novel my interest began to wane during Stella's time in New York. There is a lot of emphasis on 'karma', and fate, but oddly not a lot of examples of this playing out in the storyline. Gilda certainly doesn't get what you would think she deserves, neither does Stella's ex-husband, or her son.
The accident was Shouty Man’s fault and his insurance would have to cough up, but I wouldn’t get enough to replace my car because insurance companies always underpaid. Ryan would go mad – despite his success we were constantly teetering on the brink of brokeness – but I’d worry about that later. For the moment I was happy enough sitting on this step eating sweets. What an amazing book this is. I have to admit I had my reservations about it as I'd read a book similar not long before, but this was truly overwhelming and a book I know I will constantly refer too, recommend and reread. There are a few laugh out loud moments but essentially this is a love story. I just adored Mannix Taylor (what a guy!) and of course our heroine, Stella Sweeney. I really enjoyed the blossoming relationship between Stella and her neurologist. Stella's is married to the most awfully selfish man, Ryan and has two children, Betsy and Jeffrey, the latter being a very angry teenager. Stella has miraculously survived a life threatening illness and has written a book about her experience. The story flips between the present and the past and, like I have said, initially it's slightly confusing as to what is actually going on. The side characters were more of the same. The husband is a pouty, self-obsessed, super whiny, wannabe artist who resents Stella for getting to do/have/make things that he never gets to. He was just plain unlikeable. (And possibly the most annoying male character I have ever read). The same can be said for her rude and overly moody son. I got the idea that Keyes was trying to use him as comic relief but it was really flat and confusing. Her daughter didn’t feature enough to leave an impression. Stella Sweeney, the protagonist, does not make sense. She is married to a horrible man and her 17-year-old son is a nightmare. I cannot believe any woman would tolerate their disgusting behaviour.But even when she’s lying helpless on a hospital bed Stella has a wry sense of the absurd that stops the book ever becoming vaguely sentimental. When Mannix starts asking her for advice, she is “extremely startled by my new incarnation as the wise paralysed woman of Ferrytown”. But as this moving and witty book reminds us, we can never predict what will happen – whatever we feel we deserve. I’d cut out the carbs and dropped five of the stipulated ten pounds, then there was a sit-down where she was persuaded to settle for seven pounds and me wearing Spanx whenever I was on TV. One day, four and a half years ago, I was out driving in my car (a cheapish Hyundai SUV). I was moving along in a steady stream of traffic and up ahead I saw a car trying to get out of a side road. A couple of things told me that this man had been trying to get out of this side road for quite a while. Fact A) the man was bent over his steering wheel in an attitude of weary, imploring frustration. Fact B) he was driving a Range Rover and simply by dint of the fact that he was driving a Range Rover, everyone was going to think, Ah, look at him there, the big, smug, Range Rover driver, I’m not letting him out.
Great Deal 
New Comment