The Greatest Love Story of All Time - Lucy Robinson

I actually ‘started’ this review about a month ago, or intended to until I got a little too into my research of the author, got majorly distracted and then kind of just forgot about the initial post altogether…but I think that’s a pretty good excuse, and speaks volumes of Lucy Robinson before I’ve even started the review!

Lucy Robinson is the ultimate ‘cool girl’ in the reading/writing society. Starting out as a blogger for Marie Claire, her hilarious accounts of Internet dating quickly propelled her to huge success and she landed a publishing deal to write a novel. Can you tell I kind of wish I was her a little bit yet?

Her first novel The Greatest Love Story of All Time was recommended to me by my sister. I was in desperate need of some light reading in the interim between 2^nd and (groan) final year - with the full works of Christopher Marlowe plus all 16^th Century literature ever WRITTEN looming over me, I was keen to read something I could actually CHOOSE for once.

Now I’m not a reading snob in any way, but I have to admit labels such as ‘Women’s Fiction’ and ‘Young Adult’ have been known to put me off in the past. I don’t know if it’s because of the stereotypes or the thought that the genre overcomes the quality of writing when labelled like that, but whatever it is I realise if I want to widen my horizons past anything pre-1980s I should probably learn to live in peace with these little labels. This novel did in fact completely turn my expectation of certain genres on its head – hilarious, clever, addictive, and pretty unpredictable are some of the words that spring to mind that I just wasn’t expecting (sorry Lucy). To be honest, if I’d read her blog before I would’ve gone into it with much higher expectations – but being pleasantly surprised is always part of the fun isn’t it?

The novel follows the attempts of Bridget Jones-esque Fran to keep her life together after the love of her life breaks up with her. Fran herself is incredibly endearing, the classic modern-day damsel in distress who always gets it ever so slightly wrong, and can never handle it gracefully. It may sound obvious, but one of the best things about this book is the characters – they are so utterly believable and relatable, and can be conjured up instantly in my mind as if they were my close friends (I wish). There’s sexy man-eater Leonie, crazy but endlessly caring Stefania, and no-nonsense rough-around-the-edges Dave (who you will fall a teensy bit in love with I gurantee). Each character is perfectly developed - you know what they’re going to say next, not in a predictable storyline way, in a I’ve-known-them-all-my-life way. I gave the book to my best friend for her holiday and received daily texts referring to herself as Leonie and pointing out similarities – that’s how real the characters become.

I think this quality directly leads to the addictiveness of the book – at risk of being too clichéd, I literally could NOT put it down. I developed some sort of constantly conflicted and confused mental state where I was desperately torn between wanting to grab it at every free second and wanting to prolong it as long as possible for fear of losing all my new bezzies and actually finding out what would happen. Ok….a little dramatic maybe, but they do say the sign of  a good book is feeling a loss once it’s over, and that’s exactly how I felt. I actually regretted reading it in 3 sittings – something I’ve been programmed to do at uni.

It wasn’t just the characters that I missed reading about and lolling at - the writing style is so friendly, so casual and inclusive that I felt I was becoming friends with Lucy herself. Being an experienced journalist and blogger for quite some time now, Lucy has an edge over other writers in the genre – she’s funny without it being obvious, she’s knowledgeable about people’s way of speaking and manages to make it realistic without becoming bland – quite a feat I think. There is no try-hard aspect to the writing, but there is a definite undertone that really expresses her talented journalistic style.

This book is not going to change your life, it is not a philosophical masterpiece, but it is a really cute, fun read that you will devour in about 3 days and won’t want to put down, even when it’s finished. And even better, one you won’t know the ending to by chapter two.  Lucy’s newest book – A Passionate Love Affair with a Total Stranger is absolute top of my reading list – once I’ve emerged from a pile of 16^th Century plays and political documents that is….

Greed Satisfaction Scale: As I said, I quite literally devoured this book like the boy with the chocolate cake in Matilda, it filled me up and left me feeling perfectly satisfied for the rest of the day. Warning: extremely addictive (again much like chocolate cake) and you won't be able to resist gobbling it all up in as little time as you possibly can.

Read it now: Get it here and when your cravings need further fulfillment visit her brilliant blog here

Oh Dear Silvia - Dawn French

Whilst holidaying in a French villa last summer I came across an old battered copy of Dawn French’s epistolary memoirs Dear Fatty. I dipped in and out of it as a break from my uni summer reading list, and found that its hilarious laugh out loud moments, unashamed honesty, and unmistakable Dawn Frenchesque voice was a more than welcome relief. For this reason, as well as a love for The Vicar of Dibley which I’m sure the rest of humanity shares, I was excited when her new novel Oh Dear Silvia was announced. It has received rave reviews which assured me of its dark hilarity and gripping storyline, and when it came out this week in paperback it shot straight to number one in the overall charts.

So naturally, I got stuck in as quickly as possible. Now this next sentence is pretty hard for me to type but….I was disappointed. I don’t pretend to be any form of authority over Dawn French, little old me second year English student casual blogger versus Queen of Comedy, and I can’t deny the numerous people who have loved this book, but in my honest opinion it just wasn’t for me. However, I did stick with it, and that is definitely saying something – the sign of a truly awful book is the overwhelming desire to throw it into the nearest bin/fire/mass of water, and I didn’t quite get that with this.

The premise is definitely an interesting one: a woman in a coma having somehow fallen off a balcony is visited by various relatives/friends/acquaintances, each chapter is written in one of these people’s perspectives. We therefore gather a view of Silvia without ever having even met her, purely through the conflicting but revealing narrations of her visitors.  I guess in hind sight this was the reason I was slightly hooked - as each character revealed something more, I wanted to find out the next chapter (excuse the pun) in the storyline. However, what’s slightly off-putting is the obviousness of all these revelations. At times I felt as though I was being completely patronised by the assumption that I needed quite so much repetition to understand what exactly was being said. Obviously this is personal preference, but I always like a little mystery, or at least to feel as though I worked a bit to work out the meaning of it all.

Another flaw with this seemingly exciting and intriguing foundation is French’s use of tenses. I realise this sounds a little middle school English teacher, but it got to the point where it really bugged me and I couldn’t ignore it. At times I DID feel as though I was reading an un-edited school student’s short story. It’s hard to fully criticise this when putting yourself in French’s shoes: the documentation of the present conscience of a person who is feeling in the here and now, looking into the past, AND predicting the future is a potentially impossible task to do gracefully. I certainly couldn’t think of a better way I would have handled it, but this did not take away from the fact that the overuse of the present tense where it seemed inappropriate came off as pretty clumsy and awkward a lot of the time. It also confused me as to whether there was an omniscient narrator present or it was supposed to be the direct thoughts of each character – in which case perhaps first person may have fitted better. Perhaps this all stems from too much time spent scrutinising the technicalities of each and every piece of writing I read or write, feel free to blame my tutors, but something didn’t sit completely right with me.

What I did find as I got further into the book was that the far-fetched storyline and over-exaggerated characters are not so offensive once you decide to just let yourself enjoy them and try not to see them so seriously. After all – this book IS written by a comedian, and it is not in shortage of comic moments. But for me, the laugh out loud element I was so expecting was missing – much of the comedy was kind of lost on me as I felt I needed Dawn French’s distinctive comic timing and tone to carry it along – something I couldn’t quite recreate in my head. With this in mind, I would definitely give the audio book a go. Having spoken to a few other people about it, we agreed that it seemed more of  a script than a novel – not surprising given French’s fantastic well-known script writing for French and Saunders. However unrealistic this plot may at first seem, it is ultimately a study into human behaviour and a questioning of how well we really know that person we think we are closest to. Having finished it, what really stuck in my mind was not any of the things that may have annoyed me, but the unique fact that the protagonist is never given a word or a view – something I have never experienced in a book before.

This may seem like a majorly negative review, but I found this book a real thinker – its surface characters and obvious storyline carried me along as I read it, slowly getting slightly agitated by certain aspects, but afterwards my focus has switched to the overall theme of human relationships and behaviour – which I feel makes this book a success.

Greed Satisfaction Scale: At times I felt on the point of nausea and certainly overfilled by certain aspects whilst some of the yummier parts were lacking, but on reflection this interesting combination was something I have better memories of than I felt I would whilst digesting it.

Read it now: Get it here, or listen here

Wednesday Wishlist

On The Road - The Original Scroll Jack Kerouac

This week and last week I have been lucky enough to have the opportunity to do work experience in Michael Joseph, the commercial imprint of Penguin. Being able to listen in on discussions about up and coming authors and books (and sometimes being involved!) is completely invaluable and so interesting! Another perk of the job is all the books lying around the office which I have been taking advantage of at any point I can. Literally a book lover’s heaven. Michael Joseph does a lot of cookery, celebrity books, diet books and women’s fiction, some of which I will be reviewing soon, but here’s something I came across the other day from the actual Penguin general branch, and I personally think it’s pretty special…

I’ve actually got this as a present for someone who's a BIG fan so shhh…but you can get your own copy here. On the Road isn’t my typical choice of book, but seeing other people’s passion for it and understanding its importance in its own period and culture, ie the ‘beat’ generation, makes it one of those books you just HAVE to read - somewhat of a rite of passage for all travellers/writers/general free spirits. I’m not going to write a whole review on it, but this original scroll (Kerouac initially wrote it on a 120 foot piece of teletype paper in 3 weeks - pictured below) edition is a must have for both hard-core Kerouac fans and those trying something new – reading something exactly as the author wrote it with no interruptions or editing is always more exciting, and gives you that priceless sense of intimacy with the author.