One of the
indulgences of my new gainfully unemployed life has
been to read what I want. During one of my sleepless nights I caught the end of
Marian Keyes being interviewed in Brisbane in October 2017. This prompted me to
read some of her work.
Well, I've
just read my eighth of Marian Keyes' books and what a treat. (Yeah, hello. I'm
obsessive.)
The literati,
the cognoscenti, whoever, are perhaps dismissive of humorous fiction about female protagonists. Keyes' work is categorised as 'chick-lit'; 'light' easy
fiction. This irritates me. Seems to me it takes great skill to write a highly
absorbing entertaining page turner while at the same time deeply exploring
aspects of the human condition, albeit as it applies to young female
protagonists.
Rachel's Holiday, published in 1997, is the
story of an addict, Rachel Walsh. A woman in her late twenties, she has left her home in
Ireland to try to make a living in New York. The story begins with Rachel's
'accidental' overdose. "I was offended by the drug-addict allegation
because I was nothing like one" says Rachel. She treats her life as
a joke; that in her case, God's having a laugh. "...I felt as if I was on
Cosmic Candid Camera. My life was prone to veering out of control...God...was
more like a celestial Jeremy Beadle, and my life was the showcase he used to
amuse the other Gods." She claims her overdose was just an unfortunate
accident. She hadn't intended to kill herself. Her concerned family intervene
and return her to Ireland where she takes her 'holiday' at 'The Cloisters', a
drug rehabilitation facility. Rachel, desperately searching for positives,
thought at least she'd meet rock stars and be treated to massages and saunas.
She was in for a shock.
Keyes, with what seems to me to be amazing insight, engagingly explores Rachel's life at The Cloisters. She takes us intimately
through Rachel's rehabilitation and through that of other characters; other
residents with a range of addictions to drugs, alcohol and food. At the same
time the narrative explores Rachel's back story and along with Rachel, we come
to understand why she is an addict.
The story is
both compassionate and humorous. Rachel is an extremely appealing person,
despite how frustrated I was by her denial of her addiction. She sees it in
others but it takes a long time for her to join the dots in her own case. A
novel is working for me when I really care for the characters, as if they are
real. With my own somewhat addictive traits and growing up in the middle of
sisters I found loads to identify with in Rachel's Holiday. Rachel is
hypersensitive, very susceptible to the cavalier bullying of her
sisters and ignorant remarks made by parents who didn't know any better. (Other
Walsh sisters tell their own stories in some of Keyes' other novels.}
I loved
Keyes' writing style which abounds in hilarious figurative language. Here's just one example: Rachel says "They say the path of true love never runs smooth.
Well, Luke and my true love's path didn't run at all, it limped along in new
boots that were chafing at its heels. Blistered and cut, red and raw, every
hopping, lopsided step, a little slice of agony...The night Luke stormed out of
my kitchen - oh yes, even though he'd done it with cold control, he'd stormed
nevertheless - the course of our true love stopped running at all and actually
came to a complete standstill. It spent over two weeks doing nothing but
loitering on a street corner, waiting for dole day, half-heartedly whistling at
local girls coming home from their shifts at the factory."
Keyes writes
about the lives of women around the thirty age mark. She writes with
intelligence, sensitivity, compassion and delicious humour. Her characters are credible.
I particularly enjoy Keyes' political incorrectness. She often writes the stuff
you might think but would avoid saying. Or maybe that's just me.
