Marian Keyes

Marian Keyes is my absolute go to number one author if I want a bit of escapism and comfort. She ticks the boxes for all of my rules with most of her books – mainly because l I don’t want them to end. Luckily, she writes lovely, long novels which keep me going for a good while. Not only do I have to slow down when I reach the end, I have read all of her books three or four times and I always pre-order the next one even if I don’t know what it’s about. I have everything written by her including collections of her articles and her cake recipes.

I have a particular soft spot for the Walsh family. Five of Keyes’ books centre on Mammy Walsh’s daughters. I read the first, Watermelon, many years ago and fell in love with them all straightaway. Set in Ireland, the family is led by the redoubtable Mammy Walsh with her long suffering husband Jack. They have five daughters, all of whom at some point have had their poor mother’s ‘heart scalded’ with worry. All of them are hilarious. There’s a lovely little interview with Marian Keyes talking about the Walsh Family on the Penguin Website.

• In Watermelon, Claire Walsh, the eldest daughter, gives birth to a beautiful baby girl. On the same day her husband leaves for another woman – the skinny cow who lives in the flat below theirs. Claire flees back to the arms of her loving family in Ireland to recover her strength. But going back home after being independent for so long is harder than anticipated. This book made me SCREAM with laughter.
• Rachel Walsh’s struggles as a drug addict in rehab is the story of Rachel’s Holiday. More on this one below.
• In Angels, previously sensible and boring middle daughter Maggie runs away to Los Angeles to have an adventure. She gets off with a lesbian, and flirts with movie stars, much to the consternation of her family.
• Anybody Out There

I’m putting the big link up for this one. It’s a beautiful book. Very sad at times, you’ll be gulping back tears, but oh my goodness is it funny. It is the story of Ana, previous ditsy hippie stoner, who is recovering back home following a dreadful accident in New York.

I don’t want to give away any of the story so I won’t tell you the plot. I do want to quote these lines which had me crying with laughter. Here, Mammy Walsh, driven to distraction by the selfishness of her girls, shouts:

‘One of you five bitches has stolen my Multiple Orgasm. It’s like the time you stole all my combs -‘ this was an often-repeated resentment – ‘and I was going to mass as it was a holy day of obligation and I had to comb my hair with a fork. Reduced to combing my hair with a fork!’

Imagine my delight when I went to see the lovely Marian Keyes being interviewed and I got a chance to ask her a question. I mentioned this quote and she confirmed this was, indeed, based on the experience of her own mother, (it was so real and so funny I was sure it was based on real life) who once had to comb her hair with a fork because her children had pinched all her combs.

The way this novel deals with grief is simple, engaging, and at all times moving; but counterbalancing that theme is a an exciting plot based on the marketing of an exclusive make-up line, as well as further insight into the family dynamic of the Walshes. It really is a lovely book and you will find yourself thinking about the characters long after you have finished.

• The youngest daughter, Helen, stars in The Mystery of Mercy Close where she tries to make a success of being a PI. I didn’t enjoy this quite as much as the others, probably because I live with someone who suffers chronic depression and this felt a little too close to home. But it was worth a read to get to meet Mammy Walsh again and to hear how the other sisters are getting on.

So which of this series am I going to put on my list? Well, it has to be Rachel’s Holiday. All of them are great, but this is the one I must have read five or six times. Like all of Keyes’ books there is great tragedy and despair to be found. You can’t call any of her books lightweight, despite the fluffiness of her covers. (They are less fluffy now)

I can’t quite explain how she does it. In her novels Keyes covers domestic abuse, addiction, rape, abortion, sudden paralysis, depression, anxiety, suicide, miscarriages, divorce, and terminal illness; and yes, these things are dealt with in an unflinching – never sentimental – way, but she STILL manages to make you laugh. And they always have happy endings. I agree with Keyes, life’s tough enough without sad endings.

Rachel’s Holiday is a really good example of this. Oh my gosh I love it so much. So it opens with Rachel in New York. She is a good time girl out for a laugh. She and a fellow Irish friend paint the town red, drink, and take drugs at parties and basically make the most of their youth.

It is so clever how Keyes slowly and delicately manipulates you into recognising that Rachel is a flawed and unreliable narrator. It’s written in the first person and Rachel’s voice is so lovely, so vibrant and outraged at all the ‘killjoys’ who surround her, it takes a while before you realise how screwed up she is.

She ends up in rehab. This is the point when everyone remembers Keyes was an alcoholic who was in rehab. I’m not sure how relevant this is, but the descriptions of what goes on in the centre certainly have an undeniably gritty realism. And oh! The characters Rachel meets there. Although I first read it – God it was published in 1997!! – years ago, I still vividly remember Jackie, and John Joe, and of course the delicious Luke in his tight denims.

I wish I could explain why I keep going back to this book. I think why I like this one the best (although Anybody Out There is almost as good) is the way initial judgments are peeled away and exposed as superficial and foolish. Characters constantly surprise you and firmly held initial impressions are shaken to their core. I remember weeping when one character is slowly guided to realise that his alcoholism has turned him into the father he hated. He now terrifies his children the way his father terrified him. Keyes’ sympathy and tenderness in that scene is so delicately expressed you won’t forget it.

Then, after being drained emotionally, having cried your eyes out over tragic scenes like this, full of despair and horrified realisation, while the tears have barely dried on your face, you will be chuckling at the next chapter. One springs to mind: Mammy Walsh apologises to Rachel because she thinks she ruined her pants when she put them in the wash. She holds up a G-String. Rachel explains that they are fine, it’s a G-String and it’s supposed to look like that. She responds:

‘You brazen HUSSY! That might be the kind of thing they wear in New York, but you’re not in New York now and while you’re under my roof, you’ll cover yourself like a Christian.’

I love this – it’s such a mum thing to say. But Keyes takes the humour of this scene and turns it into something dark and emotional. Rachel can’t bear her mother’s anger and runs out of the house, putting herself in danger. It’s a crisis point which forces her to realise she needs to grow up, and approach her relationship with her mother on adult terms. Until she does, she can’t address the issues that have led to her addictions. I’m simplify it majorly, as this is only a thread in the complexity of Rachel’s character – but it was an interesting lesson to me on perspective – and dealing with your mother!