Wat een heerlijk boek is dit! Je moet er even inkomen, maar als je er eenmaal in zit kun je niet meer stoppen. De karakters zijn zo realistisch neer gezet. Het verhaal is romantisch, maar niet een echt perfect zwijmel verhaal. Gewoon zoals het in het echt ook gaat.
De schrijfstijl is echt super. Het is zeer persoonlijk geschreven. Het lijkt net alsof Claire dit boek speciaal en alleen voor mij heeft geschreven. Als een over-sized brief, zeg maar.
De enige reden dat dit boek 4 sterren krijgt en niet 5 is dat het af en toe een beetje afwijkt van het verhaal. Hele lappen tekst over de tuinman en weet ik veel wat, terwijl dit weinig toevoeging heeft op het verhaal. Hierdoor is het boek hier en daar een beetje lang.
Dit boek is zeker een aanrader!
Volledige review zal binnenkort op mijn blog verschijnen!

A Christmas present from Megan...I was really excited to read this because it is the story of the oldest Walsh sister.

The very day she gives birth to their first child, Claire is told by her husband that he is leaving her for another woman. She returns home to Dublin, seeking the comfort of her crazy and quirky family, while she figures out how to deal with this abrupt change in her life. Something I love about Keyes' writing - although her books are most definitely of the chick-lit genre, the story lines involve aspects of the darker side of life.

I was not disappointed, and will be picking up more Marian Keyes - once I get through my long list of to-reads! I'm sad that I only have one sister left to read about. Although, fingers crossed that the youngest sister's book is still yet to come!

One of my favorites by this author. The characters are strong, and the situation with her husband goes someplace surprising.

Opening Line:” ”I’m sorry, you must think I’m very rude. We’ve hardly even been introduced and here I am telling you all about the terrible things that have happened to me.”

Claire thought she had the perfect life right up until her husband James announced that he didn’t love her anymore and was leaving her for another woman. He might have picked a better day to deliver this earth shattering news than directly after the birth of their first child. Shocked, heartbroken and now packing some serious baby weight, Claire flees London and retreats back to her dysfunctional family in Ireland to regroup. Claire’s idea of regrouping is of course to take to bed and only emerge when the baby needs feeding or she runs out of liquor.

Eventually she does get out of bed, hitting her father’s dusty stationary bike to work off the rage and inadvertently the pounds. Yes her period of mourning has gone from devastation to depression to rage. And then she goes about starting her life again. Along the way one of her sisters drags home Adam, the cute, younger and (obviously unobtainable) man that honestly seems to be flirting with her. Before long Claire has almost forgotten James, well not really but he’s no longer her first waking thought and besides Adam has a really nice bum. So then the story gets kinda predictable because of course James comes slinking back. He has some interesting excuses for having his affair but now basically just wants everything to go back to the way it was!

Okay I have to talk about James, what an asshat. I understand he is meant to the antagonist here but jeez. It’s not so much his character I am judging but that of the author deciding our heroine would actually be dumb enough to consider taking him back after the shit he pulled. I mean he hasn’t phoned once or even asked after his daughter, in fact doesn’t even know her name and to top it all off he blames Claire for the fact that he had an affair. And then Keyes continued to write him in such a way that he actually comes across a bit psycho, with moods changing on a dime (yes she loves to use idioms) and yet Claire still wants him in her daughter’s life. I would be doing everything I could to make sure he never had contact with her. Anyways.

This was a super long book (614 pages) which wouldn’t have been an issue if the author had stayed on track. As it was this could have been cut by about 200 pages as the heroine’s silly (see annoying) inner dialogue prattled on with random off topic issues, spending 8 pages talking about the history off her parents’ liquor cabinet and other non-related issues. Some of her inner ramblings were funny but I’ll be honest it got to the point where I was skimming just to get on with the actual story (this continued for the entire 600 page read.)

I did enjoy the sections where it was written as though the author/heroine is talking directly to the reader. However I still never got a real “feel" for her. I also had a hard time believing that she was a new mother, her baby is such a non-issue throughout this book, just part of the plot and then she remains in the background as an accessory while Claire goes about her binge drinking and depression at her parents’ house. And with that in mind I would have to describe this as bitter chick-lit because while it has its moments of humour its always with a harsh edge so that you’re not so much laughing as cringing. 380jb3.5

SO good! idk if i've ever read a book that's made my blood BOIL because they'd written gaslighting so well and realistically, and portrayed men's utter lack of emotional intelligence and ego so accurately (rant over) but this was literally just so good and funny - 4.5⭐️

Ano aj ja sa radsej vyberiem na opusteny ostrov, do zazracnej krajiny, do Rokfortu, do antickeho Grecka, abo aspon do Australie.

Marian Keyes Vas zobere do Irska. (DRRRRB!). "A teda aspon do zivota, aky nikdy nezazijem?" (Isto sa, strkajuc mi tu pomyselnu slamku, az zufalo pytate).

Nie.

Marian Keyes pise o veciach, ktore sa stanu dalsim 100-tisic ludom pokial dopisem toto review. A to len v San Marine.

Marian Keyes by mala byt povinnym citanim, lebo je extremne vtipna.
Extremne nad vecou.
Extremne pod vecou.
Extremne uprimna.
Pouziva extremne kratke vety.
Aj extremne dlhe vety.
Ako sa jej zachce.
A VZDY je to dobre.
VZDY.
Je plytka.
Je hlbsia ako za zda.
A VZDY je to dobre.
VZDY.
(A ani slovensky preklad neublizi - kudos Ivan Stefanek.)

ALE, Marian Keyes by mala byt povinnym citanim hlavne pre muzov. Lebo aj ked ste taky vzdelany a rozhladeny borec, ze ste dokonca citali Zeny su z Venuse a Muzi su z Marsu, nemate ani potuchu aky kreten niekedy ste. Ze ak sa chovate ako rytier, ktory vsetko zariadi, ale v skutocnosti si v hlave hovorite, ze mate neschopnu putku, kvoli ktorej neschpnosti musite vsetko vybavovat vy, ste kreten.(Ja viem, ze ked je to takto podane, tazko sa s tym niekto stotozni, ale precitajte si knihu.) Ze ak si myslite, ze to ze Vas pritahuje ina zena, je chybou Vasej zeny, ste kreten. (A jasne, ze nikto nechce byt ten zly a takto to predsa nemalo byt, mna uz ziadny iny vystrih nikdy v zivote po "ano" v kostole zaujat nemal a ja predsa takyto niesom...). ALE (c.2), kazdy disbalanc je odkazany na zanik a ak ste vo vztahu len ozdobou, tak ten kto Vas ako ozdobu nosi, Vam aj pripisuje prava ako ozdobe. Ak chcete byt vo vztahu partneri, tak musite byt ehm...partneri. (Aspon teda myslim.)

Inymi slovami, ked mu to vadilo mal jej to povedat a keby ho kvoli tomu opustila, mohol napisat knihu on o tom aka je suka, ked uz sa mu s tou vinou tak tazko zilo.

Marian Vam neposkytne navod na zivot. Marian Vam da sancu "prezit" to, bez toho aby ste ju museli skusat na vlastnej kozi. A Marian Vam tuto trpku pilulku namaze litrami homoru, nech sa tak tazko neprehlta. Len tak.

A este by mala byt (Marian) povinnou vybavou do lietadla, lebo ak sa nahodou lietania bojite, tak pri jej pribehu na tento strach zabudnete. Ale na sttrach z lietania mozre zabudnut tak ci tak, lebo pojdete, s prepacenim, do riti a nie do lietedla, lebo je korona. #NIKAM!


Este totok: Podme sa na chvilu rozpravat o sudeni knihy podla obalu. Dizajn som ochotny prekusnut (treba trcat, kricat a hocico co ma v sebe c(makke)), ale preco, Preco, PRECO niekto nenecha na chrbte knihy klasicke "Brilliant" The Observer; "This book has changed my life" Michelle Obama, abo teda ,ked sa neda, aspon ten obligatny uryvok z knihy.

NE NE, my ideme skusit citatela vpustit do deja. V ZIVOTE by som si tu knihu nekupil, keby som si to precital. Je to skvela kniha a mal som chut ju nedocitat, ked som si precital ten chrbat. Keby som sa riadil nim, myslim si ze Marian Keyes pise lacny brak pre frustrovane zeny. Marian Keyes pise drahodrahy vzacny brak pre kazdeho...

Lectura conjunta en Club.

Me ha sorprendido gratamente el estilo de escritura de Marian. Ha sabido llevarme por donde quería hasta hacerme reflexionar más allá de la simple lectura superficial que puede tener. Y eso en una primera novela es prometedor.

Me he indignado tanto con Claire que me ha costado mucho seguir leyendo a ratos, pero al final, teniendo en cuenta la fecha de publicación y el lugar donde tiene lugar la historia, pones todo en contexto y entiendes mucho más la intención con la que está escrito.

Compartirlo con mis Escombrers y diseccionarlo ha sido toda una experiencia.

Foi muito bom voltar a essa história depois de uns 15 anos. Tinha medo de como seria, de que a lembrança boa mudaria, mas foi o contrário. Admiro ainda mais agora, principalmente por ter sido um dos grandes percursores desse estilo. Uma história sobre relacionamentos abusivos e homens manipuladores que permanece muito atual.

Ao mesmo tempo é impressionante perceber como muita coisa ainda era atrasada (na Europa) na década de 90 (que parece ter sido logo ali),como a impossibilidade do divórcio em alguns países, nesse caso, a Irlanda.

So I have all of the Walsh Family books in paperback. I haven't read them in years, but decided to take the first two for a whirl this weekend. And now I wonder if I read this years ago and liked Claire or what? Cause Claire drives me a bit insane in this book. And when you read about how she changes over the course of the series, she ends up being the Walsh sister I dislike the most (tied with Helen and her book, "The Mystery of Mercy Close"). So good things I can say, the re-read went by fast and I loved the change in Claire, but it didn't really stick though. The not so good things, I see more flaws in this one upon re-read. The Walsh family is kind of nasty and not supportive. I thought that Claire too easily caved and was sitting around waiting for a man to save her. Also the whole why behind James's affair read as unbelievable to the extreme. I also thought that her romance came out of nowhere and ultimately didn't work.

"Watermelon" is the first book in the Walsh Family series by Marian Keyes. The first book deals with the oldest of the Walsh sisters, Claire. Claire is happily married to her husband James and living in London. She's expecting their first child any day now. When Claire goes into labor and gives birth to their daughter, James informs her that he's been having an affair and is leaving her for the other woman.

So there is Claire days post-partum with no husband which causes her to return home with her daughter to her family in Dublin, Ireland.

Most of the book deals with Claire depressed and upset (rightfully so) with wondering where did things go wrong with her husband. Keyes does a lot of switching between past events and the present day. I have to say that Claire was pretty much a mess. Her mother deals with the baby for the most part and the baby isn't even a thought I felt after a while. When Claire starts to feel tingles towards a man she meets I just hard sighed. And of course Claire's husband returns and I maybe sighed some more. So we get a love triangle which is one of the romance tropes I hate the most.

The other characters in this book are not developed very well. Claire's mother kind of sucks and isn't that supportive of her daughter actually kicking her lousy husband to the curb. Her two younger sisters, Anna and Helen sound exhausting. I would have ended up slapping Helen and trying to smother her. She's nasty and everyone seems to excuse it cause's she's small and gorgeous.

James was developed very well, but the real why behind the affair read as false to me. I scratched my head a few times because I couldn't remember that at all. James seemed to undergo a personality transplant that didn't work. Romance trope that I hate, make the guy who actually sounds awesome suddenly turn into a monster for plot reasons so heroine can be with the other guy.

The writing was okay, I was mostly bored though with the book after a while. I realized it was because that unlike with most of my favorite re-reads, I wasn't enjoying this one that much and since I knew the ending I was wondering why it was taking Keyes so long to get there. This is a pretty big paperback that I have (it's over 400 pages) and I am wondering about donating it since there are other series that I like a lot more and I don't want to wait another 10 years before picking this up again.

The ending was flat. I honestly wish that there had been additional conversations between Claire and James. Honestly I wish that Keyes had decided to focus in on them and not even bring in that other love interest. It was just a mess and the backstory of that guy had me sighing hard too.

Dnf’ed at 30% I couldn’t take her constantly talking about drinking and ignoring her newborn daughter

I didn't think I had read this one before, but I suspect now that I have read this, I may have. It's an amusing journey with one woman whose life gets totally destroyed in one day (she gives birth & her husband leave her). We follow her journey of recovery and rediscovery. Where's the humour in that you may ask? Marian Keyes manages to find it. Her style of writing really agrees with me, because it goes along the same lines that my random thought processes follow. I believe this is Ms Keyes first book, I feel it was slightly predictable (could just be that I did read it before) and not quite as polished as later works. However it was very entertaining. It's also the first book she wrote about the Walsh Sisters. I look forward to enjoying the rest.

I'm so glad this was not my first Marian Keyes book because...oy. Having read two of her latest books, I can see how much she's grown as a writer. There were major issues with rambling and the MC having drawn out conversations with herself that were maybe funny(ish) early on but got tiresome and realllly annoying after 547 (!!) pages. And normally part of what I love about MK is that the books are long and I can spend time in that world. But this just made it painful, especially when it was first person POV and I did not like Claire much at all. She was tiresome, ignorant, and annoying at best and mean and hateful at worst. Her judgement and internal name calling ( "fat Denise" but most especially using the R word that I won't rewrite and horrified me. It's amazing I finished at all). At one point, I started to realize she was a total Scarlett O'Hara as she kept saying she'd think about things tomorrow. And so it was a not at all a shock when Claire made a Gone with the Wind reference and likened herself to Scarlett. That is no compliment as she may be one of the few heroines in fiction I loathe. This book is dated, written in the early 90s, and a debut at that. So I should have been prepared. But I wasn't. It was so far from the other two MK books I loved. The only real surprise is that I gave it two instead of one star. Maybe that was because at least Adam was likeable. Or that I slugged through 547 pages and finished it so... Whatever. I will continue with the series because I am prepared to see the evolution of the writing and learn more of the rest of the family. But happy to have this one behind me