Another book I did not yet register here.


On Tuesday, May 29, 2007 I wrote on Bookcrossing

9 out of 10
Finished reading last night. At 02.30 I could not stop reading the last 150 pages.
While I thought the beginning a bit slow after a while I had settled in and was laughing a lot.
I have 3 sisters and no brothers. My mom is English, her mom was Irish and I recognized so much, it was hilarious.

DNF @ 31%

I don't think this book is terrible, but I got to 31% and not much had happened yet. I was not hooked by the story or by the main character's personality and was pretty bored. Maybe it was a "it's me, not you" kind of thing and I was just not in the mood for this kind of story, but when reading a fiction book starts feeling like a chore, it's time to stop.

A bit of a disappointment given how much I enjoyed "Rachel's Holiday". Marian's writing just didn't do it for me here.

EXCERPT: February fifteenth is a very special day for me. It is the day I gave birth to my first child. It is also the day my husband left me. As he was present at the birth, I can only assume the two events weren't entirely unrelated.

ABOUT THIS BOOK: Claire has everything she ever wanted: a husband she adores, a great apartment, a good job. Then, on the day she gives birth to their first baby, James informs her that he's leaving her. Claire is left with a newborn daughter, a broken heart, and a postpartum body that she can hardly bear to look at.

She decides to go home to Dublin. And there, sheltered by the love of a quirky family, she gets better. So much so, in fact, that when James slithers back into her life, he's in for a bit of a surprise.

MY THOUGHTS: This was the first book by Marian Keyes that I ever read. I read it quite some time after she had made a name for herself with Rachel's Holiday. The first time I read Watermelon, and there have been several readings over the years, I was enamoured by Keyes' writing. Warm and witty, it was like sitting down and having a good gossip session with your best friend and a bottle of wine. . . 'And did you hear about Claire?....No? Well, James has only gone and left her, and with a brand new baby. . . And you'll never guess who he left her for. . .'

I haven't always liked all of Keyes' books (Rachel's Holiday being one in particular), but Watermelon? I loved it.

Este es mi primer chick lit y he quedado bastante satisfecha. Y es que tenía algo de prejuicio por el género y este libro me lo ha curado. La narración es bastante ágil y apenas si decae sobre la mitad del libro para recuperarse rápidamente. La virtud de la escritora de este libro, radica en hacerlo cercano con su personaje principal, Clare, uno puede sentirse identificada con varias actitudes, sentimientos e inseguridades. Lo que más me gustó es como retrata estas situaciones cotidianas con una narrativa… con un humor cínico, muy bien puesto y empleado. También logra muy buenos personajes, entrañables, y en su carácter muy humanos, como la protagonista. Este primer libro, mi primer libro de Marian Keyes, me ha dejado con ganas de volver a leer a esta autora.

I am quite random myself, skipping from subject to subject without segways, but Keyes takes it to another level. I just felt like yelling "get to the point!". Some of Claire's inner dialog was funny, but by page 30 I was skipping over large chunks to get to the actual moving plot line of the book. A couldn't whole heartedly recommend this to anyone looking for a mindless chick book that is a quick read, cause it was too annoying to be mindless. Marian Keyes came highly recommended too, but I don't think I'll bother with anything else by her. I don't have the time or patience.

No sé ni por dónde empezar. Siempre quise leer a esta autora, con tantas críticas favorables, pero la fui dejando para después. Y ahora que por fin me sentí tentada, ha sido una completa decepción. La protagonista es completamente inmadura y tonta, sus divagaciones me sacaron de quicio, estar siempre dentro de su cabeza y conocer todos sus pensamientos fue interesante al principio, pero un completo martirio conforme fue transcurriendo la historia. Me hizo sentir vergüenza ajena, falta de empatía y finalmente furia porque nadie puede ser tan idiota y manipulable. Las dos estrellas solo se las di porque consiguió que siguiera leyendo hasta la última página y porque de vez en cuando la familia me dio risa. La verdad es que no sé si le daré la oportunidad a un segundo libro suyo.

DNF.

I don't usually give up on books.

In fact, I can't recall when I last gave up on one.

It might have been some assigned reading way back when.

But this one, I just couldn't get into.

I read a lot of praise and recommendations of Keyes, so I had high hopes. And I tried.

God knows I tried.

But I couldn't.

I hated the style.

(This review is an attempt at approximation of the style.)

It made my eyes bleed.

It made my brain hurt.

But I perservered. Surely the characters will be interesting, at least.

At 33%, the characters were all caricatures. Annoying, unlikeable caricatures. I don't need to like characters in a book I'm reading, but I would like to at least feel interested in someone.

Maybe the plot, then.

The narrator-protagonist was dumped by her husband on the day their daughter was born and she went to her family in Ireland to mope around. At 33%, she's slowly stopping the moping around. I assume she will go on to find herself and then either find herself a new guy (she's very into guys) or decide she is a complete being on her own. Something like that.

This is a comedic book.

It relies on hyperbole and satire for the sake of the comedy.

The narration very, very rarely allows genuine human emotions to show, either from the protagonist or from her family.

This is a terrible pity, because the few times the protagonist shows human emotion, one can tell that there is a poignant point of view somewhere in there.

But instead, the reader is treated to the backstory of the protagonist's teenage casual drinking through her parents' liquor cabinet.

And her current dealing with her abandonment by the means of a bottle of alcohol a day.

(The baby is not breastfed. Don't worry.)

Or cheap laughs at a younger's sisters interest in the ~spiritual~.

Or driving the point about the mother's not cooking to the hyperbolic conclusion of the family being now suspicious of all real food.

You get my drift, I think.

So at 33% I looked at the book and I said, f it. I'm not entertained. I'm not engrossed. I don't care.

DNF.

When Claire Walsh is told by her husband, the morning she'd just delivered their baby, that he's met someone else and he's leaving her, she's understandably devastated. She ends up packing her things, and heading home to Ireland to the safety nest of her chaotic family home with her mam, dad and sisters. Healing her heart, and learning to look after her daughter on her own, Claire has a lot of strength to find.

I listened to this on audiobook and it was definitely an entertaining read. I've read one other Marian Keyes book before, one of her latest releases, but I've always wanted to start from the start and go from there and Watermelon is just an impressive debut book - especially knowing Marian's character and style of voice, and how it's developed over the years, it's amazing how she was able to have it come across so strong in her first book and make it very much hers.

I do think there's often a tendency in books of this time and nature to make the men in the story extremely stupid, and I don't think Watermelon was any different but the way gaslighting and manipulative relationships are portrayed in this book - before the term gaslighting was even really used a lot - were so interesting to see. I was practically screaming when Claire was allowing James to convince her everything was her fault.

I do think there were some iffy moments centered on Claire's body weight at the start and how she felt like she needed to lose weight very quickly (she'd literally just had a baby!), but thankfully it wasn't too bad. I'm looking forward to reading more books from the Walsh sisters and hopefully seeing how Claire is doing if she pops into them.

n  “Temporary Insanity had come a-knocking and I had shouted "Come on in the door is open." Luckily, Reality had come unexpectedly and found Temporary Insanity roaming the corridors of my mind unchecked, going into rooms, opening cupboards, reading my letters, looking in my underwear drawer, that kind of thing. Reality had run and got Sanity. And after a tussle, they both had managed to throw out Temporary Insanity and slam the door in his face. Temporary Insanity now lay on the gravel in the driveway of my mind, panting and furious, shouting, "She invited me in, you know. She asked me in. She wanted me there.”n

I’ve been re-reading Marian Keyes's books on Audible for the last couple of years. They have been so rich and funny. I had only read Watermelon, Keyes’s introduction to the Walsh family, one time, and it was a long time ago. I remember not being too impressed with it.
I re-read Rachel’s Holiday (again) in 2022 in preparation for its long-anticipated sequel, Rachel Again. I had previously listened to Helen’s story, The Mystery of Mercy Close, in 2020, and somewhere in there  Mammy Walsh's A-Z of the Walsh Family, because I felt the need to re-acquaint myself with Helen and the rest of them. In those latter books, Claire is an interesting but not particularly nice woman. In fact, she is rather unlikeable. Not so in this one. I was amazed by how different she is in this first book, from how I remembered her. Perhaps because I listened to it on Audible rather than read it, I loved Watermelon this time. I thought it was hilarious and engaging throughout. Part of this may have been the narrator’s charming Irish accent and inflections which made Claire, who narrates her story in first person, even more sympathetic and charming than on paper. I was rooting for her all the way. Another reason I was so taken with her was that she addresses the reader directly in a metatextual way which made me feel a personal connection to her.

This is not a plot-driven book. The book begins with Claire, having just given birth, being told by her husband while she is still in the hospital, that he is leaving her for another woman.

n  Who’s in charge around here? I’d like to complain about my life. I distinctly ordered a happy life with a loving husband to go with my newborn baby and what was this shoddy travesty that I’d been served up instead?n

**Spoilers Ahead**
First, she leaves London to go back to Dublin to live with her parents and her two younger sisters, Anna and Helen. From there, we go with her on her journey from grief and devastation, confusion, and anger to healing and a fresh start with a new and wonderful man. The book mainly consists of Claire’s musings, observations, and memories. As she remembers it and tells it, her marriage with James was blissful, and James, as she remembers him to us, seems like a great guy and her perfect match. Until he finally shows up, that is. We see that he is actually a pompous sanctimonious pig. For me, this added an extra layer of interest because I started to wonder about Claire's reliability as a narrator if not her sanity. Does James have a point when he accuses her of being childish, selfish, and a total flake? Claire had expected regret and shame from James but instead, he actually blames her for his having the affair. At first, James has Claire completely gaslighted. She starts to believe him and he has her under his thumb with her apologizing to him and promising to change her ways to save their marriage. Luckily her delusion was very brief and she comes to her senses with a vengeance.

n  No more humiliation for me, thanks very much. No more swallowing my anger. Honestly, I couldn’t manage another mouthful.n

In many of her later books, Marian’s heroines are victimized and bamboozled by bad men throughout the whole book. I was thrilled such was not the case with Claire. She pretty much sees him for what he is but is very confused because she remembers their great marriage and their love. Plus, she feels she has to try again for the sake of their baby.

I loved the character of Adam, Claire’s love interest. He is such a great guy that the fact that he loves and admires Claire serves to reassure us that however flawed and crazy she sometimes is, she is a lovable and good person. Their romance is sweet, as is her love for her baby Kate. And of course, the rest of the Walshes are a constant source of entertainment and amazement.

Next to read on my agenda is Angels, which features Margaret, the “good” sister, who was not in this one. After that, hippy-dippy druggie Anna’s story, which I remember as being heartrending, and then a re-read of scary and combative Helen’s story. It will be interesting to meet Claire again in those and see how (or if) she changes or if this book is just another side of her.
https://rebekahsreadingsandwatchings....

What a Way to Start a Brand New Baby’s Life!t
Claire can’t believe that the very day that she gives birth to her first child is the same day that her husband decides to leave her. What Luck! Marian Keyes pulls out all the stops in the development of the story and the characters. Claire and her husband James have been married for a few years and are living in New York. She thought things were going just great, then out of nowhere James announces that he’s fallen for someone else and is leaving their home to move in the with the other woman.

Claire is devastated and decides to move back home to her family in Ireland. Once she gets there, her parents and her sisters (there are five girls altogether – poor Dad!) try their best to help her deal with her abandonment and pitch in to help take care of the baby – she even has to name her baby girl without James’ input. So she’s down but she’s not out and after a bout of depression in which she terrorizes her family – she finally decides to move on with her life and she…leaves the house – for the first time in weeks!

She meets Adam, one of her sister Helen’s college classmates who although a little older than the average college student, is still a little young for her, but he’s hot and she can’t help being drawn to him and he seems to have a fondness for her brand new baby. Claire is still heart-broken over her husband’s betrayal, but maybe she can find a way to see the good in mankind by befriending Adam. Claire discovers a lot about herself, about her marriage and finds out the truth about her husband and comes to a crossroads and makes a decision about the way she’s going to live her life and raise her daughter.

This is my first Marian Keyes novel and I was instantly swept up in Claire’s personality and the humor that’s infused in her books. I especially enjoyed listening to the battles that would go on in Claire’s head between the good vs. evil – masterfully done. I was engrossed in every page and read it quickly and was sorry to have it end and then was so pleased to learn that there were more books in this series – I would like the chance to get to know the Walsh sisters better and I know that I’ve found a favorite author in Marian Keyes.

I picked this book up after I finished Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married. Like Lucy Sullivan, I enjoyed Marian Keyes chatty style. Reading this book feels like a chat with a friend and I found that I got to know the main character very well. Marian Keyes excels at character development.

As you probably know, this story is about Claire, a 29 year old Irish woman living in London. A few hours after she gave birth, her husband James announces that he doesn't love her anymore and that he is leaving her for another woman. Devastated, Claire left London for her family in Dublin. In Dublin we experience with Claire her stages of "mourning," which seem quite accurate for a woman in her predicament. First, she wants her husband to come back to her and for everything to return how it was, then she is angry, and then she finds acceptance. As Claire goes on with her life and meets someone knew, her husband James pops back into her life and wants her back. Claire contemplates taking him back because she wants to have the perfect family and her old life back. In the end, she realizes that she cannot forgive her husband. The book is a predictable plotline, of course, but what is special about it is how Claire wrestles with her changing perception of her husband and herself. She realizes that she had placed her husband on a pedestal and she figures out that he was really not the guy she thought he was.

Yes, Claire gets annoying at times. Don't we all? And aren't most poeple who go through big breakups kind of selfish and self-centered? The fact is, Claire is a very real person. She has her flaws and faults, but the reader grows to care about her.

this had no business being 500 pages long