Ya había tenido la oportunidad de leer a Marian Keyes con Claire se queda sola y, aunque fue ya hace un par de años, nunca es tarde para reencontrarse con un autor. En ese primer libro, Marian Keyes hablaba del abandono y la soledad, y en este se centra en las adicciones, especialmente en las drogas. Aunque a veces peca de ser un poco redundante, y de ahí que no le haya subido más la puntuación, es un libro más que decente. Rachel Walsh tiene veintisiete años, vive en Nueva York y su vida es un desastre porque solo puede levantar cabeza con cocaína en las venas, pero entonces un susto la lleva de vuelta a Irlanda a casa de sus padres, que la meten en una clínica de rehabilitación. Rachel es una chica odiosa, manipuladora, prejuiciosa y egocéntrica pero a medida que avanza la historia, su visión del mundo se va aclarando poco a poco, como si siempre hubiera estado ciega y empezara a ver la luz a través de la terapia que sigue, la gente que conoce en la clínica y la convivencia con sus otras hermanas. Rachel cree que no tiene ningún problema y se empeña en creerse mejor que nadie, pero al final acaba teniendo tanto sentido la forma en que se comportaba con los demás y con ella misma, lo que hacía y lo que no hacía, que resulta de lo más realista. Es un personaje maravilloso. Y sus hermanas son igual de malas, pero fantásticas también, cada cual a su manera, y por supuesto que leeré los libros dedicados a ellas. Ha sido una muy buena decisión volver a encontrarme con Marian Keyes y sus hermanas Walsh.

Excellent last line!

I loved this book. Marian Keyes is real and raw and knows what she’s talking about, having walked the talk. It makes me feel the same way as when journalists write crime fiction, I know I am in safe hands. Having gotten sober herself in rehab, her writing has flourished since.

This is a fun series centred on the Irish Walsh family. The parents love their daughters, but in many ways, life many of us, have gotten many things wrong.

Rachel ends up in rehab, after a close overdose. Of course she thinks this is a statement gone overboard, and all she needs is a rest. Possibly some massage, sauna, good food and a stay in a Betty Ford type clinic her family have talked her into attending back home in Ireland. Rachel things New York suits her, always up for a party, drugs anywhere she can 'take' them from, and booze also anywhere she can get her hands on it. Friends are fed up, as is her long suffering boyfriend. She changes in personality when she is on it, and everyone has had enough. Rachel is amazing, outlandish and simply undeniably adorable when off her head. Or so she thinks.

Keyes writes perfectly of the addict who is 'not like the others', Rachel is just visiting, those poor people have it bad, they are fat, skinny, they are addicts with terrible problems - unlike her. Who just likes a party, and wondering when the bloody hell the renovations are going to be completed at the treatment centre, surely the lino is temporary?

The group therapy is harsh, even more so is the inclusion of loved ones filling in forms as to the worst behaviour of the patients - and these intimate details being open for discussion in a group setting! How dare her ex boyfriend and parents say these dreadful and untrue things?!

The therapist in this story is full on, she knows what to say to the clients, can find the 'reason' straight away, whilst teasing these out gently and getting each individual to finally get to the bottom of the root cause, seemingly without her assistance. These stories may seem unecessary to the heart of the story, but go a long way in a solid base for ending up in establishments such as these, and showing our dear Rachel she is not the only one.

It was hard seeing how Rachel was developed as a child, with treatment from her parents being mildly traumatic; they are a messy, loud and imperfect family of daughters and parents each doing their best to survive. But as is often the case, problems lead to addiciton.

I am already on to and enjoying number 3. This is a dysfuncitonal, rambunctious, yet appealing family all doing their best, laid out to us with a good mix of humour and serious. I very much recommend this series.

Review to follow

Marian Keyes is one of my favourite Irish authors. Her books are classified as chick-lits but they are so much more than that. I think because she is so funny and writes with such wit that you tend to forget what serious issues are sandwiched in between the laughs. If you never read chick-lit, Marian Keyes books are ones where I think you should forget about genres and just give it a chance.

Rachel’s Holiday is a classic example. It’s not about Rachel going on a holiday! It’s about Rachel spending a little time in an Irish drying-out clinic at the insistence of her parents. Rachel doesn’t mind too much, she thinks it will be like a little spa holiday and she might even drop a few pounds too but she wasn’t bargaining for the harsh realities ahead of her.

At the start of the book, we are in denial as to the extent of her drug addiction problems and just think her family are being ott. Then gradually as it dawns on Rachel just how far she has fallen, our eyes are opened too and her addiction is exposed in all its ugliness. Marian Keyes has described her own battle with alcoholism and you just know she is drawing on her own experiences here. The clinic and group therapy classes have a ring of truth about them and for all the hilarity there are lines that dart straight to your heart and make you think about your own addictions.

It’s not a depressing book though. Far from it, it’s one of the funniest books I own. It’s one of those don’t-read-in-public-books as there is no way to keep the laughs in. Marian has a way of writing about the normal, everyday stuff that we all do but showing the absurd in it. Her phrasing is chatty, fun and cracks me up. When I need a good belly laugh, these are the books I turn to.

I have also found that her books have stood the test of time. I read my first one in the late 90′s but I often pluck one from the shelf for a reread. They are great books to settle down with for a bookish reunion with characters I love.

“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 its heels. Blistered and cut, red and raw, every hopping, lopsided step, a little slice of agony.”

There are 5 books about the 5 dysfunctional but lovable Walsh sisters. I can’t recommend them highly enough with Rachel’s holiday at the very top of my list.

This was the second book of Marian Keyes I’d tried, and unfortunately it was the second one I really couldn’t get into. Recently it was being discussed on R4’s A Good Read and it sounded like it was worth reading, and it started well but before long I was bored, and I didn’t like the protagonists enough to want to know what happened at the end. Think it’ll be the last MK I read.

One of Marian Keyes" absolute best, because it rings devastatingly true about addiction and recovery. Very, very hard to read at times, but really, really good if you are willing to watch Rachel take the steps towards recovery. This is not a quick read -- you need to let things unfold.

When I re-read something like this, it makes me sad that Keyes' recent work has been so indulgent of her worst traits as a writer.

I read this book years ago and laughed and cried the entire time. I recently re-read it and had the same reaction. I laughed and I cried throughout. This is an extremely funny and well-written novel, and it's one of the best romances I've read in quite some time. While it reads like a frothy, amusing tale, it's actually one of the best books about addiction I've ever read even though it's fiction (as opposed to straight autobiography, although Keyes has been forthcoming about her own struggles to overcome addiction in real life). It also is about the ways we lie to ourselves about ourselves, and how change might be difficult, but it is possible.

We think Marian Keyes' writing is fantastic. Rachel's Holiday is by no means just a chick lit book; it offers so much more. An Irish ex-pat is whisked back home to go to rehab. Marian Keyes' research into addiction and recovery was excellent. We learned so much (as does Rachel!) Humor and life lessons abound in this engrossing read.

Where should we start? The racism, the homophobia? Or perhaps the crushing misogyny? Yeah, let’s start there. What really gets me with the particular flavour of misogyny in this book is how familiar it is. It’s borne of that foundational belief that all women are in competition with one another for that most precious of resources, male attention. It’s that late 90s internalized misogyny where other women are all bitches and the best thing you can be is “not like other girls”. It’s the stuff so in the water in my formative years that I’ve so carefully unlearnt that it’s at best cringey to read it in 2023. Call me a massive lesbian if you will, but I like when women love and prioritize each other, so I did not enjoy that Rachel refers to literally every other female character (except her mum, maybe) as a bitch at some point or another.

There’s also some attitudes to rape that are frankly tiresome at this point. You know the drill; women want to be raped, ‘no’ means ‘convince me’, and degradation and power plays are an intrinsic part of sexuality. Look, I get that this book is largely just fluff and it’s from 1998 so who cares at this point, but I will overanalyse it because A) I can, and B) it is an ugly slice of a woman-hating culture, aimed specifically at women, that serves to reinforce harmful cultural norms and I cannot bring myself to ignore that.

And if the misogyny is not enough, add some heaped tablespoons of racism and homophobia into the mix. A character comes out as gay? Jokes abound about handlebar moustaches and his desire to have sex with any and every man in the room! A woman is implied (by masculine appearance, of course) to be a lesbian? Joke about how she’s just waiting to pounce on you! For the racism portion, how about the very funny refusal to refer to a Hispanic character by their actual name? And when you get bored of that, let's just descend into out-and-out racist slurs. LOL! The late 90s, everyone! (I say because racism and homophobia are OVER now, of course).

Okay, from everything I’ve written so far, you would think I’m saying you should probably not read this book. And you would be right. Its negatives outweigh its positives by quite some margin. But there are positives! Wow, unexpected! Rachel’s arc of discovering she’s an addict is borderline clever. Rachel realizing she’s kind of a cruel and unpleasant person is also quite good! The treatment of addiction in this book is surprisingly grown-up. Not food addiction, this is true. That’s just a joke addiction, obviously, and ripe for many, many fat jokes. But for drug and alcohol addiction, the book is surprisingly nuanced. Addiction makes people selfish, dangerous and cruel. Addiction can stem from trauma and very human vulnerabilities. Addicts can be victims and villains, both at the same time. Which, honestly, is a pretty hot take to find rising above the tiresome dross that makes up the rest of Rachel’s Holiday.

Before I close on an already too long review, I also just want to add that multiple times during reading, I thought to myself, “What even is heterosexuality?” Can you imagine being an adult straight woman and referring to a man’s penis as a “ginormous willy”? Because I can’t, but I’m fascinated by what I can only presume is an authentic glimpse into heterosexual culture. Wild.

Ferkern hilarious.

Also, v. v clever!

(From my book blog)

I really hate the term “chick lit,” don’t you? It is utterly dismissive and totally misleading. Take a look at this book cover. It looks like chick lit. It was written by a woman. IT MUST BE FLUFFY AND RIDICULOUS, RIGHT?

No. No it is not. This book is devastating. I know she wasn’t the first one, but I blame Sophie Kinsella and her godawful Shopaholic books with their stupid pink covers for starting the whole chick lit thing. Have I mentioned that I really fucking hate those books? I hate them so much that my hatred of them is totally derailing this review. I’ll get back to them eventually.

Rachel’s Holiday came very highly recommended by my friends Jana and Ali, both of whom mentioned that this was one of the few books that has been with them many years, through various moves, bookshelf cleanouts, etc. Both of their copies were falling apart. They said it was amazing. And it WAS.

As you may have guessed, the leading lady is Rachel, an Irish 20-something living the party life in New York. In the first few pages, she overdoses on pills and has to get her stomach pumped. Through a “huge misunderstanding,” she is deemed a drug addict and sent back to Ireland for rehab.

That’s all I want to say about the plot, because one of the great pleasures of this book is the way it unfolds. It’s written in first person from Rachel’s POV, and seeing her life fall apart through her eyes is insane. It’s soul-crushing. You think everything is going just fine, and then Marian Keyes slips in these little bombs. Remember when you took 10th grade English and you studied Poe and your teacher talked to you about unreliable narrators? And you never thought you would ever talk about that sort of thing again unless you were a huge nerd like me? Well, saddle up and get ready to check your facts, because we are talking about unreliable narrators RIGHT. FUCKING. NOW. It makes the whole book ten times more interesting than a regular story of transformation and growth and all that shit.

I would not expect that “soul-crushing” and “maddeningly addictive” would describe the same book, but here we are. I furiously texted Jana while I was on a fucking treadmill at the gym, where I was running and also reading Rachel’s Holiday on Kindle. I was texing Ali “OH MY GOD DID THAT JUST HAPPEN?” while I was trying to read and cook dinner at the same time (Warning: Do not try this at home unless you want a shitty dinner).

So, yeah, I loved this book. I give it an A++++++++. I worship Marian Keyes for proving that chick lit (or, alternately, a book written by a woman for a largely female audience) doesn’t have to suck.