Wednesday, September 04, 2013

The Other Side of the Story and Watermelon (by Marian Keyes)

Obviously I'm still on a Keyes kick, though I'm saving Lucy Sullivan and Rachel's Holiday for my beach vacation in October.

The Other Side of the Story is three intertwined stories loosely set in the world of publishing. Two of the stories are told first-person and one is third (which is somewhat disorienting) but I enjoyed all three stories, especially I think Lily's. The letter at the end was amazing. Probably Jojo was my second favorite, and I really enjoyed the resolution to hers. And Gemma, although I still enjoyed her, was my least favorite, mainly because I did not enjoy her mother's storyline very much. Gemma herself, though, I liked. So far my favorite Keyes!

Watermelon is interesting, because the narrator has this penchant for witty/silly metaphor that isn't really in Keyes's other books so far, which made me really appreciate that Keyes gave this specific woman a specific narrative style and voice. I also mostly liked Claire, although there was a bit too much fatphobic stuff happening where she kept talking about being fat, and her post-pregnancy body as being ugly, and all that business. Also, at one point I had to skip ahead because I couldn't handle where her mind was at. (Of course it is resolved in the end, but I needed to know how long I would have to wait for sanity to return.)

Overall I enjoyed these books just as much as Sushi! I would probably rank them 1. Other Side, 2. Sushi, 3. Watermelon, but I liked them all, and thanks for the recommendations! Can't wait to get to the beach.

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2 Comments:

Blogger pyjammy pam said...

Now that I'm not on my phone, I will comment here instead. I'm glad to see that Watermelon is the first one you're reading in this "series." Just make sure you read them in order.

8:26 AM  
Blogger mo pie said...

What's after Watermelon and Rachel's Holiday? I think that's where I'm at!

4:13 PM  

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