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Everything was fine at work until you rang them,’ I lied frantically. ‘You’ve caused nothing but trouble. I’m going to ring Eric and tell him that you’re a lunatic, that you escaped from a bin and not to believe a word you said.’ I say all of this to put into context my reasons for really hating Rachel. Her predicament was just too familiar for my tastes. OK, so I was a 27-year-old woman and it shouldn’t matter if my father knew I was sometimes late for work. But it did matter. I felt the way I had twenty years earlier when he and Mum were called up to the school to account for my on-going dearth of completed homework.
He was right. And we’d been getting along a whole lot worse since she’d made that phone call and brought the interference of my family tumbling down on top of me. I was furious with her and for some reason she seemed to be furious with me too. But Brigit was my best friend and we’d always shared a flat. It was out of the question for someone else to move in with her. Rachel Walsh is an Irish woman in her late 20s living in New York, but whose life is disintegrating around her. She's lost her dead-end job; her boyfriend Luke has broken up with her; her best friend and flat-mate Brigit can't cope with her behaviour any longer – and the reason for all this, which Rachel just can't see, is that she's become addicted to drugs and alcohol. I read these books in my late teens, early twenties, and I can honestly say I learned a great deal about life and relationships (especially what not to do ;). 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?!Rachel's Holiday is Marian Keyes at her best. No other writer manages to combine the sad and the hilarious as well as she does, making you laugh and cry within the same paragraph. Saying goodbye to fun and freedom will be hard - and losing the man who might just be the love of her life will be even harder. Not your fault, some people are born with, for example bad eyesight, others are born with sensitive emotions, And you were traumatised by the arrival of a new sister at an age when you were easily damaged.'
Paul was such a pompous know-all. He wore the same kind of jumpers as Dad did and bought his first house when he was thirteen or some such ridiculous age by saving up his First Communion money. 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.Her two collections of journalism, ‘Making It Up As I Go Along ‘and ‘Under the Duvet-the Deluxe Edition’ are also available from Penguin. Keyes began writing short stories while suffering from alcoholism. After her treatment at the Rutland Centre she returned to her job in London and submitted her short stories to Poolbeg Press. The publisher encouraged her to submit a full-length novel and Keyes began work on her first book, Watermelon. The novel was published the same year. Since 1995 she has published many novels and works of non-fiction. [7] I waffled between five and four stars for all of ten seconds before deciding on five, simply because of my sheer inability to be rational about this novel.
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. In some ways, this book is, of course, similar to The Mystery of Mercy Close where Rachel's sister Helen spends a little time (some years after this book is set) in a psychiatric unit, but in other ways, it is almost like the tale of bereavement in .......... No, I can't say, because it would spoil it if you haven't already read it! But then Brigit stumbled across a piece of paper that I’d been attempting to write on just before I fell asleep. It was just the usual maudlin, mawkish, self-indulgent poetry-type rubbish I often wrote when I was under the influence. Stuff that seemed really profound at the time, where I thought I’d discovered the secret of the universe, but that caused me to blush with shame when I read it in the cold light of day, the bits that I could read, that is. This book was as awesome as I expected, based on Krystal's high praise of it. Watermelon was pretty good, but this was way better. I'm not sure if it's better than Lucy Sullivan though. I haven't read the author's essays apecifically about her alcholism, but I can only assume that she drew on some of her own experience with addiction to write this. It's fascinating to experience the transformation of Rachel with Rachel. To learn things as she learns them, to see her experiences through her eyes. In the first part of the book, she doesn't seem like some out of control crazy addict. Because you only really see her behavior as she sees it. Later you learn about how she really was acting, the things she was doing (as an Oh yeah, I kinda was that way retrospective), and it's eye opening. I'm not explaining this well, but I know what I mean. Just the way the author unveiled things for you and kept you in Rachel's head and state of mind was very well done. Marian Keyes is a brilliant writer. No one is better at making terrifically funny jokes while telling such important, perceptive and agonizing stories of the heart. She is a genius' Sali HughesShe's been living it up in New York City, spending her nights talking her way into glamorous parties before heading home in the early hours to her adoring boyfriend, Luke. Rachel’s ageing mum – a highlight in a novel replete with beautifully well-rounded secondary characters – issues strict instructions: It comes with a plethora of insights from all sorts of people who have read it, loved it, and read it again.
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. 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.” I wasn’t defending myself as well as I normally would have. But, to tell the truth, my trip to the hospital had taken more out of me than just the contents of my stomach. I felt shaky and not inclined to fight with Dad, which wasn’t like me at all. Disagreeing with my father was something I did as instinctively as refusing to sleep with moustachioed men.
Retailers:
First of all, I would like a recount on just how many years it has been, I have to admit to being completely shaken by the fact that the first, much read copy of this novel, landed in my lap courtesy of Cosmopolitan magazine all those years ago. I was having none of it either. ‘Dad, behave yourself. Be . . . be . . . realistic here, I can’t just walk out on my life.’ BBC One - imagine..., 2022, Marian Keyes: My (not so) Perfect Life, Meeting 'Mr Right' ". BBC . Retrieved 8 February 2022. Like a magnet, Luke drew lots of me to the surface, so that I told him things I'd never tell a man that I fancied.
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