UK Literary Luvvies #2 Vital reading

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What are people's thoughts on Marian Keyes as a writer?
I thought Rachel's Holiday was good, and there is another one about the Walshes I liked - The Mystery of Mercy Drive? They are very readable.
But I find her books almost all have the same worrying aspect. The main female character almost always goes through a period of depression (usually after a breakup) and looses a lot of weight. After this they have never been happier, instantly become 'glossy' and can fit into designer clothes and get the man of their dreams. Thin is always happy.
 
Jelly Bean said:
What are people's thoughts on Marian Keyes as a writer?
I thought Rachel's Holiday was good, and there is another one about the Walshes I liked - The Mystery of Mercy Drive? They are very readable.
But I find her books almost all have the same worrying aspect. The main female character almost always goes through a period of depression (usually after a breakup) and looses a lot of weight. After this they have never been happier, instantly become 'glossy' and can fit into designer clothes and get the man of their dreams. Thin is always happy.
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I've only read a handful (Rachel's Holiday, Grown Ups, The Break) and generally whizzed through them. She has a good ear for dialogue and is actually a fairly witty writer; I do take her point that, until very recently, contemporary fiction written by women was all lumped in under 'chick lit' and given cupcakes and stilettos as artwork, in a way that popular fiction by men never would be.
 
Jelly Bean said:
What are people's thoughts on Marian Keyes as a writer?
I thought Rachel's Holiday was good, and there is another one about the Walshes I liked - The Mystery of Mercy Drive? They are very readable.
But I find her books almost all have the same worrying aspect. The main female character almost always goes through a period of depression (usually after a breakup) and looses a lot of weight. After this they have never been happier, instantly become 'glossy' and can fit into designer clothes and get the man of their dreams. Thin is always happy.
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I have read all of her novels and that bit about all of her protagonists losing weight, simply isn't true. However Marian says that she always gives her characters a happy ending because life is hard enough and she wants people in her books to have happy endings. I am also Irish and I feel that she also articulated a lot of issues that affect Irish women that weren't discussed before. Rachel's Holiday is in my opinion a wonderful book.
 
I just can't imagine how compelling a 400 page book about friendship can be, has anyone read it?
Ashling said:
I have read all of her novels and that bit about all of her protagonists losing weight, simply isn't true. However Marian says that she always gives her characters a happy ending because life is hard enough and she wants people in her books to have happy endings. I am also Irish and I feel that she also articulated a lot of issues that affect Irish women that weren't discussed before. Rachel's Holiday is in my opinion a wonderful book.
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I'd love to know the issues that affect Irish women which she talks about? Might pick up one of her books in that case!
 
Mermaid456 said:
I just can't imagine how compelling a 400 page book about friendship can be, has anyone read it?


I'd love to know the issues that affect Irish women which she talks about? Might pick up one of her books in that case!
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It has more to do with how little voice Irish women had in Irish society until quite recently. The Catholic Church had such a stronghold over Irish culture that women had next to no power. Also Ireland (since the 1800s) has a strong literary tradition but mainly male oriented. Female writers such as Edna O'Brien were banned in Ireland.
 
Love_hate_small_town said:
We really are missing out.
I think that’s at the crux of most people’s irritation with the LL crowd. It’s rarely on merit and it’s all so fecking samey. They might be a half decent writer but you can bet that much more gifted writers (or writers with a lot of potential) who actually have something to say cannot get anywhere because it’s so bloody privileged and cliquey.

I might have mentioned this before but I read an article years and years ago by a writer who was bemoaning the constant demands to write a recommendation for other author’s books. He was saying that it is tremendously awkward and fake and most people don’t even read the book, they just get told more or less what to say by the publisher (who is also their publisher). It’s very hard to refuse when you are so reliant on staying in the publisher’s good graces and you are only as good as your last book etc. This was before social media so basically just what you’d see on the cover in WH smith and not so prolific. Now it is truly out of control. However, I feel like a lot of these authors, esp the likes of Marion Keyes, are in the position to say no to giving a quote. Dolly keeps dishing them out too even though she acknowledged that people feel she is over exposed in this way, so why do it? Just ego or a genuine buy in the the lit luvvie crowd.

now, I know it’s already so self involved etc. but I would actually love one of them to write a novel about the crowd. Especially if it was really obvious who was who. I actually think Bella Mackie could and should do this 😂. She has a salty side and I’ve recently been disappointed that she has started to morph into a LL. She could redeem herself.
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I'd love to have a boozy night with Bella and hear all the tales. I bet she has so much tea on them. I don't read much of her stuff but on IG I get the impression she's a bit more self-aware and can take the piss out of herself
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Jelly Bean said:
What are people's thoughts on Marian Keyes as a writer?
I thought Rachel's Holiday was good, and there is another one about the Walshes I liked - The Mystery of Mercy Drive? They are very readable.
But I find her books almost all have the same worrying aspect. The main female character almost always goes through a period of depression (usually after a breakup) and looses a lot of weight. After this they have never been happier, instantly become 'glossy' and can fit into designer clothes and get the man of their dreams. Thin is always happy.
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Not going to lie, I do love a bit of Marian Keyes! But I'm finding a lot of her books a bit samey now. One excellent chick-lit (sorry, women's fiction) writer who doesn't get near enough praise in my opinion is Mhairi McFarlane
 
Jelly Bean said:
What are people's thoughts on Marian Keyes as a writer?
I thought Rachel's Holiday was good, and there is another one about the Walshes I liked - The Mystery of Mercy Drive? They are very readable.
But I find her books almost all have the same worrying aspect. The main female character almost always goes through a period of depression (usually after a breakup) and looses a lot of weight. After this they have never been happier, instantly become 'glossy' and can fit into designer clothes and get the man of their dreams. Thin is always happy.
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I used to love her books, this was back when there was an almost avalanche of glossy pink and primary coloured paperbacks hitting the shelves weekly all aimed at young women and almost all uniformly poorly and lazily written with lead characters so bad you had to double check they were written by an actual female.
Back then Marian’s books were like a breath of fresh air. Well rounded, funny and real female leads, with an assortment of supporting characters that always felt authentic.

Something about her writing style or maybe just her changed around the time she wrote This Charming Man, it was the first book of hers I couldn’t finish, didn’t like and had to to put in the charity shop pile. All subsequent books have been middling to awful to utter shite. Also dislike her professional oirish persona which becomes ever more pronounced and demented with each media appearance.
 
I really liked Marian Keyes‘ Walsh sisters books.
Helen was my fave. When she finally got her own story (The Mystery of Mercy Close) I really enjoyed it, but felt so sad for Helen as a character that she was in such a dark place in her life. But on the other hand, that illustrates that you never really know what’s going on in a person’s mind.

I enjoyed most of her other books too, but didnt find the more recent ones I read (This Charming Man and The Woman Who Stole My Life) as good. Looks like it was the same as you @Spilttea !

I can get why her Twitter persona is a bit irritating for people, but I’ll always have a fondness for her, the way she’s spoken about her depression and addiction in the past was so real and honest.
 
100% this. I have friends who have written genuinely great books and their publishers put zero effort/budget behind book promo other than sent out the press release. (These are major publishers.) Why pay a writer an advance then not bother to promote it? That said, even these books that are heavily promoted don't always do well. It's been mentioned before here but Emma Gannon and Daisy Buchanan did a podcast complaining that their books didn't do great and I was surprised because the impression you get from the Luvvie Mafia is that they're super successful - their books are rammed down your throat and they have the identikit glowing blurbs on the back.😬

StatusWoe said:
Wow they really hype their own crowd. I think the success of books/memoirs is often down to aggressive marketing rather than engaging content. Have you ever been in a bookshop and felt as though specific books were being foisted on you? I think it's striking how many of these bestselling self-help type books were written by privileged individuals with ties to the media - thinking of Bryony Gordon et al. I feel as though we're missing out on a lot of interesting stories because these people are overrepresented on the shelves.
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Jelly Bean said:
What are people's thoughts on Marian Keyes as a writer?
I thought Rachel's Holiday was good, and there is another one about the Walshes I liked - The Mystery of Mercy Drive? They are very readable.
But I find her books almost all have the same worrying aspect. The main female character almost always goes through a period of depression (usually after a breakup) and looses a lot of weight. After this they have never been happier, instantly become 'glossy' and can fit into designer clothes and get the man of their dreams. Thin is always happy.
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Yep. And despite the MC’s ‘crippling’ insecurities, she’s morally superior and bitchy about everyone behind their backs and always has people falling at her feet. Autobiographical?
 
queenamber said:
This could be literally any book out atm 😂

(it’s Lessons in Chemistry)

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haha :) It's this 'glam' element (the television chef career) that ruins these sorts of books. Give the protagonist a more average job for once
 
ED's godfather is Sebastian Faulks - he was the first guest on HTF. It's an amusing interview as he clearly thinks it's beneath him, and I think his only acknowledged failure was a souffle...

I went right off ED when she started claiming she met her husband on some dating app, but then it turned out that he owned the dating app, and they'd been introduced by friends, so it was really just free advertising that was never declared.
 
bottlewrapper said:
ED's godfather is Sebastian Faulks - he was the first guest on HTF. It's an amusing interview as he clearly thinks it's beneath him, and I think his only acknowledged failure was a souffle...

I went right off ED when she started claiming she met her husband on some dating app, but then it turned out that he owned the dating app, and they'd been introduced by friends, so it was really just free advertising that was never declared.
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I don't think Justin owns Hinge?

I remember Sebastian sounded furious in that interview. When he asked her if she wanted to "start again?" after the intro!
 
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