You ever have a book that you’re not quite sure why you picked it up? That’s the case here. I have a vague memory of selecting this book from one of the library book sales last summer, but when I picked it up to read it again, I couldn’t, for the life of me, remember what had attracted me to it.
Title: Sushi for Beginners
Author: Marian Keyes
Publication Year: 2003
Genre: Chick lit? Slice of life?
Pros: Doesn’t require a lot of thought to keep up with despite the myriad of characters
Cons: Inconsistent characterization, head hopping, lack of plot
I mean, maybe I thought it was romance? I can get behind a good romance. Okay, I’ve just re-read the back of the book, and it definitely sounds like a female friend romp/romance. That would have been okay.
It is not either of those.
I admit I don’t read a lot of real life based stories because I don’t necessarily get the point of them. They tend to focus on depressing things, like infidelity, illness, depression, loss of spouse/child, getting over childhood abuse–all things that I don’t really want to think about if I don’t have to. Now, from what I understand, knowing that I am wildly out of my depth here, chick lit tends to be upbeat, funny, kind of like candy for your soul.
So, I think that’s probably what this book is–it’s got the witty banter, the sex scenes, etc. But I still don’t really see the point. It wasn’t necessarily hard to keep reading, but I didn’t particularly like anybody in the book, and there’s very little plot to speak of, which again, I think is normal for the genre.
Most of the action takes place at Colleen, a new fashion magazine based in Dublin, Ireland. You’ve got Lisa Edwards, the editor, who’s upset about being shunted over from London when she thought she was going to get promoted to a New York magazine; Ashling Kennedy, assistant editor, who is kind of a wet rag, honestly, and is still the most likeable person in the book; and Clodagh Kelly, who’s the mother of two and Ashling’s best friend. And then there’s occasional head hopping into male points of view for a line or two.
And there’s finding ourselves and learning to be better people, blah blah blah, but it’s not terribly interesting.
ANYWAY. I didn’t particularly like this book, as you can probably tell. But, again, not really my normal genre cup of tea. Good to read around and all that.
Squiders, do you know anything about chick lit? Is this a good example of it? Is there a different book I should read instead?
