Rating: 4/5
Review:
Very enjoyable
I enjoyed this book a lot. Even though I like Dawn French's work on TV very much, I approached this with some scepticism because you never know whether a book written by a "celebrity" author and launched in a colossal fanfare of publicity is going to be any good. I am pleased to say that this one is.
It's a novel of family life, written from the point of view of three members of the family, each with their own distinctive voice: the rather psychobabbly mother, the angst-ridden 17-year-old-daughter and the pretentious and eccentric 16-year-old son and all three are done very well. They did occasionally sound a little more like characters from a French and Saunders sketch than real people, but I became sufficiently involved in their stories and characters not to mind.
The story is an amusing and quite insightful account of their lives and the relationships between them (and with the almost silent but very much present Dad/Husband). There are plenty of events, and although nothing startlingly original happens it does leave you with a sense of really having got to know these flawed but likeable people and of the importance and solidity of family bonds. It speaks well of the book that I resisited being manipulated by the sentimental ending, but found it very affecting in spite of myself.
I found this a very readable, enjoyable book. Recommended.
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