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Marian Keyes
Publisher: William Morrow
Pub. Date: June 17, 2008
ISBN-13: 9780061124020
576pp
Book Room Review
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The book cover of This
Charming Man is deceiving. I was
expecting a breezy summer chick lit novel. What I got was so much more and I was not
disappointed. This Charming Man
introduces us to three distinct women and shows us how their lives intertwine
with one man, and with each other. The
man is Paddy de Courney, an
The book starts with Lola, a
hip stylist, who is ceremoniously dumped by Paddy, after learning that even
though she is his girlfriend, he is marrying someone else. Heartbroken, Lola takes off to a tiny village
to try and forget him. While there, Lola
finds herself making some unlikely friendships with a group of cross dressers. One of them she thinks she might even be
falling for.
Grace is a journalist who is
trying to track down Lola to tell her secrets about Paddy. But Grace is hiding a secret
of her own about him and she isn’t about to tell anyone else. Grace has
her hands full trying to take care of her relationship with her boyfriend and
help her twin sister Marnie, who is slowly falling
apart.
Marnie is featured as the third part
of this story, which is the most heartbreaking. Marnie is married
and the mother of two little girls. She
dated Paddy when they were young and in high school. Marnie
is also an alcoholic, and her life is spiraling downhill until she hits rock
bottom.
Marion Keyes deftly weaves
each story until they all come together to a shocking conclusion. This Charming Man tackles tough issues, such
as alcoholism and domestic abuse. These
are themes that would make for a great book club discussion. But the novel doesn’t weigh you down even
though it is 576 pages long. Her writing
is witty and heartbreaking all at the same time. The sign of a great book for me is when I
still think about the characters long after the book is closed, and this is one
of those books.
Book Room Grade
B
Review Posted: July 7, 2008
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