I devoured this book and lost myself in the characters that Marian makes so accessible, easy to identify with and so perfectly flawed' 5* Reader Review After lacerating Edin Dan's legs) " Don't talk so impetuously... when you know nothing. I... haven't done anything wrong." [33] There were many sensitive topics which were dealt with respectfully. On that note aside from the obvious topic of addiction, I'd give a trigger warning for child loss.

In Again, Rachel, we return to the Cloisters where she had been in rehab, but is now a counsellor. “In Is Anybody Out There and The Mystery of Mercy Close, Rachel was already an addictions counsellor, but I don’t remember deciding that she would work at the Cloisters. I knew that at some stage her addiction would revisit, and I thought a good device would be to use the stories of others. Also, I wanted to echo what was so charming about Rachel’s Holiday." The oldest Walsh sister, Claire, and her husband, Adam, have been married for over 20 years and are going through a difficult phase in their sex life. Says Keyes: “It’s strange that even when you are with somebody for a long time, the way we communicate can be so difficult. Or frightening. It’s terrifying to say I don’t fancy you the way I used to but I’d like to work on it. There seems to be shame in saying this because it means we failed. Not at all! The mystique wears off. You need to say, I enjoyed the magic, how can we reclaim it?”Rachel's lesson of "Making a man out of Baam ver 3.0") " Baam!! Remember!! Never betray another!! Betraying is bad! No matter what happens, you must never betray another person! Especially not a woman. If you betray a woman, the world's ceiling will collapse." [26] And then Luke, her old love appears, in Ireland for his mother's funeral, and Rachel's world starts to spiral out of control once again. To Baam) " You really are glowing. You have always told me I was like a shining star to you. But I knew, you are the one destined to shine like a star someday, not me. I was just destined to look at you shining from a place in the dark forever. I was afraid of that 'Destiny'." [48] There are steamy sex scenes in Again, Rachel just as there are in her other novels. It’s interesting to read because it’s not young love; it’s about women who are over 40 and their experiences. Keyes says: “I loved writing the one scene [read the book!]. There has to be an emotional connection as well, and the reason they were not together was complicated. So there had to be more than sex, but the sex was nice. It’s okay to be a female over 40 and wanting to having sex. It’s down to the individual but I really sympathise with women who think, ‘Gawd, I have to have sex with my husband tonight’. As an older woman Keyes was interested in writing about older women and how they navigate these disappointments. “One thing I learnt and that has helped me is that I don’t outgrow anything. The idea of closure is not realistic. Anything painful I have ever felt, I can still feel in certain circumstances. In awful circumstances I can feel the way I felt when I was seven or 11 or 16 or 29. There’s no need to be ashamed of it; once those feelings are there they can always be reactivated.”

Let’s not wait 50 years to reassess funny female writers ever again,” chips in Osman, citing the example of the 1950s comic novelist Barbara Pym. “You had to wait years before people went ‘Oh actually … ” And thank goodness, because 50 years ago we’d still be waiting for… ” This funny, heartbreaking and wise book really showcase Marian Keyes' amazing talent as an author, and if you've not read her then definitely start with Rachel's Holiday so you can get to this one. Her bestselling second novel, Lucy Sullivan Is Getting Married, is adapted into a TV series, and in 2003 Watermelonis made into a TV film starring Anna Friel (above). Keyes’s books go on to sell more than 35m copies worldwide. Thanks is extended to Penguin Books Australia/Tandem Global Collective for providing a free copy of this book for review purposes. SIU: If you get to know her, Lahel (Rachel), in fact, is a really charming character, haha. (12/14/2010)" [11]The plot introduces a slew of characters all suffering from various addictions, and how Rachel works with them to break them down and get them on the path to recovery. She’s proud of her success rate, but as it turns out, she’s a complete hypocrite. Treatment slavishly follows and promotes the evangelical AA model - they seem completely okay with the fact that the clinic employs no doctors and dismisses essentially all medical treatments, which did not sit well with me. In the 21st century we have much more effective evidence-based therapies for helping addicts than expensive spells in rehab. I'm going to have to read it again because I can't bear to leave the characters behind. Wonderful!' 5* Reader Review These days everything in her life is good - good job, good dog, very good boyfriend. Then Luke - her ex of six years - shows up.

Rachel herself remains flawed, gorgeous and real. She is now head counsellor at the Cloisters rehabilitation clinic, where she was treated in the original novel. These scenes sing. SO GOOD!! I'm giving it the maximum 5 stars but my real rating is more like a thousand stars!! LOL. Marian Keyes is so, so funny - dark and wry and off-the-cuff hilarious. She writes with such emotional intelligence. At times I was just in such complete awe at how deftly she layered the character development. The emotions are so raw and real and vibrant. Rachel is so well-written and memorable, a true joy to spend time with and watch her grow. SIU has stated that if Baam is a "Typical Hero", Rachel would be a "Normal Person". So he wanted to make a somewhat awkward situation where people would be angry at Rachel yet make her feel more relatable than Baam. [22]https://web.archive.org/web/20160209060949/http://forums.mangafox.me/threads/368522-Additional-information-about-TOG-from-the-author-Spoiler Keyes always writes a happy ending, “because you can’t depend on real life to do it for you”. After her father died of Alzheimer’s in 2018 she “mainlined” Mills & Boon novels. And she doesn’t think upbeat conclusions are “entirely unrealistic”; it’s just a question of timing. “In every life we have ups and downs, times of awfulness and hopelessness and then things sort of come together for a while. I always like to finish at the good bits.” Keyes divides her life into before and after recovery. “Once I did go through rehab and admit the game was up, things were possible for me: healthy relationships, a career, honest, authentic friendships.” In what reads like the outline of a Keyes novel, four months before she gave up drinking she wrote a short story and sent it to a publisher on a whim; the year after she left rehab her first novel, Watermelon, was published, and she got married at 32. (Her husband Tony Baines – “He’s lovely!” – looks after everything that comes with being an internationally bestselling author.) I write about women being sexual past the 40 watershed, when we’re supposed to shut up shop I like numbers very much,” replies the king of teatime trivia, modestly. “But at the heart of it, I’m proud of the books. So the numbers to me just said: ‘Well this is a thrill.’ It must be the same for you. You’d always sold a lot of copies, but you went through a bit when everyone was saying, ‘You know what? This is actually brilliant literature.’ Suddenly you were elevated,” he says. “You became a super-brand.” You can’t go round telling women they’re good at stuff – they’ll get ideas above their station! Marian Keyes

Take John Grisham, says Osman. He may not have the prose style of Julian Barnes “but no one else writes a John Grisham book as well as John Grisham. You have to be the best person at writing the type of book you write. My view is – make mainstream things as well as you possibly can. Make it better than people think it is going to be.” For the record, the contemporary novel he thinks pulls off great storytelling and stylish prose is Francis Spufford’s Golden Hill – “best book of the century”. In Rachel's Holiday, we meet Rachel Walsh as she finds herself unexpectedly a resident in The Cloisters, a rehab centre, where she is being treated for drug addiction. A drug addiction she is in massive denial about. According to SIU, both Rachel and Baam are deeply connected. [12] To Rachel, Baam was the night and her darkness and to Baam, Rachel was his star and his light. It's unknown if Baam's new name (Viole), which also implies "star" in Korean has any foreshadowing or implications for their future relationship.To Baam) " Don't be ridiculous!! Why would you do such a thing?! Do you think you are some kind of hero?! Stop trying to show off!! You are talking about a world that has nothing to do with you!! Just give up!! Stay in that place and wait for me like before!! It's mine!! For ages I have!!" [43]