I've fallen out of love with Jane Fallon! (Getting Rid of Matthew - Jane Fallon)

Member Name: jo1976

Product:	Getting Rid of Matthew - Jane Fallon
Date:	19/05/09 (98 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Pleasant enough chick lit, good premise to the story

Disadvantages: Characters weren't likeable, not as good as Fallon's subsequent novel

Having recently read (and thoroughly enjoyed) Jane Fallon's second novel, Got You Back, I looked forward to reading this, her debut novel. I managed to pick up a copy of Getting Rid Of Matthew in a local charity shop, paying only £1.50, rather than the RRP of £6.99, so I got a bargain.

Settling down to read this novel I found myself enjoying the relaxed writing style of Jane Fallon once more. There were some similarities in terms of plot between this and her subsequent novel. Both stories feature a married man having an affair with another woman. In 'Getting Rid of Matthew', the married man is a successful businessman (Matthew) who has been having a long-term affair with one of his employees (Helen) behind his wife's back (Sophie.) In a clever twist, this novel sees the married man leave his wife and children and move in with his lover - only for Helen to realise that she no longer wants to be with him. The story sees Helen's increasingly desperate and funny attempts to 'get rid' of Matthew and, ultimately, engineer a return to his wife, Sophie. (No spoilers here, by the way, I haven't told you anything that isn't on the back cover.)

A few chapters into the story, I started to realise that I wasn't quite as engrossed in it as I had been in Fallon's other work. Essentially, the problem was that I didn't particularly like any of the characters and, consequently, didn't really care too much about what happened to them! I imagine it would be difficult to create a character who has knowingly been having an affair with a married man for four years and make them into a likeable character. Personally, I don't think that the author succeeded with Helen's character as I found her to be a very self-centred shallow personality and the kind of person that I would avoid being friends with in real life. I think Fallon tries to make the readers feel sympathetic towards Helen as she is portrayed as being very insecure and lonely but I just felt that Helen was the author of her own destiny really. This got worse for me when Matthew eventually left his wife and children to be with Helen and she realised she had changed her mind - after messing up so many lives! I appreciate that this situation is what creates the humour in the story but it certainly wasn't a 'laugh out loud' novel for me.

As for the other characters, Matthew quickly deteriorates from a successful, decisive businessman into a pathetic, snivelling old man. Again, I found it hard to feel any sympathy towards him or to care very much about his fate. Even Sophie, the wronged wife, was such a cliche of the perfect wife and mother - successful career woman, beautiful, organised, a great mother, understanding, caring woman etc etc - that I (being somewhat less than flawless) couldn't identify with her, either! The upshot was that I was somewhat less engrossed in the storyline than I should have been.

I did like the premise of the story itself. It was well-written and well-timed with a clear sense that things are about to go horribly wrong for Helen. Such was the sense of impending doom that, when it did finally all come crashing down, it was a bit of an anti-climax for me. What a disappointment!

The novel is written in the third person but I felt it would have been just as successful, if not better, if it had been written from Helen's perspective as the majority of the storyline does focus on Helen and her attempts to persuade Matthew to leave. Had it been written solely from Helen's point of view, I might have been able to empathise with her a bit better.

All in all, the novel itself was an enjoyable way to pass a few hours but, certainly in comparison to Jane Fallon's follow-up novel, was a bit disappointing. Perhaps I would have felt more positive about this novel had I not read 'Got You Back' first and had such high hopes for this story. If you are looking for some engaging chick lit, I'd certainly recommend reading Fallon's second novel rather than her debut work.

Summary: A pleasant enough debut novel