My second attempt at Cecilia Ahern (If You Could See Me Now - Cecelia Ahern)

Member Name: cerys82

Product:	If You Could See Me Now - Cecelia Ahern
Date:	01/07/09 (19 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: largely well written, easy to get through

Disadvantages: not particularly engaging characters, odd tone

I initially came acroos Ahern when I bought 'PS I Love You' with a 'Times Promotion'. I was aware that it was massively successful and brought her to prominence within the "chick-lit" canon. However when I sat down to read it, I didn't get very far as I found it hideously schmaltzy and sentimental to the point where I couldn't continue reading it.

I had no intentions of reading another Ahern book until this one dropped through my letter box free with my subscribed issue of Marie Claire. So with an open mind and a bank holiday weekend ahead of me I sat down to read it.

The plot is as follows: Successful interior designer Elizabeth Egan lives in a small "everybody knows everybody" Irish town. She is resolutely single, having to split her time between her business and looking after her sister Saorise's son Luke. Saorise crashes in and out of their lives having gone off the rails after the desappearance of their mother in their early childhood. Elizabeth also has an emotionally absent father who is still grieving his wife leaving him.

Luke "develops" an imaginary friend, Ivan. The twist here being tha tIvan is a 'real' imaginary friend who only Luke and later Elizabeth can see. Ivan is employed by an agency of professional imaginary friends who come to people in a time of need and then disappear to them when their personal issues are resolved. It is implied that Elizabeth can see him as she is still nursing wounds from the past.

Over time Elizabeth and Ivan form a relationship/friendship with her not knowing his true identity, and this changes her personality for the better and makes her happy.

The good stuff - well, for a start I read the whole book which is progress! I found Ahern to be a perfectly adept wirter and it did keep my interest throughout. However, I can't say that I every tryly engaged with the novel; in essence I found it to be far too whimsical. There were hints at darker elements such as the personal sacrifices that Elizabeth had to make for her sister over the years, but they just don't sit well within the novel. A childhood flashback of Elizabeth's is just so unconvincing and ill-fitting that it is cringeworthy. Ultimately Ahern is withing her comfort zone when embracing the whimsy, and there's nothing wrong with that it that's your sort of thing!

I definitely feel that there is a place for "darkness" and heavier subject matter within chicklit but it needs to be managed really well or it just feels tacked on - Marian Keyes' "This Charming Man" is a perfect example of this.

On reflection I also feel that it is an awkwardly positioned novel as to how its outlook is. The character of Ivan is so childlike that it alsmos tflet that with a bit of obvious tinkering, and the removal of romantic allusions, elements of it and the writing would be more fitting to a children's/young persons novel.

All-in-all it was a perfectly serviceable read but I don't think that I will be going out of my way to read another Ahern novel.

Summary: Ok "chicklit"