The Second Best Book I've Ever Read! (Mrs Murphy Hires a Cleaner - Kath Kincaid)

Member Name: karenuk

Product:	Mrs Murphy Hires a Cleaner - Kath Kincaid
Date:	25/08/01 (54 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: compelling read, excellent characterisation, very clever, unique story

Disadvantages: none, except it ended - I WANT MORE!!

This is probably the second best book I’ve ever read, which is high praise indeed, as I am a self-confessed bookworm and live on a staple diet of modern fiction, with a spoonful of biography and a pinch of historical romance. (Incidentally, the best book I’ve ever read is Cross Stitch by Diana Gabaldon.)

So how did I stumble across this wonderful novel? Well, my mum-in-law loves books too, but doesn’t often recommend them, knowing I already have a bookshelf stacked with a very high ‘to be read’ pile. But she recommended this one. So I knew it must be something special. It is.

It’s hard to capture the essence of this book – it’s laugh-out-loud funny in a kind of good sitcom way; it’s poignantly sad like those two-hander EastEnders episodes; it’s very, very clever.

It contains loads of different characters interwoven in brilliant ways. But unlike other authors who throw hundreds of characters in to the mixing pot, only to end up with a heap of bland nobodies (Dickens – Bleak House!), Kath Kincaid brings each one to life with a vibrancy and zest almost impossible to achieve with the printed word. The whole story played itself in my head with shocking clarity, each character being clear and real.

The plot sounds complicated and convoluted, but it isn’t, it all clicks together quite painlessly and never jars. True, it does involve lots of people, set against a backdrop of business espionage and Irish terrorism, in the dawn of a changing country led by the newborn Blair government.

The book begins innocently enough, seemingly yet another jolly good read by a very talented female British author. But it soon becomes much more…

We are introduced to Emily Murphy, a woman who should be happy with her lot – a large house with a beautiful garden, plenty of money, a successful husband, two grown-up children, one of each gender. But she’
s not happy. She is neglected, unloved and very lonely.

Her life changes when the new cleaner arrives – Mae McNulty, a young, vibrant woman who – on paper – should be unhappy. She is a single mum, supporting four generations of a large family by working every hour she can. She has children from a broken marriage and several one-night stands, resulting in different skin colours of each of her offspring. But she is much happier than Emily.

As Mae begins work cleaning, she suggests Emily has a long bath. It is only then that the older woman realises how much she has neglected herself and how sad her life is.

Yes, she decides to do something about it and changes things around, but no, this book is never predictable. You couldn’t guess the next page, never mind the next chapter!

This book includes a boy making models out of what he thinks is blue plasticine, but is really two pound of Semtex ; a highly gifted child whose innocent pressing of a number on a keyboard changes one man’s life forever ; a chain of events which cleverly lead into something else, a whole new direction, a whole new path for Kincaid to lead her creations, holding their hands securely as they delicately tiptoe along a whole new life.

Fiction fans – read this! Any gender, any age, you’ll love it.

Wannabe authors – read this and weep!

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