PS, I did not love you that much (PS, I Love You - Cecelia Ahern)

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Product:	PS, I Love You - Cecelia Ahern
Date:	03/07/05 (3702 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: easy and quick read, storyline is a good idea

Disadvantages: characters are bland, author fails to convert storyline into enjoyable read, not funny

***The plot***

Holly Kennedy and Gerry were made for each other, true soulmates who fell in love at a very young age. It sounds like a dream come true, but the dream is quickly shattered when Gerry is told than his frequent migraines are actually caused by a brain tumour and that he will only have a few months left to live. Gerry’s death naturally shatters Holly’s world, as she finds herself alone and having lost her husband, lover and best friend all at once. Like anyone who has experienced such loss, she is unable to work, unable to do anything “normal” people would do, and unable to be properly happy for her best friends who are continuing with their lives without Gerry.

Holly was always very dependent on Gerry, which makes the loss so much harder. But thoughtful Gerry has prepared for this situation in advance. Shortly before Holly’s 30th birthday, she receives a mysterious envelope which turns out to have been sent by Gerry before he died. In this envelope she finds a series of smaller envelopes, one for each month until the end of the year. As she soon discovers, each envelope contains a little message with a task for her to do – and each note is signed “PS, I love you.”

With the help of these notes and the continuous support by friends and family, Holly gradually manages to return to “normal life” and learns to laugh again. But the road to a normal life is riddled with the occassional backlapses.


***My opinion***

I have to admit, the synopsis sounded great when I first picked up the book. It just seemed like Ahern had managed to write a book for women that would not end up being the usual unrealistic fairytale. But as I started reading the book I quickly found that Ahern did not manage to convert her exceptionally good idea into an enjoyable read.

*Writing style*

In the first place, I felt like the book was very clumsily written. It contains a lot of dialogue between the individual characters, but the way the dialogue is written, it is very broken up and it does not flow at all. Instead of just letting the conversation flow line by line, there is too much interruption by using words such as “Leo said”, “she replied”, “the girls teased”, “Sharon asked”, etc. While it is necessary on occasion to use such verbs to convey what the characters are feeling, e.g. by saying, “Holly laughed”, I find it strictly unnecessary to use these verbs at the end of nearly every line. It just makes the whole conversation seem chopped and like a telephone attendance or meeting note written at work.

To Ahern’s credit, her writing style is not all bad. She successfully manages to set each of the scenes in a very descriptive manner, so that the reader manages to visualise every house, pub, workplace or holiday destination. It is really just the dialogue that she should be working on.

*Characters*

The second thing that bothered me is that there was really only one character in the whole book who I liked, and she was a minor character: Holly’s younger sister Ciara, who is a bit crazy, loves things like bungee jumping, travelling the world and mutilating her body with tatoos and piercings. Her craziness just shines through in every scene, and you feel like you can actually see her in front of you. Every other characters was just bland, to say the least.

I am sure Ahern wants the reader to be able to sympathise with Holly, to feel her loss, to feel sorry for her. But she simply did not succeed in making me feel anything towards Holly than pure annoyance. She seemed to be such a ditz who never appreciated her husband enough when he was alive and now only realised he had been such a wonderful and devoted husband. I kind of pictured a Victoria Beckham-type woman, a bit self-centred and too preoccupied with her life and her looks. One of the characters says at some stage that Holly was such a “caring person”. If it was Ahern’s intent to make Holly come across as caring, she has absolutely failed. I understand that the woman is grieving and that she is entitled to be preoccupied with herself, but Ahern often writes about scenes from the past that involve Holly. This would have been an opportunity to make Holly shine through as a caring person. But even in the scenes from the past, she just comes across as a ditz who drinks too much and becomes rather embarassing in the process.

The characters are very unoriginal. Holly’s best friends are Sharon, Denise and Abbey – and they all seem to be strongly modelled on the women from Sex & The City. Holly is very much like Carrie – one big love in life, trying to be independent, but she is really not. Sharon is very much like Charlotte, devoted wife and very straight-laced. Denise is very much like Samantha – a bit slutty, but she settles down eventually. And Abbey is probably the closest one to Miranda, although she is more a mix between Charlotte and Miranda. It’s hard to tell with her – she does not have a big role in the storyline and is easily forgotten about.


***The verdict***

“PS, I love you” is an international bestseller that has been highly rated by both book critics and Ciao members. The book has been described as funny and witty with a heartbreaking storyline. I was therefore surprised to discover that I could barely chuckle at anything. I actually thought that most of the scenes that were supposed to be funny were rather embarassing and stereotypical. Other scenes were just plain unrealistic. I also failed to feel the heartbreak and emotion that Ahern intended the reader to feel while reading the book. To me, the book was just one big waste of time. That said, it is an easy read – and if you need something brainless that you can read on the train on the way to work, you could be picking worse. It is a quick read, that can be easily interrupted and picked up again.


***Further Information***

Harper Collins
ISBN: 0 00 716500 5
Price: £6.99

Summary: A good idea for a storyline, which the author fails to convert into an enjoyable read.