Tales of Alamanac Road (Ralph's Party - Lisa Jewell)

Member Name: TigerTiger

Product:	Ralph's Party - Lisa Jewell
Date:	10/02/02 (252 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great attention keeping plot, Well written and humorous at times

Disadvantages: Creepy and disturbing at times, Characters are not at all likeable

Welcome to Alamanac Road. It’s an ordinary London Street with three storey Edwardian Villas, there is nothing else really to say about it. There are many other London streets the same. However, Alamanac road has rather more going on. There are infidelities, both real and imagined, there is obsessive love as a person watches someone from afar knowing that one day they will be together. There are friendships tested as one friend falls for the others partner. There is a woman aborting a married man’s babies. There is the radio DJ who ends up a celebrity. One man tries to hide his jealousy of his best friend as his own life is in tatters. Then there are the innocents who get caught up in everyone else’s mess. There is laughter, love, fights and tears and yes this is Alamanac Road. More to the point this is all happening at 21 Alamanac Road, indeed not the whole street, but one of those three storey villas split into three flats.

~~~Top Flat~~~

At the top of the house lives Cheri the beautiful but obnoxious bitch who is not really concerned with anyone but herself. She cares about her appearance and that she is seen in the right place with the right people. She however, has her eye on Karl the guy downstairs who lives with his wife Siobhan.

~~~1st Floor Flat~~~

Karl and Siobhan live on the middle floor. Having been together for 15 years since their university days they appear to be in domestic bliss. However, this is not the case. Siobhan can’t have children and is generally unhappy with life, so she eats and eats and turns into the fat girlfriend. Karl never makes any comments about this, and tells her that she is beautiful and that he will always love her. However, he also happens to be having an affair with the stick insect in the flat above.

~~~Basement Flat~~~

Then the real complications start in the basement flat. This is Smith’s flat that he bought with some wise city investm
ents, before leaving that all behind for a career in financial PR. He has lived there with his best friend from school Ralph for many years and everything appears to be ticking along nicely until they decide to advertise for a flat mate and along comes Jemima (known as Jem to everyone) and she starts to unknowingly upset things. Jem believes her fate lies in that flat and that one of the men is Mr Right. However, which one is it? How close are the friends really and what does the future hold for all of them?

Who would have thought so much action could have gone on in one street, yet alone one house.

“Ralph’s Party” came very highly recommended to me by many people. It was first published in 1999 and so isn’t a new release. It is also the second book by Lisa Jewell that I have read in the past month or so. She started writing as a bet after being made redundant and hasn’t looked back since. This is the first of her three novels and a most worthwhile bet I believe!

“Ralph’s Party” is written in a very easy to read style. The author has not got caught up in trying to use as many long words as she can, instead she tells things as they are. It is also the kind of book that you will want to read in one sitting as it keeps you interested with all the revelations and the whole “who ends up with who” theme. Will Jem end up with Smith, Ralph or neither and will Karl’s wife discover his infidelities with the awful Cheri. It may not be rocket science and reading the book won’t change your life (well more likely than not it won’t), but it is interesting and as far as the whole chick lit genre goes it is one of the better examples. The book flips between the different characters and their viewpoints in the different chapters, however, the lives all become inexplicably linked.

I definitely enjoyed the book, but there were some things that made me feel very uncomfort
able. Ralph has his name in the title and so I suppose he is the central character. However, I find the way he deals with Jem and his growing feelings for her quite creepy. I found the fact he spent all his days reading her diaries from the past 10 years awful and there was one scene where he looks down the toilet seeing that she has used it but not flushed it, and it kind of arouses him. That was just a bit too much for me. I appreciate what it was trying to show, how his feelings grew, but I found it verging on the creepy and obsessive and thus I didn’t warm to Ralph, the central character as much as I should have done. To be honest, for whatever reason I don’t think that I warmed to any of the characters really apart from Jem, but even she could be accused of being far too naïve and a bit irritating.

Despite my issues with the characters I did enjoy the book. Although, I think on retrospect that I enjoyed her latest book “One Hit Wonder” more.

This is available for £6.99 at most major bookshops. You can also buy it in Waterstones as part of the 3 for 2 offer.

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