Trashy fish! (Sushi for Beginners - Marian Keyes)

Member Name: KingHerrod

Product:	Sushi for Beginners - Marian Keyes
Date:	06/09/01 (264 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Trashy fiction

Disadvantages: Trashy fiction

How do I review this book? Are you shocked to see me reading this? Well not as shocked as I was to read it, originally I ordered this for my other half, Lorraine, not Geoffrey the mad mohican giraffe, but I wanted an easy read and the cover was appealing and I was feeling poorly and OK I read a woman’s romantic popular fiction book. Anybody, wishing to shoot me may make postal applications, c/o, Men gone sad, PO Box 231, Slushville. I jest and I must stop being a book snob, popular fiction is entertainment much in the same form as some of Hollywood’s films are, there is nothing wrong with it, better to read this, rather than nothing at all.

Marian Keyes, is Irish and hot property, apparently according to the Daily Mirror she is one of the hottest female authors around, her books hit the top of the best-seller list and before Sushi for Beginners, her book Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married was a best seller. She writes romantic fiction, aimed at the young female audience, not the fast approaching middle age male audience.

Sushi for Beginners is set in the frantic world of magazine publishing, Lisa a glamorous career woman and successful magazine editor, is assigned to the backwater of Dublin to set up a new women’s magazine, Colleen. This to Lisa is rather an appalling prospect; she is a media luvie, New York, Paris, London any of those locations would be fine, acceptable to her view of where the “correct” place to work, is, but Dublin! In her view, Dublin is a backwater a horrible little city, with no credibility, poor bars, poor style….are you getting the picture, Lisa is one of the people I hate in life, concerned with image, shallow things, such as the right clothes, the right décor, rather than anything that really matters, such as whether you are happy with what you are doing. To Lisa what other people think of her is vital, not whether she is happy. She is hard nosed, driven and determined to succ
eed at whatever she does. So Lisa strops off to Dublin and embarks on the production of this new magazine.

Assigned to be her deputy editor is Ashling, straight laced, pretty but not glamorous and somebody who does not quite grasp the cut and thrust involved in magazine politics. Ashling worries about everything, having not quite mentally recovered from the responsibility of having to look after her younger siblings following her mother’s nervous breakdown. Her own life seems precariously balanced as she struggles with the new job and searches for a new boyfriend. Her evenings out suddenly revolve around comedy nights as her neighbour, Ted, embarks on a stand-up career in order to snag women. (Does the book seem shallow yet?) Ashling’s best friend is Clodagh, mother of two, beautiful and married to her handsome husband, Dylan, who was at one time Ashling’s boyfriend. For Clodagh, life has been a breeze, she always got the men, has a beautiful house, two beautiful children a successful husband, in fact on the outside Clodagh seems to be the perfect lady that lunches, but on the inside Clodagh is unhappy, she hates her life, she is not in love with her husband and the strains of motherhood are pushing her to the edge.

The plot line switches between these three women as they all search for happiness, every one of the characters is miserable at some level and every one is going through a major life-altering period. For two of them, the boss of Randolph Media (the company about to publish Colleen) Jack Devine, may provide the answer, handsome, eligible and desperately in need of mothering he becomes somewhat of a romantic challenge. He views Ashling with amusement calling her “Little Miss Fix-it” and sees Lisa as a hard-nosed and intimidating woman, but is there a sense of attraction to both?

As the deadline for the first issue looms all three women’s lives seem to be coming apart, men play havoc wit
h their emotions and emotions that have been suppressed and blocked out, suddenly explode to the fore.

The book is clear romantic fiction, as boyfriends and husbands come and go and true romance rears its head. This is true romance in the mills and boon style, not the real life style!

Keyes writes in the traditional style associated with this type of book, fast paced, moving the plot along quickly in a sharp and concise manner. Descriptions of character and long lingering sentences are left under the bed and Sushi for Beginners is one of those page-turners that fly by and can be read with a single brain cell. However, it is redeemed in some ways as the book analyses the problems of homelessness, the horror that is depression and in a way pokes fun at and parodies the way that these glam magazines are run. It is a book about the search for contentment and the problems that this can cause, would you put your own contentment ahead of hurting your children, husband and friends? However the book is punctuated with witty moments and I even chuckled a couple of times.

A further redeeming feature is the research that Keyes undertook for this novel, she spent time at the Irish Tatler to try and understand the media world, she spent time analysing the Irish stand up scene and talked extensively with the homeless charities. This may mean that some of the storylines may not be as entrenched in the traditional dream world that romantic fiction books seem to occupy, but there is certainly a great deal of artistic licence taken.

You may be reading this saying, you know what you get when you pick up one of these books, so why criticise it for being what it is? True and as the style of books go, it is one of the deeper of its genre (that is not saying that it will provoke any severe thought!) It is pure entertainment, it is popular fiction, it is trashy, but it is fun. I kind of enjoyed it, but I like more depth in my books, it is what it
is, if you like romantic fiction and there is nothing wrong with that, this seems a good example (I had a period in my romantic teens, when this genre of book appealed) and Sushi for Beginners will provide the reader with fun, without stretching the grey matter.

Oh and are you wondering why the title is Sushi for Beginners, well it is kind of ironic, a ribbing at the Irish desire not to try the new and stay with the old, nobody in the Colleen office will touch Sushi, it is too strange, it is yuck, ahh but they do and it is used as a kind of imagery to see out the old and make that fresh start.

As this book doesn’t float my boat I will not recommend it to a friend, but if you like this genre of book, I think you will like this. Naturally, Geoffrey hated this book, he was disgusted at the romance, but what did you expect?

Sushi for Beginners is published in paperback by penguin, is 564 pages long and costs £6.99.

Oh and for your entertainment, here is a quote to illustrate the shallowness of it all:

"There was no way her flimsy grosgain-ribbon sandals would survive the short walk along the quays - they barely held it together as she strolled around the office. Not that Lisa resented their being so impractical - some shoes exist just to display a fierce, short lived burst of beauty. Why else did God exist taxis?"

Oh woo is me, who the fluck cares. Oh and Grosgain Ribbon what the hell is that.

Another one:

"Half an hour before the off she took herself to the ladies' to ensure she looked her very, very best. What a stroke of luck she'd worn her lavender Press and Bastyan suit today. Although if it hadn't been that suit it would have been something equally glam. As a magazine editor, you never knew when you might be called upon to be fabulous."

Umm, there are people starving in the world you know, perspective please.

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