There's only
so much sex, valium and red wine you can take to paper over the cracks...
Alice Lydia Jameson is the friend you wish you
had. The girl who makes a party more fun, pulls a funny face to make you feel
better, drinks wine out of a mug and makes you laugh while you're crying over
an ex. Alice is totally happy, everything is amazing, and there is nothing at
all to worry about... except, well: Her job was really great 10 years ago; The
sexiest guy alive doesn't want her...because he's gay; Her credit card bills
are mounting up... But maybe the biggest problem for Alice is that she has a
secret. A secret so big she can't tell anyone...but how do you keep a secret
like that when everything is starting to fall apart? And once it's out there,
how do you ever begin to put yourself back together again?
This one was a bit mixed for me – for starters
it isn’t my usual book fare but I was curious by the blurb so I wanted to give
it a go. However the blurb really doesn’t seem to match the books in some areas
at all.
For starters Alice really isn’t the friend I
wish I had, at no point does she ever come across as the life of the party or a
fun person to be around- we never get to see that side of her except for one
brief scene at the beginning. We see the drinking and the valium, but none of
the exuberant outgoing person I was expecting from the blurb.
In fact the first two thirds were a bit like watching a car crash as Alice
slowly self-destructs. It wasn’t pleasant or particularly enjoyable, but it was
necessary to reach the point where we meet the real Alice.
However, once we start to get to the
real Alice, not the one she hides behind, it’s a fascinating and compelling
story. I was just frustrated that it took so long to reach that point. I think
that once we do reach this though it almost all becomes worth-while because all
the puzzle pieces start to slot together and make sense and we see her become a
real whole person again, which I loved. I just wish that it hadn’t taken so
long for her to self-destruct and we could have seen more of the recovery
process as opposed to more of the car crash.
It was a very interesting style to
pick, with both the present day Alice and the younger Alice’s stories being
told at the same time. It was a touch confusing at the start as there is no
real indication of whose chapter it is going in, but as a pattern and rhythm
emerged I found it to be a really engaging way of storytelling to have both
stories unravelling and merging together as I progressed. There were a few problems
with tenses at some moments, but on the whole the writing is strong, the
characters clear and as I said, once we reach the emerging Alice it became a
truly engaging and beautiful story.
As a début novel it’s strong, but not
entirely my cup of tea, however the strength of the last third of the novel was
enough to swing my perspective round and make me curious to read what Ms
Marinelli writes next. I would recommend it as a very definite page turner for
anyone who likes to escape into another’s life without any fantasy elements. An
interesting début that’s well worth a read.
To celebrate the release Ms Marinelli
was kind enough to answer a few questions about the book and her writing!
“You
speak in the acknowledgements about how long Alice took you to write and you
came back to her on several occasions, what was the hardest part of writing her
story for you?”
I kept leaving it because I didn’t think I should invest the time in it and it
just seemed too mad and too hard, but my friends and my editor would keep
telling me to keep going.
“It's
been said that the first novel often has the most pieces of the author in it,
was that true for you when writing Alice, and did you find the experience
cathartic?”
I don’t really find writing cathartic, I find it stressful but necessary – as
in, I can’t go more than a couple of days without writing something. I have written a lot
of shorter novels so I guess there are pieces of me everywhere.
“What has been the most exciting part of the writing and
publishing process?”
The thing I find most exciting is when I go to add another layer to the story
and find out that I have set up for it already. As if my brain knew before I
did, what I was going to do - I just hadn’t worked it out. I love typing “the
end”. I change font and really take a moment.
“Do you have any habits or rituals that stimulate you to write?”
It depends - I can write with the TV on, I can write on a train but when
I have most of the story down and try to pull it together it’s silence and
candles and crystals and reading inspiring books. Though I am having to revise
the candles as my cat’s tail caught fire the day before the other day J (he’s
okay, just hair, not skin)
“And finally what are you working on
at the moment?”
NOTHING!! I sent the follow up to Alice into my editor yesterday – so I
should be biting my nails but I am going to tidy my office and catch up with
life but I’ll probably be back to it by Monday.
No comments:
Post a Comment