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Title: Lucy Sullivan is getting married
WonderClub
Item Number: 9780380976188
Number: 1
Product Description: Lucy Sullivan is getting married
Universal Product Code (UPC): 9780380976188
WonderClub Stock Keeping Unit (WSKU): 9780380976188
Rating: 4.5/5 based on 2 Reviews
Image Location: https://wonderclub.com/images/covers/61/88/9780380976188.jpg
Weight: 0.200 kg (0.44 lbs)
Width: 0.000 cm (0.00 inches)
Heigh : 0.000 cm (0.00 inches)
Depth: 0.000 cm (0.00 inches)
Date Added: August 25, 2020, Added By: Ross
Date Last Edited: August 25, 2020, Edited By: Ross
Price | Condition | Delivery | Seller | Action |
$99.99 | Digital |
| WonderClub (9296 total ratings) |
Natasha Dawdy
reviewed Lucy Sullivan is getting married on September 23, 2014â€I loved thunderstorms - the only time I really felt at peace with myself was during a storm. All of the turmoil and exuberance seemed to calm me.â€
I’ve been taking a bit of a trek down memory lane with my choice of book lately. I’ve felt the need to find something cosy and comfortable to read. Something that I remember enjoying. Where you could get lost in a book, and really shut out the world while reading it. One where I didn’t have to think, but just feel. I wasn’t up to starting something new. I wanted to catchup with old friends. So the other weekend, I went scouring my bookshelves, and there it was! Lucy Sullivan Is Getting Married. Yes! That’s the one.
Ahhhh...a book set in the days pre-mobile phone, social media and 24/7 angst. Where life was about â€...eating takeaways, drinking too much wine, bringing men home and never hoovering.†(try putting that blurb on the cover of a book now).
I distinctly remember being drawn to the bright purple cover of this book when I bought it. My first ever Marian Keyes (who I adore - or is it “whom†- as she’s just plain FABLISS). It was another book that I bought at the now long gone Max Ell’s bookshop. It was a Friday arvo, traipsing home to the bus stop, exhausted after a long week at work, and there were the bright lights of the bookshop beckoning me inside.
Another memory I have of reading this book the first time around, is that when I started it, I could not put it down. I just had to know how things would work out for Lucy and the charming, unreliable Gus, who she’s just met. I read most of the book in one go, sitting on the kitchen floor. Why was I reading it from the kitchen floor? I really don’t know. I have a vague idea I may have been making a cuppa, and while waiting for the kettle to boil, I got engrossed in the book. And forgot about the cuppa.
Lucy works in an office. Lucy is bored with her job. Lucy lives on low-fat diet yoghurt throughout the week, then splurges on pizza, curries and drinks on the weekend. Lucy’s wages are spent the day she gets paid. Lucy has a very difficult relationship with her mother. Lucy adores her father. Lucy lives for Friday nights and the weekend. Lucy has just dropped her boyfriend for being “too niceâ€. She didn’t entirely trust him for being this way. For making her feel too comfortable. She was disappointed at his neverending tenderness and devotion. It made her suspicious. It was driving her to distraction â€I had expected a wolf and had been fobbed off with a sheep.†He had to go.
Lucy and her fellow office slaves, Hetty, Meridia and Megan have a date with destiny. They’re off to have their fortunes told by an Irish psychic, a Mrs.Nolan. Who was very very good, as everyone knows â€There seemed to be a direct link between how difficult it was to get to a fortune-teller’s house and how good their reputation was. The more inaccessible and off putting the venue, the higher the quality of the predictions, was the most widely held view.â€
Of course, Lucy is told that she will be getting married. Within a year. But who could it be? She doesn’t even have a boyfriend. She's just broken up with him. But as predictions for her workmates start to come eerily true, Lucy wonders if the gorgeous, eccentric Gus, who she’s fallen in lust with at a party, Gus of the Irish accent, twinkling eyes, and faerie dust blarney, could be “the oneâ€. Everything seems to be pointing that way.
What really stood out to me reading this the second time around, is that Lucy suffers from depression. I can’t say that I remember this from reading it all those years ago. Within the first few chapters, when Lucy visits the psychic, Mrs. Nolan says something that strikes a chord, and Lucy admits that â€A dark cloud, was exactly how I described the bouts of depression that I sometimes got.†And perhaps saddest of all, is the deep embarrassment Lucy feels from feeling this way.
I think we’ve all had those awful gauche, awkward moments. Where we’re convinced the world is watching us and we just didn’t feel so uncomfortable in our own skin. Like it didn’t quite fit.
I don’t recall what I thought of this topic when I first read it. You have to remember, this book was written way back in ‘96, where things such as mental health and wellness weren’t the open topics they are today. It simply wasn’t something that was really spoken of or admitted to. I mean, anyone could have a “bad day†or be “down in the dumpsâ€, but not actually depressed. Admitting to depression wasn’t really something that was done. It tended to be swept under the carpet. So with this in mind, it’s interesting to see how far ahead of the times Marian Keyes’ was with adding this to her storyline, over twenty years ago.
Another topic which really stood out to me with the fresh eyes of a re-read is the storyline of alcoholics and alcoholism. The impacts not only on the individual suffering from it, but on their friends and family. And the relationship patterns that tend to repeat from one generation to another. Being a charming, affable drunk in your 20s, doesn’t have quite the same amount of appeal in middle age, when the tarnish in the gilt is showing. And people are just plain exhausted from dealing with unreliability.
I didn’t manage to read this in either one or even two sittings this time around. Nor did I read this sitting on the kitchen floor. But I loved it just as much as the first time. I picked up on so many nuances of seriousness that I didn’t notice when I read it the first time, as I was so focussed on the fun, lighthearted stuff.
Oddly enough, this ended up being my work’s Bookclub pick for the month. Talk about change of pace and complete change of genre. I was taken aback when this was given the green light, as this was my little (or big) comfort read during another month of iso. And somehow it ended up being “the bookâ€. I’ll be curious to hear what the others think when we have our virtual Bookclub meeting next month.
This is a big book, coming in at around 700 odd pages. But it didn’t feel that way to me. I loved it, and got lost in Lucy’s story again. Lots of humour, lots of warmth. A definite comfort read. So glad I hopped on board the nostalgia train.
Still a 5☆ read for me. Even with the benefit of hindsight. Older, but not necessarily wiser.
This is one of those rare occasions where I wonder where a well liked character is today. And kinda wish the writer would revisit her story (Marian? Hallo?!). Wherever Lucy Sullivan is, I hope she is doing just fabliss.
Addition to original review: 06.October.2020
I felt a sense of trepidation attending today’s Bookclub at lunchtime, as this is when I’d hear what they thought of this book. Gulp. It wasn’t “officially†chosen as the Bookclub read. It kind of just happened...I mentioned I was reading it at our last catchup, and how much I was wallowing in my nostalgia train of happiness, when Jo said “Let’s read this oneâ€, and the rest is history. As I mentioned in the body of my review, I was super surprised that this was selected as our Bookclub book, as we have some very serious readers in our group. I’m talking super smart readers. Yes, literary prize readers. Hard hitters. I’m talking “War and Peace†readers. Whereas I read for fun and pleasure. For the sheer enjoyment of it. If I learn something along the way, that’s great. I’m an emotive reader. I don’t go out of my way to select books that will necessarily challenge me. Enough of that happening in daily life.
Here's the Bookclub verdict. While most of the others found the book was “light and fluffyâ€, it was agreed that there were darker underlying themes of addiction featured throughout. Wrapped up in humour. And that you do not understand the reality of someone’s life, unless you live it yourself, even if only for a little while. The more mature women amongst us, could see from a mile away that the charming Gus was all smoke and mirrors, and not at all the type of person to get involved with. Let alone fall in love with. Ah, the sweet folly of youth!
So overall, this book was enjoyed by all, with varying levels of enjoyment. Those of us that read it previously when it was released, seemed to enjoy it just as much on their second reading. Whereas those who were brand new to it, didn't have quite the same level of attachment. It's interesting to realise how much of yourself you invest in books, and how when/where you first read them, can still have such an impact so many years later.
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