In Rachel's Holiday, we meet Rachel Walsh as she finds herself unexpectedly a resident in The Cloisters, a rehab centre, where she is being treated for drug addiction. A drug addiction she is in massive denial about. I highly recommend “Again, Rachel”. You do not need to have read any of her other work. You will fall immediately in love with the Walsh family and Keyes’ superior writing ability. But then Brigit stumbled across a piece of paper that I’d been attempting to write on just before I fell asleep. It was just the usual maudlin, mawkish, self-indulgent poetry-type rubbish I often wrote when I was under the influence. Stuff that seemed really profound at the time, where I thought I’d discovered the secret of the universe, but that caused me to blush with shame when I read it in the cold light of day, the bits that I could read, that is. Marian Keyes always writes books that I want to listen to or read in one go. Thankfully they are long enough that it usually takes at least 2 days. As usual, I feel a little bereft when I have finished, but I know I will listen to it again.

In 2019 the National Library of Ireland announced that the Keyes digital archive for her novel The Mystery of Mercy Close would be acquired by the Library as a pilot project for collecting " born digital" archives. [12] This book was as awesome as I expected, based on Krystal's high praise of it. Watermelon was pretty good, but this was way better. I'm not sure if it's better than Lucy Sullivan though. I haven't read the author's essays apecifically about her alcholism, but I can only assume that she drew on some of her own experience with addiction to write this. It's fascinating to experience the transformation of Rachel with Rachel. To learn things as she learns them, to see her experiences through her eyes. In the first part of the book, she doesn't seem like some out of control crazy addict. Because you only really see her behavior as she sees it. Later you learn about how she really was acting, the things she was doing (as an Oh yeah, I kinda was that way retrospective), and it's eye opening. I'm not explaining this well, but I know what I mean. Just the way the author unveiled things for you and kept you in Rachel's head and state of mind was very well done. BBC One - imagine..., 2022, Marian Keyes: My (not so) Perfect Life, Meeting 'Mr Right' ". BBC . Retrieved 8 February 2022. He was right. And we’d been getting along a whole lot worse since she’d made that phone call and brought the interference of my family tumbling down on top of me. I was furious with her and for some reason she seemed to be furious with me too. But Brigit was my best friend and we’d always shared a flat. It was out of the question for someone else to move in with her. Marian is one of the true greats. Her wit, warmth, openness and vulnerability make you feel like you're in the company of an old friend. The ease with which she moves sometimes makes you underestimate her genius, which I think probably suits her just fine.But her sensible older sister showing up and sending her off to actual rehab wasn’t quite part of her plan.

Keyes always writes a happy ending, “because you can’t depend on real life to do it for you”. After her father died of Alzheimer’s in 2018 she “mainlined” Mills & Boon novels. And she doesn’t think upbeat conclusions are “entirely unrealistic”; it’s just a question of timing. “In every life we have ups and downs, times of awfulness and hopelessness and then things sort of come together for a while. I always like to finish at the good bits.” Keyes writes perfectly of the addict who is 'not like the others', Rachel is just visiting, those poor people have it bad, they are fat, skinny, they are addicts with terrible problems - unlike her. Who just likes a party, and wondering when the bloody hell the renovations are going to be completed at the treatment centre, surely the lino is temporary? Thinking more carefully, this book really was something. There has to be something special about a book that has touched me so deeply. So, this shall be the 5-star book not because it made me laugh so hard, but because it had made me cry so hard. It wasn't because it was particularly sad, but maybe because I feel as though I'd been with Rachel through her worst. Rachel’s Holiday came very highly recommended by my friends Jana and Ali, both of whom mentioned that this was one of the few books that has been with them many years, through various moves, bookshelf cleanouts, etc. Both of their copies were falling apart. They said it was amazing. And it WAS.Rachel’s Holiday is a classic example. It’s not about Rachel going on a holiday! It’s about Rachel spending a little time in an Irish drying-out clinic at the insistence of her parents. Rachel doesn’t mind too much, she thinks it will be like a little spa holiday and she might even drop a few pounds too but she wasn’t bargaining for the harsh realities ahead of her.

First of all, I would like a recount on just how many years it has been, I have to admit to being completely shaken by the fact that the first, much read copy of this novel, landed in my lap courtesy of Cosmopolitan magazine all those years ago.Her 'holiday' is a trip into a rehab clinic in Dublin - the Cloisters - where she imagines she'll get away from it all, but discovers more about herself then she expected. Marian Keyes's book has been an international phenomenon - and maybe one reason, apart from its wit, is that it tells a story from the inside. As a recovering alcoholic herself, Marian understands Rachel's journey and how humour can help people survive.