When I first encountered a stack of Shopaholic novels in a friend's cluttered room, I scoffed. How could anyone stand to read such silly books about a woman who just spends all her time shopping? My friend protested that the books were actually a lot of fun and insisted that I would enjoy them, but I stubbornly refused. Then for some mysterious reason a few years later, I decided to give the series a try. And ever since then, Sophie Kinsella has won a place in the list of authors I adore.
While most famous for her Shopaholic series, Kinsella has also written several stand-alone novels. The ones she writes under her real name of Madeleine Wickham are witty and complex, but tend to be slightly more serious, with long-lasting consequences and mistakes that will not be tidily resolved by the end of the novel. But the ones written under her nom-de-plume of Sophie Kinsella star heroines who are as surprising, warm, exasperating, and wonderful as the Shopaholic Becky Bloomwood. And the heroine that captured my attention this week is Lexi Smart, the heroine of Kinsella's 2008 novel, Remember Me?
The set-up of this novel is predictably zany. One minute it is 2004 and Lexi is a 25-year old stuck in a dull job at Deller Carpets, drowning her sorrows with her friends in a club after her boyfriend Loser Dave stands her up, faced with the prospect of attending her father's funeral the next day, then desperately trying to flag down a taxi in the pouring rain. The next minute she wakes up in the hospital and discovers that it is 2007, she is 28 (so old!), a director serving on the board at Deller Carpets, hated by her old friends, and married to a gorgeous multimillionaire. She was in a car accident a few days ago in her Mercedes convertible (she couldn't even drive in 2004) and can no longer remember anything that happened between that horrible night in 2004 and her current state in 2007.
The novel progresses with shocking revelations, strangers who claim to be friends, various crises, and of course, hilarious interludes in trademark Kinsella fashion (wait till you find out what a Mont Blanc is). Initially convinced that her life has become perfect and she has everything she always dreamed of, Lexi quickly discovers that dark things are lurking under the shiny surface of her new surroundings. Everything that was important to her in 2004 seems to have disappeared in 2007 and she can't even console herself with a piece of toast at breakfast since her husband is obsessed with their low-carb diet. Not only have her best friends deserted her, but Brad and Jennifer have split up, and Lexi's world is totally upside-down. Throw in a sarcastic attractive architect who has some appalling information about the past three years and you have the recipe for a novel that you simply cannot bear to put down.
Kinsella knows how to write a ripping story that mines ordinary life for extraordinary circumstances. Remember Me? is a comic mystery masterpiece and as you slowly piece together the events that have changed Lexi over the past three years, you keep furtively checking how many pages are left because you don't want the story to end too soon. This is a smart and funny novel that effortlessly weaves between the ridiculous and sublime and delivers an ending that will bring a smile to your face. There is one moment with a garden of sunflowers that is gasp-inducingly romantic and leaves me in no doubt that Kinsella is in a league of her own when it comes to creating memorable characters that tug at your heartstrings. If you've ever scornfully dismissed the chick lit genre, try to keep your ego in check for a few hours and pick up a book by Sophie Kinsella. You might be surprised when it's a few days later and you're raiding the bookstore for more of her novels.
While most famous for her Shopaholic series, Kinsella has also written several stand-alone novels. The ones she writes under her real name of Madeleine Wickham are witty and complex, but tend to be slightly more serious, with long-lasting consequences and mistakes that will not be tidily resolved by the end of the novel. But the ones written under her nom-de-plume of Sophie Kinsella star heroines who are as surprising, warm, exasperating, and wonderful as the Shopaholic Becky Bloomwood. And the heroine that captured my attention this week is Lexi Smart, the heroine of Kinsella's 2008 novel, Remember Me?
The set-up of this novel is predictably zany. One minute it is 2004 and Lexi is a 25-year old stuck in a dull job at Deller Carpets, drowning her sorrows with her friends in a club after her boyfriend Loser Dave stands her up, faced with the prospect of attending her father's funeral the next day, then desperately trying to flag down a taxi in the pouring rain. The next minute she wakes up in the hospital and discovers that it is 2007, she is 28 (so old!), a director serving on the board at Deller Carpets, hated by her old friends, and married to a gorgeous multimillionaire. She was in a car accident a few days ago in her Mercedes convertible (she couldn't even drive in 2004) and can no longer remember anything that happened between that horrible night in 2004 and her current state in 2007.
The novel progresses with shocking revelations, strangers who claim to be friends, various crises, and of course, hilarious interludes in trademark Kinsella fashion (wait till you find out what a Mont Blanc is). Initially convinced that her life has become perfect and she has everything she always dreamed of, Lexi quickly discovers that dark things are lurking under the shiny surface of her new surroundings. Everything that was important to her in 2004 seems to have disappeared in 2007 and she can't even console herself with a piece of toast at breakfast since her husband is obsessed with their low-carb diet. Not only have her best friends deserted her, but Brad and Jennifer have split up, and Lexi's world is totally upside-down. Throw in a sarcastic attractive architect who has some appalling information about the past three years and you have the recipe for a novel that you simply cannot bear to put down.
Kinsella knows how to write a ripping story that mines ordinary life for extraordinary circumstances. Remember Me? is a comic mystery masterpiece and as you slowly piece together the events that have changed Lexi over the past three years, you keep furtively checking how many pages are left because you don't want the story to end too soon. This is a smart and funny novel that effortlessly weaves between the ridiculous and sublime and delivers an ending that will bring a smile to your face. There is one moment with a garden of sunflowers that is gasp-inducingly romantic and leaves me in no doubt that Kinsella is in a league of her own when it comes to creating memorable characters that tug at your heartstrings. If you've ever scornfully dismissed the chick lit genre, try to keep your ego in check for a few hours and pick up a book by Sophie Kinsella. You might be surprised when it's a few days later and you're raiding the bookstore for more of her novels.
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