athenenoctua11 's review for:

Watermelon by Marian Keyes

3.0

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As I was reading this book I kept reminding myself that this was written in 1995 and, whether or not I want to believe it, that was already 18 years ago! With this in mind, I had to make some allowances to the more "dated" aspects of the book. I don't think this kind of book is very "in" anymore but Marian Keyes still has a funny writing style that grabs you in and makes you feel included.

It's an extremely easy read - 600 pages, yes, but most paragraphs consist of only one sentence and the sentences are often short. It's not a dumb book either, it has some interesting ideas in it, particularly about feelings and relationships.

I did feel that it dragged on a little, especially in the 1st half. I wanted some clarity into Claire and James's relationship but that only came in the 2nd half and when it came it was really disappointing. This is probably not a genre for which you can talk about realistic characters - this is far too stereotyped and idealized to use such a word - but I felt the male characters could have been a lot better drawn.

Spoiler

I didn't understand how James and Claire had such a lovely marriage and how he becomes such an insecure, childish bastard all of a sudden; and Adam is far too perfect to be even remotely believable.

Couldn't they have been a little "greyer" instead of so black and white? And the fact that Claire had a baby seems to have little effect in the overall story: the baby is usually in the background and there aren't many considerations about maternity and the effect it had on Claire. The ending also left a lot to be desired: the way the circumstances all came together in such a way was too forced and unnatural.