How does it compare to audio works by the same author?
Not applicable
Advantages:
Fast - paced reading, compelling account of real - life issues
Disadvantages:
Superficial in places, threadbare, too much emphasis on action
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
Introduction
A few weeks ago while sitting in Starbucks with my friend she put the book she was reading on the table. She went to get some coffees so I sneaked a peek and caught a random sentence mid-page that read: " The worst thing about London is that nobody really fits in. And the best thing about London is that nobody really fits in". Well, I thought, that actually sounds like me and said to her I want to read it so I borrowed her library copy and finished it in three days over the Easter weekend.
About the author
Douglas Kennedy is a contemporary author of popular fiction novels - many of them bestsellers and translated into over a dozen languages - including The Pursuit of Happiness the book you will have most likely to have heard of.
He started to become known as a non-fiction writer of travel books such as Beyond the Pyramids (1988) and In God's Country (1996). He published his first novel in 1994 entitled Dead of Heart which rather understandably draws on his travel and journalist skills.
Born in Manhattan in 1955, he currently resides in the UK and lives in London with his wife and two children.
The plot * no spoilers *
The plot as the title suggests, depicts the relationship between a 37-year old American woman journalist who has lived an independent and opiniated life covering the Middle East for the past twenty years, and a similarly minded, adventure-seeking British journalist colleague. We see them getting into serious life-changing situations only months after their whirlwind encounter in Africa then following their move back to London - to what follows none of them was prepared for or admit to at first of course. As the tension inevitably builds up how will they face the consequences of their actions?
Characterisation
The book is written in the first person, Sally recounting her - sometimes harrowing - experience of a tumultuous year spent in London. Her character becomes more likeable and approachable for me as she's thrown into a clinical illness that threatens to destroy everything she's stood for, her sanity, her career and, the greatest loss, herself. The other characters in the book are secondary and we get to see their acts through the eyes of Sally.
What is remarkable about Kennedy is that he manages to slip into Sally's mind and effortlessly and without fail recount the story from a woman's perspective. Sally does have a certain masculinity about her but her thoughts, moods and concerns are all very feminine and genuine.
Writing style
What made the pages so easy to turn is the fact that Kennedy writes in a very readable, spoken style. Even the unspoken thoughts, when Sally, the main character is talking to herself - aren't Joycian ruminations but more like comments on what's actually happening around her - a sort of double dialog - you get to 'hear' what she really thinks but doesn't say and then hear what she actually says.
It is a powerful way of dialog building and indeed the whole book is a string of inner speech and public dialogues. Even describing things isn't done much in depth but rather like someone telling you things over a coffee.
The thoughts and feelings of Sally are so realistically described - apparently with the help of people with first-hand experience on the subject matter being Kennedy a bloke himself- that I found myself on the verge of tears several times.
Oh yes, and also the often laughing out loud comments, witty remarks spot-on descriptions or the inevitable American-British repartee give it a 'don't take yourself too seriously' tone even when in a seriously dire situation.
Reading experience
Despite not having much in common in personality or in life circumstances I still felt very much drawn into Sally's world and - unusually for me - completely identify with her and relate in many ways to her illness mentioned above. In retrospect I immersed myself so much in her that I ignored some of the rather attention-seeking and annoying Americanisms, plot holes and lacking characterisation. The complex mental and thought processes that the book just about stratches the surface of, is sacrified in favour of action - and this book has plenty of it.
Conclusion
I definitely recommend this book to modern popular fiction fans. It's an essentially light read but is just as well thought- and emotion provoking.
