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51 of 54 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A book that burns bright with hope-and reminds us that though we can't go back, we can always move forward, December 5, 2009
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When I first started reading "The Brightest Star in The Sky" I was super puzzled. Marian Keyes is a fairly straight forward author-in fact most chick-lit and similar authors are (not that Keyes is really chick lit) and don't tend to have a lot of ghosts, vampires or other supernatural presences. And if they do, then they're classified as horror or sci-fi. Which Keyes is definitely not. So when this book opened with some kind of spirit following the lives and digging into the memories of everyone who lived at 66 Star Street in Dublin, I was a little concerned for the book. It seemed wildly out of character. And in fact if I had known where the whole thing was going in the beginning I would have thought it was a very, well, weird idea that would be nearly impossible to pull off without immense cliché.
Except it was pulled off-and with no old cliché or massive unnecessary sentiment at all. That's all I'm going to say about that. Anything more would be spoiling the fun.
66 star street is a four level apartment building and at the beginning of the book seven people live there (one will join later.) There's Jemima, an eighty eight year old woman with a very strange dog named Grudge, some physic tendencies (but she claims she's just old) and a son named Fionn who she adores beyond anything. Fionn himself is a beyond normally handsome gardener about to get his own TV show. Then there's Katie-she's just turning forty and works in PR for musicians but in spite of her workaholic always traveling none live in boyfriend (Conall) who rips companies apart and puts them back together-she's pretty unfulfilled. On the second floor we have Lydia, Andrei and Jan. Lydia is a twenty something bundle of sarcasm who drives a cab and has some great unknown (to us) problem in her life. Andrei and Jan are Polish men who came to Dublin for better jobs and business school. And on the ground floor Matt and Maeve, who have been married for four years and appear in every respect to be the perfect couple and very, very much in love-but a deeper look reveals that something is very, very wrong.
Our mysterious presence watches these people, in various combinations (romantic and platonic) over the course of 61 days. And as it goes deeper into their memories and more and more is revealed about their lives, we become aware that the presence is waiting for something-it is counting down the days to some great event that will involve two of the people in the building...
In the beginning I was not sure at all about this book. There was the presence, and the fact that not only is most of this book in third person (which normally I don't like when Keyes writes in it-she's better at first) but it skips around a lot. Seven or eight people's life stories are in this book, and they all get a lot of time.
But as I read more the more I liked it. Soon I couldn't put it down. And then I loved it. Marian Keyes' just gets smarter and funnier with each book she writes. "The Brightest Star in The Sky" has some real laugh out loud moments, some very emotional scenes, a handful of real life tragedy and some of the best characters Marian Keyes' ever invented. Jemima in particular is a favorite of mine.
Marian Keyes' last two books ("Anybody Out There?" and "This Charming Man") dealt with some pretty heavy subject matter. Not that some of her earlier books didn't ("Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married" and "Rachel's Holiday" for example) deal with some pretty hard things but they were always smaller parts of the book. Her most recent books, including "The Brightest Star in The Sky" have tragedy at the heart of the story. But it doesn't dominate the book-it doesn't even really change the tone. This book burns bright with love and hope and laughter-and the ultimate message that even if you can't go back to how things were before, you can always go forward.
Five stars. This may be my new favorite. Read this, read the whole thing. It will make you happy, I promise.
Just a last note to potential readers. There is a lot of Dublin slang used and certain phrases and things mentioned in this novel that aren't exactly familiar to the average US citizen who hasn't visited Ireland. But the reader is never really left out in the cold, some sort of explanation is provided for the really important stuff.
I feel an immense need to make a short but wholehearted thank you to the amazon vine program. I've been a fan of Marian Keyes since I was in middle school and getting her new book two months before it's published? That's the coolest thing ever. So many thanks.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A bit of a let down, but read until the end!, June 22, 2010
I can usually read a Marian Keyes novel in 48 hours. This one took me over a week. I kept putting it down and could not get into it. However, having said that, I am glad I struggled to the end. The Brightest Star in the Sky is different than all her previous books (and I have read all of them). So, If you have never read Keyes before, don't start with this one. I felt the book was lacking with her usual humor and wit she adds to the characters. The characters were well developed, but I often found myself asking, what is the point with some of the back story? It was also pretty easy to figure out why the spirit was present about half way through, so I'm not sure what the point of adding it to the story was.
*If you have read Keyes before, definitely add this one to your list, but just know it is different. You must read all the way until the end however. The last 40 pages were a breeze, the most entertaining, and ever question you may have asked yourself is answered.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Marian Keyes Creates Characters Rich in Hope and Destined for Love, February 9, 2010
Marian Keyes is one of my favorite writers and she does not disappoint with this complex tale of the residents of a Dublin apartment house. The premise of delving into the lives of strangers bound only by the fact they share the same address is always fascinating to me, so I was predisposed to love this book, and love it I did.
I was a bit mystified at first by the spirit who introduced the story and hovered around the residents throughout. I will only say that I was completely shocked (and very happy, indeed) when the spirit was finally explained. Not what I expected, at all.
The residents of the town house are all well-defined and have interesting back stories that explain their current circumstances. On the ground floor are Matt and Maeve, a young couple who seem to have the perfect marriage. It is only when we see them preparing for bed that we begin to realize a dark secret is destroying each of them. Maeve's wild bicycle riding and apparent death wish and Matt's increasing depression is a big hook that will keep the reader turning the pages.
Lydia, the often abrasive taxi driver who shares a flat with two Polish men, Andrei and Jan, is the hardest to love. She is in relationships, mostly sexual, with men she hates or has no use for, yet has a mother in the outlying areas of Dublin who proves to be a major test of love and endurance for her.
Jemima, the eighty-eight year old resident of the third floor, is the voice on a psychic hotline yet claims not to be psychic. She tells her callers she just has learned a lot by living a long time. Her handsome foster son, Fionn, comes to live with her while being groomed to have his own gardening show on television, and adds to the sexual entanglements running amuck at 66 Star Street.
Katie, the just-turned-forty resident of the top floor, spends her days managing rock musicians and her nights being disappointed by her workaholic lover Conall. She's fond of four inch heels, trying to make Conall be the perfect boyfriend, and interested in grabbing a better life for herself before she is sent away to the ole folks home, single and senile.
Partners will swap, allegiances will falter, and the thin line between hate and love will be smudged by more than one resident. But, a life-threatening crisis will bring all the residents out into the hallway and as they work together, passions will be reignited and hearts will align perfectly. A night of death leads to redemption and not one, but two, impish little spirits will make all right with the residents on Star Street.
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