Customer Reviews

City Girl

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

City girl is a book written by Patricia Scanlan which dealswith ordinary problems of every day life. She analyses them tellingthe story of three girls. They are dissimilar for upbringing and personality: Devlin is a rich girl, the only child of an upper class Dubliner family, who has a bad relationship with her mother. Caroline, a fat, sensitive and insecure girl wins her battle with food thanks to Devlin's help. Maggie is a very determined person who believes in freedom and in good feelings. For this reason she has chosen to be a nurse. The setting of the book is Dublin, of which the author gives a detailed description, focusing on the streets, the shops and Dubliners. She also portrays New York when Maggie goes there to work. Patricia Scanlan uses a language that has a strong effect on the reader. Through her words we can imagine the emotions, fears, the happiness and dreams of the three girls. I liked the book because the bad and beautiful events of the protagonists involved and intrigued me very much. I also liked the fact that there are a lot of dialogues between the girls, so the narration is more dynamic. I think that this is a great book!

This was my first Patricia Scanlan novel and I am now hooked and have gone ahead and ordered several more - particularly the two novels which follow "City Girl".

"City Girl" is a wonderfully vivid and imaginative tale of the three different, but intertwining, lives of three young Irish women living in Dublin. They each have their ups, downs, good times, bad times, futures full of potential, obstacles in their way ... the type of book that is difficult to put down ... you just have to keep reading one more chapter to see what happens.

I'm off now to start "City Woman", the next in the series and I'm confident that I won't be disappointed.

I've read many books in the "girlfriends" genre, but CITY GIRL take first place as the most enjoyable, most compelling, most totally captivating. This is due mainly to Patricia Scanlan's ability to create three distinctive women, each with serious contemporary problems and each with the inner strength and tenacity to face whatever comes, especially when she has true friends to stand by her.

The resourceful Devlin, the insecure Caroline, and the fun-loving Maggie are young Dublin women who confront out-of-wedlock pregnancy, a husband who strays, men who are not what they appear to be, alcohol addiction, and even the death of a beloved child. You will be totally engrossed in their lives and the people that move through it----from the compassionate Luke to the sophisticated Richard and the fun-loving Terry as well as the secondary characters who add intrigue, romance, and a lot of Irish charm.

If you're looking for a book you won't be able to put down, one that involves you so deeply in the lives of the characters you feel as if you know them, and one rich with the flavor of London and Dublin, I highly recommend this one. As a matter of fact, I had scarcely finished it when I picked up the sequel CITY WOMAN because even after nearly 500 pages, I wasn't ready to say goodbye to these wonderful characters.

I loved this book , i just couldnt put it down it had a brilliant plot and it made me feel happy and sad especielly when she had a row with luke and then made a special bond with him as they made themselves a couple instead of friends !!!!!. I would recommend this to anybody its a brilliant book .

City Girl by Patricia Scanlan, the author of Apartment 3B, Foreign Affairs and many others books about love friendship and inner growth, is her number one best-seller. This book shows a vivid, fresh picture of Dublin society. It is the story of three girls, Devlin, Caroline and Maggie, and the way in which they become women after facing great problems in their lives with the only support of mutual friendship. Devlin, rich, beautiful spoilt and snob, falls in love with Colin, a married successful doctor, who gets her pregnant and leaves her in trouble. The decision of keeping her baby against Colin and her mother's will changes her life drastically. She starts to stand on her own two feet and she faces poverty for her baby's sake with the only help of her friends. When she looses her aunt and baby in a car accident, for the second time in a life a man, Luke, changes her life positively. He helps her to overcome her depression and makes her feel alive again. When the story begins, Caroline is a fat, shy girl, who is terrified by the idea of "being left on the shelf". Devlin helps her to loose weight and to think more about her own needs. When she meets Richard she decides to marry him not to be alone. Richard only wants a wife to show off at parties. After a while, he starts to be more and more aggressive and to beat her. Caroline turns to alcohol and valium before she finally finds out that her husband is homosexual. She feels that nobody loves her and she thinks that her life is a disaster, but she finally succeeds in becoming her husband's best friend, and in gaining his respect. Maggie is an independent working woman that generously devotes her life to people. Although she works a lot, she travels around the world and has many love affairs. When she meets Terry she changes her life-style: she becomes a housewife and takes care of him and of their three children. Terry does not show any gratitude because he takes her for granted. Then she finds him with another woman and from that moment on she decides to take some time to see her friends and to do what she likes in life. The book is well written, in a simple, understandable style. The Author is good at creating suspense, so that the reader desires to go on to know what happens. She also relies on the technique of flash-back, framing the story with a prologue and an epilogue. Than she divides the story into three narrative strands, each corresponding to one of the girls. Perhaps sometimes you think you are reading a soap-opera on paper, but I think that this is one of the reasons for the success of the book. I think that especially young women who have to take their first important decisions will love this book. I really loved it and I think it is great if you want a light book in which you may get involved. It was very hard to put it down, so I would strongly recommend it to anybody.

Alessandra Bordoni

Swapping LivesTells the story of three women, it is a little hard to follow; it's like reading three novellas in one book.

I was really into the first book by Patricia Scanlan, but not as much with this book. It's the story of three girls who apparently have a very deep friendship, but I didn't really get that. It was three individual stories about the difficult lives these three have had and there is talk about them doing things together and meeting once a week, but you never really get into much detail. Over all, I enjoyed this book, but I didn't really feel as much for the characters as I did in Francesca's Party. Also, it's said that the book is set in the 80's but it reads more like the 30's, very conservative.

I loved this book , i just couldnt put it down it had a brilliant plot and it made me feel happy and sad especielly when she had a row with luke and then made a special bond with him as they made themselves a couple instead of friends !!!!!. I would recommend this to anybody its a brilliant book .

I absoultly loved this book especially devlin and caroline they were my two favourte but esspecially devilin as she always over came her fears this book makes u want to be there to help the characters i now feel that i have lost not only one but three 4 including luke friends by finishing this book. i recomened this book and series to anyone