The Great Indoors [Hardcover]

Sabine Durrant (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 13, 2005

A novel about what happens when messy life-and love-intrude on a young woman's perfectly ordered existence.

Martha Bone doesn't have children; she has furniture. She doesn't have a husband; she has her shop-Martha Bone Antiques, in a fashionable London suburb. Her married sisters can meddle all they want, but that is just the way she likes it. Though Martha loves her niece and nephews, children don't really fit into her world. Their grubby fingers and muddy shoes don't go well with her cream-colored sofa and sea-grass rug.

When Martha's stepfather passes away, a small misunderstanding sets into motion a surprising chain of events. First she allows a cat to stay in her flat. Then the cat brings a man, and then the man brings his children. A garbage bag full of old letters takes up residence under her kitchen table along with the cat, and entices her to dig into a past of lost loves. And then, for the first time, things in Martha's life get messy. REVIEW; Fresh, thoughtful, and beautifully observed. (The Sunday Times (London) )

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

What constitutes a finished life? Durrant, a British journalist who captured the disappointments of domesticity in 2002's Having It & Eating It, returns to the central question of the chick-lit genre in this endearing portrait of a woman who is more comfortable with the objects that fill her quaint suburban London antique shop than she is with commitment, much less children. At 38, Martha Bone is content to think of herself as single and self-sufficient, having left the Perfect Boyfriend two years ago for reasons she no longer remembers. Then along comes Fred, aka "Mr. Magic," a sweet, solemn magician for kid's parties whose wife has left him and their two mismatched children to "find herself." Drawn to his quirky "broken-down" family, Martha treats them like the antique chest of drawers she is paint-stripping in the basement: as a potentially valuable object in need of mending. The death of Martha's stepfather, his funeral and the subsequent family dinner—a marvelously rendered depiction of dysfunctional family dynamics at their snarkiest—brings back the Perfect Boyfriend, a metrosexual snob named David, who tempts Martha to re-enter his posh life. Does she choose the order he promises over the chaos that's erupted around her? In this novel, as in many relationships, a thin line separates love from contempt. Thanks to Durrant's rounded characters and acute observations on married life, readers won't cross it.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Antique-shop owner Martha Bone finds pleasure in orderliness, but her stepfather's death threatens to disrupt her harmonious life. First, her sisters guilt her into taking in their stepfather's aging cat. But high-end antiques don't mix well with cat hair, so she finds Kitty a home with Fred and his two young children. Fred, a magician on the children's birthday party circuit, is exactly the opposite of Martha--messy, unpredictable, and gregarious. Yet, she finds herself inexplicably drawn to him. Just as he's challenging her to reevaluate her organized life, her ex-fiance reappears, making her question whether she had it right all along. Is a sense of security worth giving up all spontaneity, or can a little risk lead to true happiness? This conflict will hit close to home for many readers, and Durrant avoids the pitfalls of chick lit by creating multidimensional characters that question their life and surroundings. Their relationships seem real, and the dialogue goes beyond a string of witty one liners. This well-written, intelligent book will satisfy readers hungry for romance with more substance. Aleksandra Kostovski
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover (January 13, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 157322295X
• ISBN-13: 978-1573222952
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,174,910 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Like an English Anne Tyler (only not quite as good), May 28, 2005

By 

A real pageturner (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Great Indoors (Hardcover)

As I was reading The Great Indoors, I couldn't help thinking that it's the kind of novel Anne Tyler might have written, if she were English and still learning her craft as a novelist. As in most Tyler novels, many of the characters are members of an extended family who continue to play the roles assigned to them in childhood well into their adult lives. As in many Tyler novels, the most appealing male character is a shambling misfit with an unconventional job (magician at children's birthday parties). And, as in many Tyler novels, a less-than-perfectly-adorable pet animal plays an important part in the story.

In comparing The Great Indoors to an Anne Tyler novel, however, I don't mean to raise unreasonably high expectations. Durrant isn't (yet) as skilled a novelist as Tyler, and she doesn't tell as satisfying a story. The Great Indoors rambles along until it seems as if Durrant decided she had written enough pages, at which point it stops - with a plot twist at the end that seems to serve no purpose other than to say, "the end". And the heroine's boyfriend (not the magician, another guy) is such a controlling, manipulative jerk that it was impossible to believe she didn't see through him. (Yes, I know the world is full of controlling, manipulative jerks to whom otherwise sensible women are inexplicably attracted, but that doesn't mean I have to find such a relationship plausible in the pages of a novel.)

So, on balance, The Great Indoors merits three stars - but it has enough promise that I'll read Sabine Durrant's next book, and hope to be able to rate it higher.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars not as good as"having it and eating it", February 25, 2005

By 

LAD (PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Great Indoors (Hardcover)

After reading, and enjoying, "having it and eating it" I was anxious to read this book. However, this book was hard to get into. I didn't really feel the need to keep reading to see what happens next. The story was full of details about settings, and I don't really care for so much description. The ending was vague. I'm not really sure what the main character did at the end when presented with a situation. The ending seemed rushed to wrap everything up and in doing so left me thinking, "huh?"

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Book, Not Great, February 12, 2010

By 

Susan K. Sotak "susieq70" (Pittsburgh, PA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Great Indoors (Paperback)

It reads a little slow. Hard to get into at first, but stick with it. I really like Martha the main character and can identify with her