Customer Reviews

Under the Duvet : Notes on High Heels, Movie Deals, Wagon Wheels, Shoes, Reviews, Having the Blues, Builders, Babies, Families, and Other Calamities

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Under the Duvet is the latest of a small genre that consists of the short non-fiction works (columns, essays, random thoughts) of writers who are better-known for their novels. Alice Thomas Ellis, who is best-known for The Summer Trilogy novels, also wrote the Home Life series, a collection of columns about her everyday life in Wales. Sue Townsend wrote the Adrian Mole stories and recently published a collection of columns about her everyday life called The Public Confessions of a Middle-Aged Woman. Amy Tan collects her musings and thoughts in The Opposite of Fate. Writers who are successful in spinning good stories seem to be able to take mundane situations and turn them into good stories. This is a real treat for people like me who read very little fiction.

So how does Marian Keyes's new book measure up? Under the Duvet starts promisingly, with a short piece about her life as a not-so-glamorous novelist, and a previously unpublished essay about the eight months she wrote a cosmetics column for a magazine. These are probably the best bits in the book.

Maybe you do have to enjoy the fiction of the author to also enjoy their non-fiction. I confess I have not read any of Keyes's fiction. There's too much in Under the Duvet about shopping and shoes for my taste, but readers of Keyes's fiction might find that a plus.

Some of the pieces are on subjects that desperately need an original angle, but are not getting it here. For instance, on her trip to Los Angeles, Keyes predictably mentions the smog, silicone enhancements, and botox, and the fact that no one walks. I probably wouldn't have noticed her over-fondness for the word "eejit" (idiot) if I had read these pieces over time, rather than in two days.

Still, I enjoyed reading these essays and columns, and although they haven't inspired me to read Keyes's fiction, I will continue to hunt down books like this. Anyone know of any others?

Under the Duvet is a collection of essays by Keyes, most of which were previously published in Irish or British newpapers. It does give you a deeper look into the author's life, with chapters about moving back to Ireland, her past drinking problems (the inspiration for Watermelon), what a publicity tour is like, etc. There are also loads of columns about somewhat random things- shoes, soccer, mother's day, religon, and Irishness. Everything is well-written and most are funny, but I think they're more suited to newspaper features than a whole book.

Note: I have the Brit edition, so the American edition may be slightly different.

She's young. She's hip. She's Irish. And she has written some of the most entertaining and humorous novels I've had the pleasure of reading. So it is quite a treat for me to sit down and enjoy what our Irish cousins have already been treated to....a collection of many of her columns which have appeared in the Irish Times newspaper. This may be old hat to Dubliners, but it's a newfound treasure for most Americans.

The book is like a box of chocolates and each short read is a tasty little morsel to devour and enjoy. What a treat it is to get this inside look at one of my favorite authors and share in her musings on just about everything. How does it feel to see someone actually purchase your book? How did she get the background material for Sushi? What was the nicest time of her life? How did it feel to be at a book signing for Rachel's Holiday and have no one show up? What are her feelings on shoes, Catholicism, real estate agents, and a whole lot more.

My personal favorite was "Happy Christmas! Form An Orderly Queue" not only because I love to read any work set at Christmastime but because of the glimpse it gives us into Marian's family life which just had to have been the basis for the wild and whacky Walsh clan of many of her novels.

If you love Marian Keyes already or if you just like short humorous pieces to make you laugh out loud, I highly recommend this one.

Some people take to their beds to escape from their lives; Marian Keyes takes to her bed in order to reflect on her life. She really does spend her days "under the duvet," comfortably propped up on pillows and typing away on her Sony Vaio laptop. Meanwhile, her husband of nearly a decade, Tony Baines, keeps the home and business fires burning from a more traditional workplace downstairs, communicating with his wife via a dedicated telephone line.

Such a setup has not only allowed Keyes to give full rein to her writing talents; it's given her a pretty great title gimmick, because when you come right down to it, so many things do take place under the duvet (or over, or around, but I digress). Most of the 47 short pieces in this book were written for the Irish Tatler and other magazines and newspapers, which has had some reviewers noting that "Keyes is also a journalist." She modestly points out that this is true insofar as she has produced these works of journalism --- but that she did so after becoming a novelist, when editors began to seek her out for pieces.

However, her modesty is misplaced because those who sought her out were clearly doing so in order to get Keyes's singular take on life, love and the pursuit of more hours for shopping. Smart editors they are, because Keyes not only has a winning way with words but with people as well. She comes alive in her essays as the spark plug of her family --- a person who doesn't believe she is the center of the universe, but around whom the folks naturally gravitate nonetheless.

This serves Keyes particularly well because everything --- a supposedly slimming seaweed wrap, a single kitten-heeled mule --- is fodder for her delightful gristmill of contemporary manners and mores. One essay's experience, "In the Name of Research --- Going Under Cover," about a brief stint at a glossy woman's magazine, was used to great effect in SUSHI FOR BEGINNERS, Keyes's second novel about --- what else? --- a start-up glossy woman's magazine.

But Keyes is not merely collecting fodder; she's sizing it up as well. "Fear and Loathing in Los Angeles" (her experience there shows up in ANGELS) contains acute observations of that city: "It was fearsomely hot as we drove along and the gray glare hurt my eyes. The sky looked like it could do for a good scrub with a wire brush. Abruptly I realized what was so odd --- there were no human beings on the streets. The place had a strange science-fiction feel to it."

Here's another thing about Keyes as a journalist: she's remarkably honest in her observations, especially as they pertain to herself (and Himself, as she dubs her good-humored husband) or her family. Having finished a university degree in law, she spent much of her twenties in substance abuse. Now, ten years sober and wiser (and having dissected that part of her life in RACHEL'S HOLIDAY), Keyes writes of her darkest hour in the previously unpublished "The Pissed Is Another Country, They Do Things Differently There": "From September 1993 to January 1994 was the most bereft time I have ever lived through. I had a bare bed, in a bare room, with a bare window, in a bare, bare life."

Fortunately that darkest hour really was just before dawn, and recovery. And fortunately for her readers, even when Keyes strips the bed, she has fresh linen at the ready. That essays ends, "For someone who'd always felt so inconsequential, I remember realizing that I'd been rescued. That I'd been worth rescuing."

--- Reviewed by Bethanne Kelly Patrick

Devotees of Marian Keyes ("Watermelon," "Sushi for Beginners," et al.) will adore this collection of essays and columns, most of them previously published in The Irish Tattler--and some previously unpublished.

These simple, hilarious, and often very poignant peeks into the life of Keyes, which strongly resembles that of many of her main characters, makes the reader smile, sigh, and--in at least one heartfelt column about Keyes' triumph over alcoholism--weep. Those who follow her books will experience some strong deja vu, as whole sections of Keyes' truly baroque life seem to make their way sooner or later to her novels--eg, the famous mudbath that one main character took just before her wedding in order to fit into her dress!

The charm of this book is that it can be picked up and put down at random. Each essay functions on its own, and in fact, the author, in her preface, suggests that the reader simply browse and choose according to his or her mood at that moment. And so I did--and loved every single essay in the book.

A keeper!

I adore Marian Keyes. Totally. When I excitedly buy Marie claire every month, I skip to her column first! In fact, I'm so desperate to get it before it comes out in the shops, I subscribed to it. Tragic, I know.

But anyway.

I bought "Under The Duvet" because I bought "Further Under The Duvet" first which I know sounds mad, but I bought the latter because it'd just come out and had a couple of quid off, so that's my excuse. Anyway, I purchased "Under The Duvet" after reading her novels. For you Yanks, "Further Under The Duvet" is under a different title, but don't ask me what as I haven't a clue!

I like the fact you can just dip in and out of it. I have a habit of reading more than one book at once, therefore I end up losing the storyline because I've got confused. Why do I do that? I keep asking myself the same question. Marian Keyes is warm, witty and real. She's down to Earth and so damn likeable. And when she talks about her alcoholism, she does it without self pity which is endearing, if you ask me.

So, yeah, just buy it.

What a joy ... just like finding a pot of gold under a rainbow! Marian Keyes has us longing for a return to the Emerald Isle with a fun book that is best read by sticking a finger in the pages and finding the start of a chapter!

From an author who writes in bed readers will be transposed into the Irish mindset and if you really try you can slow the pace of your life and be one with the Irish for a moment or two.

The anthology of columns shows that Marian's writing has great effect for a quickie read as well as being enveloped in her novels.

Marian Keyes is more than just a novelist, she is an incredible reader of people and offers insight into the writer's world. I loved this book, and it makes me love her novel writing more to know how open she is about her insecurities and her fears. This book proves that Ms. Keyes can write anything and make it interesting, because she herself is interesting!

Boy, I just love Marian Keyes! Her essays and her novels both acknowledge what it is to be just trying to live and dream and work, but at the same time feel hopelessly clumsy at it at times! I enjoyed reading her essays before reading her novel, Sushi for Beginners, because they gave me more insight into the author, and I was able to "see" her within her story.

`Under the Duvet' is a collection of journalism by Marian Keyes, some of it published previously in papers such as Irish Tatler, other pieces which are making their debut. The subjects Marian writes about cover everything that young, middle-aged women want to read about: career, relationships, weight, etc in a light-humoured way. Each `piece' is completely unrelated to the rest which means you can start reading anywhere in the book, although I found myself going from start to end just to be methodical.

I was not really sure what to expect when I first opened the pages of `Under the Duvet' but luckily the author had the foresight to include a brief introduction to explain the approach she had taken. I found the style of writing easy to read and quickly got through half the book in one evening. The articles seemed a bit abrupt and while I appreciate that they were originally intended as newspaper articles, perhaps the writer could have modified them slightly so that the reader was left feeling more satisfied.

The autobiographical way of writing made it feel like I was reading someone's diary and even though the writer is Irish (I'm not) and older, I was able to relate easily to her troubles and thoughts. There were a number of hilarious articles which were highly original, however I felt that others were merely written from a general expectation of women in this day and age. In these stereotypical sections I got a sense of deja vue and realised that I had read something very similar in another book or even seen it played out on shows such as `Sex and the City'.
A light-hearted, brainless piece of writing that will keep you momentarily entertained. Having said that I do not think I would pay to buy this book a second time round.