I was initially reluctant to read this book because it is described as chick lit. At the time I bought the book, in 2014, I mainly read mysteries. All kinds, all vintages, but mostly mysteries, and very little general fiction. I was curious because I had read a review of The Mystery of Mercy Close by Marian Keyes at Clothes in Books, but it was part of a series about a family of five girls, and I was interested in starting at the beginning. As you can see, it took me eight years to get to this book. My reading tastes have changed a bit since, and I was not disappointed in this book at all.
The main character is Claire and the book starts out thus:
February fifteenth is a very special day for me. It is the day I gave birth to my first child. It is also the day my husband left me. As he was present at the birth, I can only assume the two events weren't entirely unrelated.
Claire had no clue that her husband was unhappy with the marriage and was having an affair with a woman that they both know. Obviously, such an announcement right after the birth of a baby would be upending. Her reaction is to leave London, where she works and lives with her husband, and go to Dublin and stay with her parents for a few months. A very good decision, I think, a place where she will have support.
I don't exactly know how to describe this book. It is frenetic. Claire describes her ups and downs, her settling in with her parents and sisters and her child, and the new people she meets. It does cover topics that I normally would not be interested in. Shopping, for instance. Claire goes through despair and then anger at her husband and her predicament. And a lot of wine.
It was frustrating for me that neither Claire nor her husband made contact for several weeks after the baby's birth. Thus the reader does not know why the difficulties in the marriage occurred, and that was a mystery to me. How they could not address support issues and how to deal with their joint properties seemed very strange. But everyone is different.
I love the Walsh family, especially Claire's parents. Her parents were wonderful, supportive people and had all the normal reactions to the situation. Her two youngest sisters still lived at home, and had very unique and irritating personalities, but were also supportive in different ways.
I read this for Reading Ireland month at 746 Books, and I think it was a very good choice for that event. I enjoyed reading Watermelon; it was a good change from my normal reading. It was too long for my tastes (over 400 pages) and I was not thrilled with the sex scenes, but both of those are minor quibbles. I do want to read more books in this series about the Walsh family, especially the mystery novel, which features the youngest daughter.
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Publisher: Perennial, 2006. Orig. pub. 1995.
Length: 417 pages
Format: Trade Paperback
Series: Walsh Family, #1
Setting: Dublin, Ireland
Genre: Fiction
Source: On my TBR since 2014.
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