Angels

Keyes, Marian

ISBN 10: 0141804289 ISBN 13: 9780141804286

Publisher: Penguin, 2002

Synopsis

Marian Keyes' sixth novel is a truly captivating story about a marriage that's gone wrong and a sensible girl who suddenly just wants to let her hair down.

Maggie Walsh has always done everything right. Sensibly. By the book. Until the day she leaves her husband and runs away to Hollywood, that is.

Follow Maggie on a journey of discovery, from suburbia to a suntan, taking in some heartache and lots of martinis along the way, as she discovers what she really wants in life and why she really walked out of her marriage...

About this title

Review:

A new Marian Keyes novel is always something to celebrate, and her sixth novel, Angels, will have you cheering. From the first couple of sentences: "I'd always lived a fairly blameless life. Up until the day I left my husband and ran away to Hollywood, I'd hardly ever put a foot wrong" to the hugely satisfying last page, you're immediately involved in the story of Maggie Walsh's life; of how it went wrong, and then went right again.

The Walshes starred in a previous Keyes novel, the delightful Rachel's Holiday; Maggie is Rachel's older sister, (one of five) and the only one who "never did any of that nasty sleeping around business". Instead she got married to her first boyfriend Paul Garvan and everything was fine, until they suffered a couple of "setbacks". Unable to face sorting out the difficulties, Maggie hightails it to Los Angeles to stay with her old pal Emily. Emily is a script writer, her short film A Perfect Day was a big hit in Ireland, but her working life is a little tougher in the land of sunshine and fat-free Pringles. The two girls, along with a supporting cast of wannabes, scary film studio folk and slacker next door neighbours, get on with sorting out their emotional issues in a stylishly witty, wonderfully warm fashion. Maggie's devilish ex-boyfriend and the commitment phobic Troy add in a delightful frisson of sexual tension.

Marian Keyes observations on the foibles of love and LA are laugh-out-loud funny, but there's a beguiling tenderness there too. By the time you reach the final full stop you'll be sighing with contentment, and just wishing that Marian would get a move on with the next book. --Eithne Farry

Review:

Maggie Walsh is supposed to be the sensible one - the white sheep of the family. She lives less than a mile from Mum and Dad and married middle-of-the-road Garv. But that is about to change . . .

'I'd always lived a fairly blameless life . . . up until the day I left my husband and ran away to Hollywood . . .'

(from the publisher's description)

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0141804289
• ISBN 13: 9780141804286
• Binding: Audio Cassette