Behaving Like Adults - Softcover

Maxted, Anna

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060096683 ISBN 13: 9780060096687

Publisher: William Morrow & Company, 2004

Synopsis

Meet Holly, the sunny twenty-nine-year-old owner of Girl Meets Boy, a dating service for those who are "beautiful inside and out." Though she's a successfulmatchmaker, she hasn't quite fulfilled her own relationship dreams (her ex-fiancé, Nick, seems unlikely to progress from his job as Mr. Elephant, children's party entertainer). So when her friends dare her to pick a man off the top of the pile, she's game.

But in one awful evening, the seemingly perfect Stuart turns out to be a completecad, and Holly's belief in the goodness of humanity takes a hit. What does it mean for her business and her romantic future if she can no longer trust her ability to read people? Holly's friends and colleagues are drawn into the complicated drama of her life, while Holly learns her most important lesson: to trust herself.

Rueful and hilarious, Behaving Like Adults is a must-read novel of men and women growing up -- in spite of themselves.

About this title

Review:

Anna Maxted is not one to shy away from difficult and emotionally traumatic issues. Here in Behaving Like Adults she tackles date rape having dealt with bereavement in her first book, Getting Over It, and with eating disorders in her second novel, Running In Heels. It sounds grim--"doomed chick lit"--but the joy of Anna Maxted's books (and they are joyful, despite everything) is the humour and sympathy of her writing.

The heroine of this story is Holly, who runs a dating agency. She split up with Nick, her childish boyfriend of five years, because "he didn't know how to make an effort in a relationship" (he lives on "hygiene's edge" not washing or talking enough, and being a generally lacklustre dating companion). She decides to throw a party to celebrate the success of her business and chooses rich and arrogant Stuart as her date for the evening. He brings Holly home, pushes her to the floor, and rapes her, and she doesn't tell anyone. As she says: "as long as I skated along the surface of my composure, I was fine. There was more underneath, I knew, but it was dark and cold and deathly and I refused to go there."

The rest of the novel deals with the repercussions of the rape, with Holly trying to carry on as normal, but being unable to. She is forced to redefine her life and her relationships, especially with Nick. Behaving Like Adults is well observed, moving, funny and intensely readable. --Eithne Farry

Review:

"Anna is exceptional at telling hilarious - but also at times, heartbreaking - stories about life and love ... you'll laugh, you'll cry and you'll feel, and isn't that what a good story is all about?" (Heat)

"Sparkling" (Red)

"A funny and thought-provoking read" (B)

"Heartbreakingly spot-on" (Company)

"With warmth and humour Maxted pulls the strands together in a satisfyingly romantic ending" (Sunday Mirror)

About this edition

• Publisher: William Morrow & Company
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0060096683
• ISBN 13: 9780060096687
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 400