The Irish Times
It is Maggie Walsh's back story that sets Angels apart from other
blockbusters. (After reading Marian Keyes' new Hollywood-based book,
dropping the odd bit of movie terminology seems unavoidable!)
She's always been the sensible sister in the chaotic Walsh household. She
married her childhood sweetheart, got a responsible job in a law firm and
life seemed on an even, if predictable keel, in suburban Dublin. Then her
marriage starts to fall apart, and when her husband has an affair, she
hightails it off to Los Angeles, where her old friend Emily is trying to
make it as a scriptwriter. Hell-bent on exploring what might have been,
she sleeps with a charismatic film producer, flirts with lesbianism and
gives herself a rigorous beauty makeover.
That's the chicklit part. But Keyes is too smart a writer to leave it at
that. Her trademark
style is to weave a serious issue in with the fluff, and in this, her
sixth novel, it's Maggie's painful story (or backstory in moviespeak) of
abortion and miscarriages that is slowly revealed as the book goes on and
as Maggie come to terms with them.
Keyes is a rare writer in the popular fiction genre in that most of her
characters are as
strong as her plot lines and the dialogue sparkles and rings true. She's
superb on female relationships; and in this book, the character of Emily,
the ambitious scriptwriter hanging on by her manicured nails to the hope
that she can make it in the movies, is particularly vivid.
Setting the book in Los Angeles is a bit like giving Keyes a shotgun and
presenting her
with fish in a barrel. It's a smug European cliche to be vastly superior
to Tinseltown's pre-occupation with beauty, money and celebrity, and the
low-cal culture of LA is traditionally fertile ground for easy laughs, but
Keyes restrains herself. She does poke fun, but it is in her usual
good-natured style, so that when Kirsty, one of her new LA friends,
earnestly explains that her nose job wasn't just for her - it was so that
her future children wouldn't inherit a big nose -Keyes just leaves it
where it falls without adding any bitchy asides.
There are some jarring notes. She has the Walsh family visit Maggie in LA.
Once she gets them there, she doesn't seem to know what to do with them,
and they sort of drift around providing the odd laugh. Only Mammy Walsh,
who is hilariously adopted as a sort of shamen by the touchy-feely new
agers next door, emerges as a fully-fledged character. Sometimes Maggie's
wide-eyed innocence is a bit hard to take, given that she's already spent
five years working in Chicago. And is after all 32, not 22.
That said, Angels is a fast, funny read that is a credible insight into
the lives of thirtysomethings trying to brave the shark-infested waters of
the movie business in LA, while at the same time giving a sensitive
insight into the disintegration of an ordinary Irish marriage. They sound
like two very different stories, but Keyes weaves them together with a
deft touch in this highly entertaining book.