The Cairns Post
After reading a couple of slick, modern versions of humour, Rachel's Holiday was, indeed, a holiday.
Keyes has a gentle, sympathetic sense of humour, the kind that lets you get to know the characters before you can really appreciate how funny the situation is. She's not depending on guns or sex for her laughs - they are the kind that emanate from real life.
She has chosen unpromising material. Rachel Walsh is a 27-year-old Dublin girl whose friends and family believe she is a drug addict.
When she accidentally ends up in hospital having her stomach pumped, she is astonished to find that her boyfriend Luke can't see the funny side of the situation. He's not alone.
Rachel finds herself being packed off to a rehabilitation clinic. Imagining a resort filled with jacuzzis and rock stars, she agrees to go, egged on by her outrageous sisters:
"The Cloisters,' I murmured, trying to hide my anxiety with a flip remark, 'where I finally meet my Nemesis.' "'Nemesis?' asked Helen in excitement. 'What do they sing?"Even the title, Rachel's Holiday, gives you some idea of irony.
The book is an echo of the simple but powerful writing to Lynne Reid-Banks in books like The L-Shaped Room. It can be read on a number of levels. On the surface, it is an enjoyable, light-hearted book with romance, drama and a fair bit of partying.
But Rachel's Holiday achieves much more. Rachael herself is deluded about her own life and comes to a slow and believable realisation that she isn't so different from the brown cardigan brigade which surrounds her at The Cloisters.
The book gives an insight into the mind of an addict who is, after all, is like everybody else. Addicts aren't glamorous, nor are they always tragic and, as Rachel finds, they must get on with living.
Part of Marian Keyes' charm as a writer comes from her beautiful way with accents and her ability to construct an era or a scene in a few words:
"People passing up and down the road looked at us with interest, as they made their way home from school or work for their early-'70's style repast. Hurrying past us for their instant mash, followed by instant whip, humming a David Cassidy song, resplendent in their acrylic tanktops, waiting for the Vietnam war to end and the oil crisis to kick in."While some of the tongue-in-cheek humour comes from Rachel's own background and can be a bit over-the-top, there is never a joke which lessens the impact of this novel. In the end, the humour is just a cover for Rachel's life - which is shown as no more or no less important than anyone else's.
Rachel's Holiday is one of the easiest books to read that I have ever picked up.