![]() Keyes skilfully peels back the layers of Cara’s insecurities about food, about her bodyĪt the beginning of the novel, Cara, a receptionist at an upmarket hotel, is told by a guest that she is “a fat bitch”. ![]() Her ambivalent relationship with money is expressed in a needy compulsion to share her wealth with the wider family – generosity that borders on ostentation and yet signals a subtle attempt to control those around her, to position herself in the role of provider, while asserting her professional success. Tensions become apparent: Johnny feels emasculated Jessie suffers guilt about her superior financial position. Jessie is the successful owner of a grocery company, employing her husband, Johnny, who works alongside her. The key theme here is addiction in its various guises: to shopping, to food, to status and money. Over the past 20 years, Marian Keyes has built a reputation for breezy fiction that also tackles difficult and, at times, controversial subjects, and Grown Ups is no exception. But beneath the surface, resentments fester and when Cara attends a family dinner after suffering from concussion, secrets emerge that threaten to expose the weakness of the threads that bind them. ![]() ![]() Brothers Johnny, Ed and Liam seem close in spite of their different personalities, while their wives – Jessie, Cara and Nell – appear to get along well. T he Caseys are a sprawling Irish family who gather at every possible opportunity: anniversaries, birthdays and holidays. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |