I went to the book store before Christmas to get some good books to read over the holidays. One of them was The Brightest Star in the Sky by Marian Keyes. I read the back of the book, and it seemed to be a book about a four story condo building somewhere in Ireland, and the comings and goings of the residents. It looked pretty interesting.
It's 612 pages. I finally started really getting into it at about page 450. For me, there were too many characters to actually get drawn into any of them. There's Katie on the top floor, and her boyfriend, Conell. Then on the third floor is Lydia, who lives with Andrai and Jan. Then there is Jemima, her foster son Fionn, and the dog, Grudge, on the second floor (and Grudge has his own personality and thoughts that are narrated). And last, but not least, is Matt & Maeve on the ground floor. I couldn't keep all the people straight as they were all important characters in the book and all had their own chapters of narration.
Once I had them all down, I enjoyed the story. It's one of those books where I finished, and I'd now like to know more about the characters. It kind of reminded me of my first Maeve Binchy book. It took me a while to get into it and the characters, but once I did, I wanted more. The good thing with Maeve Binchy is that her characters reappear in more books. I don't think these ones do.
It was ok. The last quarter of the book was really good. I'm glad to be through it, though. Up next is another book I randomly bought before Christmas. Hopefully, it will be good!
Have you read other Marian Keyes? I like some of her earliest work. I'm hoping to get this latest one out of the library sometime this year.
ReplyDeleteAlmost finished reading this book and quite enjoying it....once I got all the characters straight!
ReplyDeleteI missed your first comment. This was my first Marian Keyes. I enjoyed the book. I'll have to read another in the future. Any recommendations for titles I should read of hers?
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