Book Review: Anybody Out There?

Book Review: Anybody Out There?
By Marian Keyes

This story starts with Anna staying at her parents house in Ireland, healing from some major injuries and wishing she could go back home to New York (which she eventually does for ‘closure’). There is also this mysterious Aidan guy that she apparently still loves. But what the heck is going on?

This book has the mother of all story hooks. Seriously. You don’t know if Aidan is good, bad, dead or alive. You flip flop between he’s bad–he did this to her and he’s a good guy–he’s got to get back in touch with her. It isn’t until page 150 or so that you figure out what is going on. (Tell me! Don’t tell me! Oh dang, you actually told me!) By then, you are involved with the nutters who are Anna’s family as well as Anna’s coping strategies. You can’t put the story down. You have to find out how it all turns out. Does she speak to him (dead or alive)? Does she get better and carry on with her life? At the last minute, does she pull the work project out of a hat? Oh, so many things that make it worth stay tuned!

It’s hard to talk about this book without giving it away…so that’s all I’m going to say about it. And yes, I will be reading more of Marian Keyes. (Thanks to my cousin for introducing me to Keyes, and thanks to my mom for buying me the book. I have a new favourite author to add to my list.)

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Mimicry Exercise Experiment #1

Today is day 1 of giving the mimicry exercises a go.

I chose Marian Keyes’ Anybody Out There? which is written in first person, past tense. (It’s a great book. I’ll do a book review on it next week.)

Basically, I typed out a page and a half in Word (single spaced) straight from the book. I got a feel for how she interspersed action with telling. The telling was great, by the way. Just a few sentences here or there, nothing drawn out. Enough to let the reader know what was going on and getting us from point A to point B in fast form. BUT there were also these wonderful tiny details. Such as:

At lunchtime I tried to get my nails done, but when I took off the bandages and revealed them to the manicurist she went green and said they were far too short for acrylic ones to be fitted. When I returned with the bad news Lauryn behaved as if I was lying.

The fact that the manicurist turned green and Lauryn behaved as though the character was lying, is great. Those are small details, yet they take those two ‘telling’ recap sentences memorable. They show us about her nails–they really are nasty and not all the way grown out yet (she lost them). It also shows us a bit of Lauryn’s character and what she values. (Lauryn is her boss.)

In past tense telling, I had been fearing the use of ‘was’. Even though the class I just finished on showing and telling with Shannon Donnelly where she demonstrated there is a time and place for telling, I still fear ‘was’ and ‘had’ appearing in my work–in case I overuse them. Strangely, I have also felt as though I am unable to use first person with past tense. (It could just be my story where first person and past tense don’t work together.) However, Keyes does it well and provides an excellent example of it working well. In fact, I can’t imagine this story being in anything but as the reader needs that closeness to the heroine.

So, that is what I learned from Keyes’ pages. The next step was to continue on, imitating her style and voice. It was really cool because it just flowed. Her style. It felt easy. Except for the whole ‘where the heck should the plot go?’. That was hard. What to write? The style was there, ready for me to play with–I was grooving in first person, past tense–but where should I go with it? Ack!

Having a pro ‘guide me’ through the switch ups between action, telling and dialogue was wonderful. Playing with those switch ups is something I am going to practice. (It doesn’t have to be big and scary!)

The other thing that felt good while mimicking Keyes, was allowing that closeness of the heroine’s thoughts and feelings into the story. Bam. Right there on the page. No held punches. And in past tense. I liked it.

Tomorrow, another mimicry. Stay tuned.

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A great chick lit book about loss and getting your life back together.