Angels (Walsh Family #3)

Marian Keyes third Walsh sister novel, Angels, adds another interesting layer to the forumla she developed in book two: the breezy voice of chick lit, now and then stories depicting the lead-up to and consequences of an inciting crisis, and a more serious problem than the usual inane superficiality of chick-lit. To that mix Keyes adds an interesting primer on the screenwriter’s trade in Los Angeles. This outing features the second Walsh sister, Maggie, whose parents and siblings think she’s a perfect person who has never set a foot wrong. After her marriage and career implode, Maggie accepts the invitation to make a long visit to LA from her Irish best friend turned promising screenwriter. Like all the Walsh sisters, Maggie is soon looking for love in all the wrong places and loosening up enough from her “plain yogurt” sensibility to accept some makeover moments and give serious consideration to some alternative lifestyles. While lacking the darkness of the addiction plot in Rachel’s Holiday, the addition of the screenwriting how-to helps to keep the reader’s interest as Maggie’s story builds to a pleasant but satisfying end.

I admit to being a fan of the Walsh sisters, the characters in several of Marian Keyes’ novels. I have not read the novels in order of family happenings, but it does not matter. Maggie, (Margaret),is the main character of this novel. As with all the other sisters, she is a multi-diminsional woman who is coming to grips with some major developments in her life. However, first she must resolve some events from the past. Doesn’t sound very amusing, but in Keyes’ hands it is. Her insight of Hollywood has cleared up why there are only three stories told over and over again. I now know that there are good screenwriters out there, but by the time the higher ups get done with their work it is the usual nonsense rehashed to death. This story is told through Maggie’s eyes. She has left Dublin after figuring out her husband is having an affair and has come to Los Angeles to stay with her friend and try to detangle her life. So we get her outsider’s version of LaLaland which is what most of us guessed the Los Angeles film world was like anyway. But we also get inside Maggie’s head and heart which is a lot like most women at some point in their lives. We reach a crisis and then a resting point before we have to take a big breath and start again. Many women have that story to tell. Keyes tells it for us. She knows how to balance humor and poignancy. The serious is never maudlin and the humor is never contrived. Add this to your Keyes collection.

Not as good as “Sushi for Beginners,” “Angels” is nevertheless a fast and fun read, even for this reviewer, who makes it a point NEVER to read “Hollywood novels.”
Keyes’ bubbly Irish humor and her loveable characters translate to La La Land without a hitch, and the adventures of newly separated Maggie Walsh and her best friend Emily, now a scriptwriter in LA, are hilarious. Maggie has her Irish eyes opened wide by the antics in Los Angeles, which include everything from eyebrow waxing (a procedure she is painfully forced to submit to) to bleaching unmentionable parts of the posterior.
What Maggie really wants, deep inside, is her husband back, but she doesn’t quite realize that–as she sorts through her hurt feelings and the story of her marriage, we know it before she does. Along the way, there are some eye-opening experiences, and not just with her eyebrows.
This is just a fun book–not memorable, but very enjoyable indeed, and very good for someone who is in between heavy reads and just wants an enjoyable piece of well-written fluff.

Keyes greatest achievement is that she can write about so many different situations, managing to get her reader really live in the shoes of her heroines. In Rachel’s Holiday you feel like you live in the head of a drug addict. In watermelon you really live the loss and betrayal of the husband who leaves you as soon as you give birth. In Angels, i was impressed with her depiction of multiple miscarriages, it was so real, something i can vouch for myself. In anybody out There you feel the loss of Anna’s husband like you are living it yourself. Compelling reading from start to end

Without a doubt — I love Marian Keyes. She is one of the reasons I have spent so much money on www.Amazon.com/www.Amazon.comUK. I buy whatever she writes (in hardcover which I rarely do) and I am usually a very satisfied customer. Well – “Angels” let me down. I think that I have come to expect such wonderful and creative work from Ms. Keyes that anything less than spectacular puts me off. Maybe I wouldn’t have been disappointed with it if another author had written it – but I have much higher standards for Ms. Keyes. I found “Angels” lacking direction, her usual sense of humor missing and compassionate characters absent. I couldn’t have cared less about Maggie. I found her very uninteresting, where her sisters (Rachel “Rachel’s Holiday”) and (Claire “Watermelon”) completely had me from page one.
I believe that Ms. Keyes can do better and has. She is one of the brightest stars in the “chick lit” genre and I will always give her the benefit of the doubt and continue to buy her books – this one just gets resold to my used book seller.

Galaxyaudiobook Member Benefit

- Able to comment

- List watched audiobooks

- List favorite audiobooks

- Bookmark will only available for Galaxyaudiobook member