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Irish writer Marian Keyes has generated an international following with novels that combine chick-lit chuckles with emotional dysfunction -- issues such as alcoholism, depression and abandonment. Her best sellers include Lucy Sullivan Is Getting Married, Watermelon and Angels, among others.
Lots of writers can create fun froth. And lots can probe psychological drama. In her previous titles, Keyes did both, making the reader laugh out loud without trivializing serious topics.
Unfortunately, in her new novel, Anybody Out There?, Keyes has taken a wrong turn. The problem is not the heaviness of the book's issue -- sudden, overwhelming grief -- that sets the novel askew. It's her new sentimental tone that grates.
Out There does start with an intriguing mystery. Why is Anna physically injured and staying with her parents in Ireland? Anna is supposed to be living in Manhattan and working as a high-powered publicist for a cosmetic line. (Anna belongs to a gaggle of Irish sisters Keyes has written about before.)
Keyes mines Anna's life for nuggets. The world of cosmetics provides fodder. Anna does have some entertaining pals, mostly Irish expats in New York. And she unravels the tale of what happened to whom.
It would ruin any reader's possible pleasure to have the plot laid out. Let it suffice to say that in Anybody, Keyes details love found, love lost suddenly and love mourned long and hard.
Alas, Keyes' secret is the mix of the sweet and the sour elements in her books. Here, she has added too much remembered sweetness. Keyes is better with piquant, not poignant.
My advice, ladies? Buy her earlier books.
Anybody Out There?
By Marian Keyes
Morrow, 456 pp., $24.95
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