Jane is Trying (W&N Essentials)

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I even felt myself get a tiny bit emotional near the end, and considering I’m a reading robot, that’s a surprise for me. I found the ending a little unsatisfactory, but the general character writing and dialogue were very engaging. The blurb read as though it would be an interesting feel-good story about a woman regaining control of her life after it had gone off the rails. There’s a very vulnerable humour in this, which I think is bolstered by the author being a public figure, and the book is all the better for it. The protagonist of this novel is an ungrateful, neurotic, spoilt and self-centred middle class brat who improves very little throughout the story arc.

My dad died 10 years ago in hospital and even that didn’t make me dislike them because he received amazing care. The second series of her Sony award-winning radio series ISY SUTTIE'S LOVE LETTERS was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 2014, and in 2014 she made her musical theatre debut as the starring role in THE A-Z OF MRS P at the Southwark Playhouse. View image in fullscreen Isy Suttie photographed in London last month by Pal Hansen for the Observer. Her TV credits include Dobby in Peep Show and Esther in Shameless , plus appearances on 8 Out of 10 Cats, Would I Lie To You? The book does touch over important topics such as mental health and IVF but in the end she just started to piss me off?Really enjoyed this book, it was refreshing not to follow a guessable narrative and feature so many flawed and in depth but likeable characters. There’s an abundance of quirky characters scattered throughout this story, a hint of romance and lots of funny moments - though Jane definitely has some bad luck and unpleasant memories of The Arch lurking in the background. There’s a lot that can be said for reading ‘celebrity authors’, some of it valid for certain attempts. I did enjoy the portrayal of mental health (mostly because I related quite a lot to the worrying and checking, ha), but it did feel a bit like it didn't really get much of a resolution, other than suddenly when the baby comes, everything is okay? I wish more time was spent on developing the characters so that they didn't feel like one-dimensional, aggravating stereotypes.

There were some delightfully funny moments scattered throughout the gloom and absurd bad luck Jane has to deal with but unfortunately I found Jane to fall flat as a narrator and couldn't fully get into the story - some of the characters were brilliantly written but not all and this made me drag at certain parts. As for OCD, I’ve never had it to the same incapacitating extent as Jane but yes, that’s another indicator that my head is too full. There's a mystery, something bad that happened in Jane's past - there may have been some eye rolling on my part when that is first mentioned but what is revealed is not at all the same sort of event as we might now expect. I thought that the big reveal of what happened in Room 3 would go some way to explaining Jane’s motivations and actions in her adult life but in the end it felt a bit of a let-down. I should caveat my review by saying that this isn't by any means the worst book I've read and I definitely swithered between giving it a 2 or 3-star rating.I would still perhaps proceed with caution if you’re planning to read this and feeling overly sensitive to fertility chat. Jane is back in the sticks - having left London after a traumatic breakup with a boyfriend, prompted by their struggles to conceive and his infidelity. Suttie brightens the page with her eccentric characters and wonderful observations of small-town life. Despite being a fan of Suttie's, including seeing her performing live and enjoying her previous book The Actual One, I wasn't sure about this at first. I’ve seen her live, I’ve listened to the love letters countless times, and this sounded like it might be a longer version of that, so I was excited.