- Unknown Binding
- Publisher: Orion Export Titles (1 Mar 1999)
- ISBN-10: 0752825194
- ISBN-13: 978-0752825199
- Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 3,549,923 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Nicole Miller--née Nicola Sharp ("by art school I thought it was common; too late I caught on that an English working-class name is a whole lot cooler than a French tart's name, which can never be cool though it can be camp."--is romantically attached to her working- class roots, sexually attached (although reluctantly) to her largely absent, irritating and unfaithful photographer husband, and adores her granny.
So, when her mum calls to say she's putting granny Liza Sharp into a home, Nicole--recovering slowly from a Bolly and cocaine-fuelled girls-night-in-leaps onto the first Bristol-bound train to rescue Liza from this fate worse than death and brings granny to live in her ultra-90s Docklands loft.
It's hard for Liza--who has "a beard, three fine warts from which mustard and cress appear to be sprouting and smells like a dish-washing machine that has been left to bear its steaming bounty for a good three weeks of along hot summer" and who used to help her grandchildren play truant and encourage them to shoplift humbugs for her--to adjust to London life. But, paradoxically, it's easier for her than it is for Nicole, who, having successfully metamorphosed into an arty middle-class hedonist, is feeling almost as comfortable and at-home as Gregor Samsa did after turning into a giant beetle in The Metamorphosis. Almost.
Although the plot is pretty thin, there are some terrific fight scenes, plenty of top-notch sulking and lots of Burchill's characteristically idiosyncratic and surprisingly thought-provoking observations. --Lisa Gee --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
A darkly humorous novel from the best-selling author of "Ambition". Nicole takes what she wants, chews it up and spits it out. For her, life is too short to be moralistic and worry about cause and effect - and far less fun.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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I woke up around midday, sick as the proverbial. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
I woke up around midday, sick as the proverbial. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
When this first came out it seemed to be marketed as some kind of lightweight comedy, and although it does have its funny (not to say farcical) moments, it's a lot bleaker than I was expecting. Nicole Miller lives in a trendy Docklands loft conversion. Though she is married her husband, a handsome photographer, is hardly ever there, usually he's on the other side of the world with a bevy of beauties. When Nicole hears that her parents are planning to put her Gran into a home, she dashes down to Bristol and rescues her. What follows next could so easily have just been a lazy culture-clash, with working-class Gran a slapstick misfit in shallow London wine-bar society. Thankfully (as that kind of thing has been done to death far too many times) it's not.
It becomes rather bleak, and I have to say, depressing, when Nicole re-evaluates her life, and finds that she is starved of love. She craves affection from her Gran, but Gran is too busy being bewildered and resentful about her new environment. Nicole's marriage is based solely on sex. Nicole freely admits she simply can't stand anything else about hubby (it makes you wonder why they actually bothered getting married, but perhaps I missed something there). Like another reviewer said I hope this isn't based too closely on Burchill's real life, 'cos otherwise I'd feel really sorry for her! (And I'm sure she would hate that!).
Burchill the columnist has often made me laugh out loud, and this book is no exception. Some of the funny bits are far too filthy to be repeated in a respectable place like this, but one of the clean ones has Nicole explaining that her job often involves long business lunches. To which a bratty adolescent replies "is that why you're so fat? Because you eat lunch for four hours?" The ending is intended to be upbeat, and it is in a way, but it's also a bit sad. The only reason I've knocked off a star is because Burchill is a far better journalist than she is a novelist. A novelist has to retreat back into the shadows and allow their characters to take centre stage and act out the story. A novelist is a puppet-master if you like. But Burchill is unable to do this, which makes some of the conversations (particularly early in the book) feel a bit heavy-going, as she won't just write dialogue, she has to keep bustling in with endless acerbic comments. But in spite of all that, I can heartily recommend this book, particularly as a refreshing antidote to all the endless Bridget Jones stuff out there. And it was intriguing to get some insight into what makes the real Burchill tick.
2 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This trash is written in the rushed, oh-gosh, pun-heavy journalese of La Burchill at her worst - and that`s worse than almost anyone. She makes Kathy Lette seem sober and Helen Fielding positively deep by comparison.
Most `Chick-lit` is a bad enough barrel-scraping blight on the literary landscape, but this is beyond the pail (aptly bracketed Burchillian mis-spelling fully intended).
Most `Chick-lit` is a bad enough barrel-scraping blight on the literary landscape, but this is beyond the pail (aptly bracketed Burchillian mis-spelling fully intended).
2 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Married Alive as a title wasn't clear until I'd almost finished the book. When after taking her 85 year old grandmother in Liza, her life through her husband Matt starts to disintegrate as appears to have only interest in nasty media types and beautiful 17 year old models. It's clear it's semi autobiographical account of Burchill's life - but that's no bad thing. It's got a lot of reflections and humourous digressions. This book certainly has an edgyness of a Will Self or Martin Amis novel. It's certainly no chick lit like I feared it would be.
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