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A Tiny Bit Marvellous
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
Beautifully observed. Makes you laugh on every page (The Times )
Hilarious. Chortle-out-loud turns of phrase, razor-sharp observations (The Stylist )
Fresh, extremely funny (Sunday Times )
Has she cracked it with her first novel? Yes. Engaging from the first page (Heat )
Really enjoyable and highly recommended. Dawn French is a wonderful writer - witty, wise and poignant (Daily Mail )
A hilarious and compelling read (Good Housekeeping ) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Hilarious. Chortle-out-loud turns of phrase, razor-sharp observations (The Stylist )
Fresh, extremely funny (Sunday Times )
Has she cracked it with her first novel? Yes. Engaging from the first page (Heat )
Really enjoyable and highly recommended. Dawn French is a wonderful writer - witty, wise and poignant (Daily Mail )
A hilarious and compelling read (Good Housekeeping ) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
Everyone hates the perfect family.
So you'll love the Battles.
Mo is about to hit the big 50, and some uncomfortable truths are becoming quite apparent:
She doesn't understand either of her teenage kids, which as a child psychologist, is fairly embarrassing.
She has become entirely grey. Inside, and out.
Her face has surrendered and is frightening children.
Dora
is about to hit the big 18 . . . and about to hit anyone who annoys
her, especially her precocious younger brother Peter who has a chronic
Oscar Wilde fixation.
Then there's Dad . . . who's just, well, dad.
A
TINY BIT MARVELLOUS is the story of a modern family all living in their
own separate bubbles lurching towards meltdown. It is for anyone who
has ever shared a home with that weird group of strangers we call
relations.
Oh and there's a dog. Called Poo.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
64 of 69 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Hmmm...,
By
This review is from: A Tiny Bit Marvellous (Hardcover)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Programme (What's this?)
[Reviewed by Mrs O']I wanted to really like this book by Dawn French, as I like her as a comedian very much, but I'm afraid this book leaves a lot to be desired - sorry Dawn! The book is about the Battle family who unsurprisingly live up to their title. The characters are all loudly drawn caricatures and leave no room for imagination by the reader. There is a foul-mouthed sulky angry teenage daughter (Dora), an intelligent eccentric gay son (Peter/Oscar) and Mum (Mo), a child-psychologist who obviously has problems with her own children but can solve other parents' children's issues and has a mid-life crisis to boot. So the stage is set in a predictable way that sadly plays out until the end. The book itself I found to be a bit schizophrenic, not knowing who it was really supposed to appeal to. In my opinion it tries a bit too hard to be 'hip' by its use of shocking language from the outset, which did nothing but annoy me right from the very beginning. Additionally the use of modern day teenage 'isms' pitched it at a younger audience, who I feel were probably not the majority audience for a book by Dawn French. Sadly, this book is a 'miss' from me and I suggest you don't read it on the train if you're concerned about people reading over your shoulder, as the level of swearing and foul-mouthed ranting on the pages could cause early morning commuters to have a funny turn!
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Easy read but annoying characters,
By
This review is from: A Tiny Bit Marvellous (Hardcover)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Programme (What's this?)
Dawn French's first work of fiction is an easy read, written in the loose format of diary entries of the Battle family. Most of the chapters alternate between Mo (mum), Dora (18 year old daughter) and Peter/Oscar (16 year old son with an identity crisis). The father of the family (Denys) only appears right towards the end and isn't mentioned much in most of the book.Unfortunately the characters felt like caricatures to me. Mo is the middle-aged woman having a minor middle-aged crisis, feeling grey and unnoticed. The children are strange and completely unlike one another. Not that unusual I guess, but Dora's actions and words seems much younger that her supposed 18 years; she is a highly annoying, selfish and immature brat. Conversely 16 year old Peter has an Oscar Wilde fetish and seems much older. His diary entries used an elaborate language (as part of his Wilde impersonation) that I didn't find credible for the age of the character. There is plenty of humour and I laughed out loud a few times but sometimes it was quite obvious and contrived. There were, however, some real gems in the book and with a little more experience at developing characters for this format I'm sure Dawn French could produce something truly funny and credible.
18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A Tiny Bit Disappointed,
By
This review is from: A Tiny Bit Marvellous (Hardcover)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Programme (What's this?)
I'll admit, I didn't enjoy this nearly as much as I'd hoped. Yes, Dora's voice was very teenagerish, and Oscar was quite brilliant, but I couldn't stand Mo. I found her selfish and utterly unsympathetic, not to mention very like Dora, who I found boring after the first few chapters. There are aspects of realism in them both, but I still found them largely unlikeable. And ungrateful. Husband/Dad is clearly a treasure - I'm glad his children knew this.With no surprises in the plot for me, it was nice to see a shift in Mo's attitude towards the end. It would have been nice if it had been caused by her realising what she actually had, but nobody's perfect. Except maybe Oscar. And his smoking jacket. Dragging in the middle, with some characters that were better than others, there is a nice emotional pay-out at the end, but on the whole I was disappointed. If I can't like the main characters, I can't like a story, no matter how realistic they are.
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