- Paperback: 464 pages
- Publisher: Arrow; 1st ed. edition (5 Oct 2000)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0099414759
- ISBN-13: 978-0099414759
- Product Dimensions: 13 x 2.8 x 19.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,023,761 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Virtue
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More About the Author
Product Description
Book Description
The hugely entertaining second novel from the bestselling author of The Temp
Product Description
Saints, sinners, and the mere mortals in between
What do you need to be a saint these days? Ambition, determination and good PR. But what do you do if your mother's a saint and you just want to be human? Anna and Harriet are about to find out.
Anna and Harriet share a burden: hellishly saintly mothers. So when they meet, initial loathing turns swiftly to recognition and firm friendship. Happily settled in a chaotic flat and armed with a wicked sense of humour, they set out to paint the town red. And for a while life goes swimmingly. But when they tread on one toe too many, they find that they have only their worst instincts - and each other - to rely on.
Be good. And if you can't be good, be careful...
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Fabulous Book,
By A Customer
This review is from: Virtue (Paperback)
Serena Mackesy is a unique talent, the type of writer that you don't stumble across everyday. She's a victim of bad cover art, however - don't let the horrible cover put you off this book. If you are a died-hard chick lit fan, this may not be the book for you. Or, it may! I love the silly stuff as much as the next woman, but I find Mackesy (in both The Temp and Virtue) delivers a deeper, darker tale. Virtue is the story of two women who have been dear friends and surrogate families for years. Anna and Harriet are different in many ways - Harriet is beautiful and aloof, frittering away her life making art out of popcorn and useless objects. Anna is not so beautiful, but makes up for it by sleeping with just about any warm male body. Oh, and they both work in a tawdry club where they dress up like school girls and "punish" the customers. The real driver of their story though is the relationships - or lack of - that they have with their mothers. Harriet's mother is somewhat of a Princess Diana figure (everyone has carefully stepped around that in the reviews, but there it is) who died in a spectacular fashion years before. She's now being bandied about as a potential saint and Harriet has some real issues with that. Anna's mother is a Nobel prize winning scientist/musician (yes - too good to be true) and is certainly nobody's saint. Throw in a handsome and noble policeman, a handsome (and noble in his own way) Australian school teacher on holiday, a tabloid columnist, and a few other dodgy characters and you've got quite a interesting crew. But reading along, you don't realize where Mackesy is taking you - and it get's fairly horrifying (in a good way, really!) Ultimately, you find yourself thinking about good and evil and what family - whether you're related or not - means. I truly loved this book and am saving it for (several) years, to pass along to my daughter when she's older. Mackesy writes some of the wittiest and intelligent dialog I've read and has a true gift for a plot twist. She shows the depth and talent with Virtue to break out of genre writing and go "mainstream" and I hope she does. Fabulous book - do yourself a favor and read it!
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Better than The Temp,
By A Customer
This review is from: Virtue (Paperback)
Whilst I enjoyed reading The Temp I just enjoyed the characters and the story in this book more. As someone else mentioned if I had judged this book by its cover alone then I woudn't have read it. I am looking forward to her next book.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
For those sick of predictable Bridget-Jones wannabes,
By A Customer
This review is from: Virtue (Paperback)
... this is the book for you.Virtue veers from the formula and gives us two friends, Harriet and Anna, both descendants of revered mothers - one a renown scientist, the other a deceased actress/philatrophist. The two meet in college and are roommates later in life. Harriet is actually Lady Harriet so home is a castle. Harriet's mother's grave has been exhumed and her body is perfectly preserved despite being dead for 15 years. This brings about a call for her to be canonized as a saint. Which means the media run rampant in their getting a story from Harriet. Meantime, Anna is dealing with the discovery of her own mother's sordid history and its bearing on her relationship with her today. Anna lies and tells her mother that she works in a library when she and Harriet are actually waitresses/dominatrixes at a club. Don't look for parallels to your own life in an effort to solve your own problems -- but if you find them, kudos -- you are one interesting person!!!!!
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