Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A love story, yes, but fresh, witty, warm and intelligent!, 29 Aug 2000
By A Customer
I got this book free on a magazine, thinking I may as well read it before I slate it, imagining it would be another in the Helen Fielding, Amy Jenkins et al style. NOT SO! I started reading very cynically, waiting for the cliches and the "humorous" observations that you've heard a million times before......There were none! Instead, this was warm, natural; not in the slightest bit laboured! Lisa Jewell manages to inject FRESH observations of modern living (and that alone sets this book aside from the current painful stream of hackneyed "chick-lit"). Let's not forget, we're not going for realism here - it's a STORY! These are not social studies, they are CHARACTERS! And they are good ones. Some are shallow, but not by accident (unlike Bridget and Honeymoon - characters who THINK they have something to say, and tragically don't). The others are funny, human, I was interested in them (Oh, and yes, I did fall a little bit in love with Ralph!). I liked the plot, too. Perhaps all of these things happening at the same time within such a small group of people IS unlikely - but that's where fiction comes in, is it not? And considering the number of situations and relationships she is dealing with at one time, Jewell never confuses the reader or muddles her storyline through laziness. I thought this was so well written, so enjoyable, I can't wait for "Thirty-Nothing", and am keeping my fingers crossed that Lisa doesn't have just one book in her!
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent, 16 Mar 2001
By A Customer
This is an excellent novel. I am a big Lisa Jewell fan, though of her two novels, I definitely feel 'Ralph's Party' is the best. To be honest, the first page didn't grab me and I picked it up and flipped through in several bookshops before finally buying one and thinking it was just another girly romance. To my surprise, I found myself reading a gripping, engrossing and intelligent read focusing on 6 fascinating characters. 24 hours later, I still couldn't put it down. This is very high-level commercial fiction - it's not like the usual romantic drivel. It discusses relationships with insight, it manages to consider male viewpoints even though the writers is female, and the female characters are not Bridget JOnes cliches who are suffering endless diets - they are strong, realistically drawn women. The plot neatly weaves together two plot strands and draws them together - agreeably, the ending is slightly contrived, but certainly very gripping and builds up a superb finale.'Thirty-nothing' is also a good read, though not as tightly plotted, and written in a more woolley, sloppy style than this one. To my mind, 'Ralph's Party' has more insights and a better writing style than many literary novels I've read recently. The prose is descriptive, rich in images, and written with an admirable precision and control.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
You won't read a funnier, sweeter, better book all year, 10 May 1999
By A Customer
I loved Ralph's Party, from the moment it starts to the romantic, funny ending. It's so addictive, sharp and sad, that you get hooked without realising it. The characters are great - from sweet, rosy-cheeked Jem to blonde bitch from hell Cheri and useless but adorable Karl, I believed them all.It's basically the story of a house in Battersea, and the lives of its inhabitants, which become inextricably linked. How many of you know anything about the people who live in your house? Hardly anything, aand that's what makes this such an interesting contemporary London story, too. It's a great book: the ideal tube read, holiday read, or novel to give to your best friend, boyfriend, girlfriend ... whoever. Just read it!
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