Being Emily by Anne Donovan

[smithsjo1]

I know a few of us have just bought 'Being Emily' or were lucky enough to receive a copy from LibraryThing so I thought I'd start a thread for it.

Amazon synopsis
Things are never dull in the O'Connell family. Still, Fiona, squeezed beteen her quiet brother and her mischievous line-dancing twin sisters, thinks life in their tenement flat is far less interesting than Emily Bronte's.
But tragedy is not confined to Victorian novels. And life for Fiona in this happy domestic set-up is about to change forever, Following the devastating events of a single day her family can never be the same. But - perhaps - new relationships will develop, built on a solid foundation of love.

Moving, funny and ultimately heart=warming, Being Emily is a wonderful novel about one young girl trying to find her place in the world among the turmoil that only your own family can create.

What did I think
Fiona is one of 4 children. Her brother Patrick is older than she is (by quite a few years) and then there are the twins, Mona and Rona, a good few years younger than she is. They live in Glasgow with their mother and father and the beginning of the novel introduces all of the characters with a little information about them; making it easier to know who is who.

Narrated in first person by Fiona, we are told the story of her life from being a child until she has become a young woman. It is a nice coming of age story. Fiona narrates in Glaswegian and whilst the accent initially was tricky it soon becomes part of the narrative and you forget about it. Even for words that you may not recognise, it is easy to put them into context.

Fiona's life is challenging at times and Anne Donovan certainly doesn't hold back but what you have to remember as a reader is that we are party to the challenges through the eyes of whatever age Fiona is at the time of them happening. It is easy to use the eyes and wisdom of an adult to solve her problems or think about how we might handle them, however using a child's or teenager's logic brings different results; some of which are painful.

I initially didn't like this novel, I was really struggling to get into it but couldn't put my finger on the reason why. The dialect wasn't holding me back and although I hadn't experienced all of Fiona's troubles I didn't feel like this was the reason either. Fortunately, I reached a point just over half way through where I suddenly realised I didn't want to leave the novel unfinished and I was pleased I had perservered.

Not having read any of Donovan's other novels I have no idea how this compares. It is well written and the reader is definitely involved in Fiona's life but there always seems to be a feeling of detachment. Unless this is intentional and is meant to represent how detached Fiona feels from different aspects of her life? One other aspect I didn't like was the lack of speech punctuation. Thankfully at least Donovan uses italics to distinguish dialogue from narrative but nevertheless the lack of conventions can often detract from a good plot.

Overall, it's a lovely story with all the loose endings tied up neatly at the end. It'll take you through a mixture of emotions and experiences and is worthwhile in the end. So from a beginning that would have been 2 stars, to a much improved middle of 3 stars the overall experience warrants 4 stars.

I gave it 4/5 on Amazon.

[Vanessa]

Sounds good, Sam. I shall look out for it.

[amber]

BE sounds like a great read, Smithy. I noticed that you struggled to get into the book. If you hadn't been reviewing it, would you have given up on it? That's one of the things I love about reviewing. It makes me read books that I might otherwise put down.

[smithsjo1]

Yes I think I would. I don't mind giving up and finding out it was better in the end - you can always go back to it. My theory is it shouldn't take that long to get into a book though. I think you'll like it though.

[nicx27]

Good review Sam, thanks. I bought this the other day. I must admit, I might have been put off by the dialect as I remember ages ago reading some opinions on Buddha Da and it being difficult to read. But I looked at it in Waterstones and thought I could probably manage it, and it was in the 3 for 2

[amber]

Originally Posted by smithsjo1

Yes I think I would. I don't mind giving up and finding out it was better in the end - you can always go back to it. My theory is it shouldn't take that long to get into a book though. I think you'll like it though.

I agree with you, Smithy. I usually give a book 50 pages to grab me, but sometimes longer if it's been recommended to me.

[smithsjo1]

Originally Posted by nicx27

it was in the 3 for 2

Always a bargain then.

I do love 3 for 2s. Even better when you're with someone from here and there's 6 books you like. Shona and I, last time we were together, magically chose 6 quite quickly so it seemed a shame not to.

[elaine]

Have read "Buddha Da", and thought it was wonderful, so will definitely give this one a go-thanks for the tip!

[nicx27]

I read this on holiday and really enjoyed it. I wasn't sure if I would manage the dialect but it didn't bother me at all. In fact, I enjoyed it so much that I purchased Buddha Da in a charity shop.

[hashford]

I have just read Buddha Da by Anne Donovan for my F2F bookgroup (which meets tonight).

Briefly, Jimmy, a Glaswegian painter/decorator, discovers Buddhism; in the course of seeking enlightenment he rejects old habits, only to alienate his immediate family in the process

I found the book pleasant and easy to read, and didn't mind about the dialect once I got into it. However, although I enjoyed the beginning, I soon found myelf losing interest.

Whereas the two female characters, Liz (wife) and Anne-Marie (teenage daugher) are fairly well drawn, the main character, Jimmy, remains much more superficial. For instance we don't get any feel for why Buddhism is so important to him that he is prepared to give up his life with his family.

I certainly don't agree with the publishers assertion that "each character's voice has its own subtle rhythm" - actually I thought all three voices sounded exactly the same and I frequently had to look back to the start of the chapter to see which character was talking. Donovan didn't manage to create a convincing male character for me - and this means that the book lacked depth.

Further, I didn't get any new insights into Buddhism (which isn't a subject I know much about at all) - and that was disappointing. I felt that the issue Donovan really wanted to explore was the conflict between family committment vs the self-centred (and ultimately selfish) need for self-discovery - and that Buddhism was merely a convenient vehicle to hang her theme on.

Unfortunately, because Jimmy is not clear enough as a character, she isn't able to do explore this theme particularly well - and the book becomes more of an exploration of Liz's mid-life crisis (which is portrayed much more empathetically than Jimmy's).

In summary, an interesting and thought provoking "slice of life" story.