10 Feb Grown Ups by Marian Keyes

Adults behaving badly …

The O’Caseys are a glamorous and happy family – or so it seems on the surface!

Eldest brother Johnny and wife Jessie juggle running a successful grocery business with the demands of their five lively children.

Middle brother Ed, happily married to Cara, loves his life as a scientist.

Youngest brother Liam has just married pretty, creative Nell.

Despite differences in the family’s fortunes, they delight in coming together for high days and holidays, all organised and funded by Jessie.

But despite their apparent closeness undercurrents of tension run deep – as is evidenced right at the beginning of the story when a careless remark from Cara at Johnny’s family birthday dinner opens a can of worms! Are all three couples quite as loved up as it seems? Who has money problems and who doesn’t? Why are there tensions between sons and mothers, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives?

The story then takes us back over the previous year to show just what has been going in the O’Casey family. With themes such as infidelity, job insecurity, bulimia, divorce, financial stress and widowhood all explored in Marian Keyes’ inimitable style, it makes for an enthralling read.

For this is an author who writes with hilarity, compassion and insight, making you laugh and cry all at once as you bond with the various characters.

The title Grown Ups is perfect for this book. They may look like grown ups, but the adult O’Caseys experience all the angst, anxiety and uncertainty of life – just like the rest of us do, no matter our age. For who ever feels grown up? Who ever feels they have the answers at last? Not the O’Caseys, for sure.

Yet among all the drama, one young man, Ferdia, makes the transition from callow, judgmental youth to a more considered maturity; while the children in the story, with their honest, forthright, often hilarious views, are often more grown up than the grown ups!

I romped through this book, falling in love with the people and marvelling once more at a what a wonderful and perspicacious writer Marian Keyes is.

Warm, Funny, Sensitive

Published by Michael Joseph