KEY POINTS:
There was something of a fracas when the latest novel by Irish author Marian Keyes arrived on the book editor's desk because several people in the office felt they should be the first to read it and all were loudly making their case.
Loudest among us were the books editor, who cited literary precedence, and the editor of Detours, who drew on professional seniority. But, as the official "chick lit" reviewer, I triumphed - and besides, while they were rabbiting on I simply picked it up and ran away.
Despite my claim on the book, it does annoy me a little when people characterise Keyes as "chick lit" because it is not a genre taken seriously by the literary establishment.
But the truth is that you can write anything well and anything badly. And Keyes writes well; so well she is read by a lot of people who don't read chick lit - hence the scrum for the book. Regardless of what genre she works in, Keyes is an excellent storyteller who writes with insight and warmth about love, grief and human relationships. Her books and characters often resonate and stay with me long after I have forgotten the insights gleaned from far more celebrated literary fiction.
You're missing out if you just glance at the bespangled cover and dismiss this as just another frothy bubble bath of a novel in which some empty-headed heroine ponders serious shoe-related dilemmas.
In fact, Keyes uses chick lit to deal with positively meaty issues. This Charming Man (Penguin, $38) touches on domestic violence, depression and alcoholism, and her back-list includes books which deal with drug addiction, death and infertility. In other hands this could easily become sentimental or simplistic, but Keyes manages, for the most part, to avoid maudlin excesses or oversimplification of complicated situations. By reflecting on social issues through the prism of her characters' experience she manages to offer insight in a way that is meaningful and accessible, more so perhaps than if they'd been approached in a more academic way.
This Charming Man's narrative voice alternates between the main female characters: Lola, a fashion stylist; twin sisters Grace, a journalist, and Marnie, mother-of-two who works in real estate; and Alicia, who's just become engaged to Irish political poster boy Paddy de Courcy. The changing styles take a bit of getting used to - in particular Lola's voice, since her sections are written diary style (it's too reminiscent of Bridget Jones at first, but she grows on you).
This Charming Man is tremendously funny in some places, and achingly sad in others. I can think of very few other authors who can provoke such sincere reactions across the whole emotional spectrum.
Keyes has described chick lit as a genre that's "about the conflicts and confusions of our post-feminist world", and spoken about how she believes popular fiction can and should deliver a political message and be a source of meaningful social commentary.
That might usually be a heavy label to hang on such a fragile stem but This Charming Man is an example of exactly this.
That said, I would hate for people to be put off by the idea that this is some sort of political polemic, because it's an entertaining read first and foremost. This isn't a "serious" book but she's seriously good.
