Lessons in Heartbreak

Book No: 26
Title: Lessons in Heartbreak
Author: Cathy Kelly
Genre: Chick-lit
Completed: 6/07/09
No. of Pages: 435
Rating: 3/5*****

Lessons in Heartbreak is chick lit trying to be family saga/historical fiction/ social commentary all tied up in one uneven package. It is the story of three women from one family and their struggles with heartbreak. The overriding theme through it all is adultery from three different perspectives. We learn the stories of Izzie a thoroughly modern woman working in NYC and struggling to understand how she became entangled in a love affair with a married man; Anneleise a woman coming to terms with the end of her marriage after her husband leaves her for her best friend and Lily, Izzie’s ninety year old grandmother who falls ill still harboring her own secret of an affair during World War II.

The tales of these three women is told in alternating voices and the jumping back and forth in narration can be jarring at times, just as you are deeply involved in one story you are thrust back to another. Although the characters of the women are delved into in good detail most of the men are rather stereotypical and one dimensional. By far the most interesting story in the entire book is Lily’s, as it touches on a lot of the class distinctions of England and Ireland that kept many people in servant class, unable to break free of their place in life because of the family they were born into. Lily’s refusal to be cast in that mold made for the most engaging story. Izzie was interesting only when she was in the work place, almost everything about her involving her love affair was cliché and predictable. The character of Anneleise was irritating at best and although she was presented as a counter balance - providing the voice of the woman left as opposed to the other woman, in the final analysis she took all the blame for the failure of her marriage, relieving the straying husband of all culpability; I think it would have been a more interesting story if she was shown as a really strong woman instead of the annoying character she was.

This book is marketed as a story of an Irish girl, but there is almost none of that feel to the book, it could have been set anywhere at all there is no Irish atmosphere present, although many portions of the book set there. One other small annoyance was the constant use of the word darling, if I read it once I read it a couple of dozen times.

Although I found some of the narrative engrossing overall the book was just okay, garnering three stars because of Lily’s story, which is what kept me turning the pages.