Rachel's Holiday

by Marian Keyes | Literature & Fiction |
ISBN: 0140271791 Global Overview for this book
Registered by Elsita of Almada, Setúbal Portugal on 5/22/2006
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2 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by Elsita from Almada, Setúbal Portugal on Monday, May 22, 2006
Irish by birth but a trendy New Yorker for the past eight years, Rachel Walsh learns just what it means to have too much fun in this lively drama about addiction and recovery. Rachel enjoys cocaine, alcohol and meeting men in bars, especially men wearing tight leather pants. She can match anybody's hilarious anecdotes about a Catholic childhood, but recently her life's gone awry, and God has become "more like a celestial stand-up comic" than a "benign old guy with long hair." When she wakes up in a hospital emergency room and finds she's been diagnosed as a suicidal drug addict, she's enraged. She's also broke and unemployed, and her boyfriend has abandoned her. As a final indignity, her father takes her back home and books her into Dublin's Betty Ford-like clinic, the Cloisters. Famous for a clientele of rock stars, it should be a glamorous spa, but it isn't. Quarters are spartan, clients do housework and group therapy is humiliating. It could be worse, though, and there's one good-looking fellow-inmate who might, or might not, be a lifeline post-Cloisters. This novel isn't a how-to on overcoming addiction but an examination, often comic, of treatment that is expected to result in personality changes necessary for recovery. Smart-ass Rachel actually becomes a beguiling heroine after learning to wake up and cook eggs at about the same time in the morning she used to fall into somebody's bed in New York. Clever badinage ("the only way to get over one man is get under another") unfortunately sometimes gives way to phrases like "pantie-meltingly gorgeous." The narrative is overlong, and the characters rarely speakAthey yell or shriekAbut, overall, Keyes's stylish wit keeps readers attentive, and her take on addiction is insightful and compassionate.

Journal Entry 2 by Elsita from Almada, Setúbal Portugal on Monday, September 15, 2008
Nice story.
I was once in a situation like Rachel's, not about drugs or alchool, but with a depression and my parents wanted my to get some institutional help... So I identify myself a lot with this book...

Journal Entry 3 by Elsita from Almada, Setúbal Portugal on Monday, September 21, 2009
Reserved to Frangipani04.

Journal Entry 4 by Elsita at A BookCrosser, A Bookcrossing member -- Controlled Releases on Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Released 14 yrs ago (9/24/2009 UTC) at A BookCrosser, A Bookcrossing member -- Controlled Releases

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Long term loan to Frangipani04.
I hope you like it!

Journal Entry 5 by Frangipani04 on Thursday, October 8, 2009
Here it is! (Actually it was here for at least one week - sorry for the delay in registering!) It's on top of my reading list! Muito obrigada Elsita e boa sorte para tudo!

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