Chicklit Club
 

CELEBRITY READ

 
 

According to Yes - Dawn French (2015)

 

Glenn Wilder-Bingham is very much the matriarch of her all-male family – husband Thomas, son Kemble and grandsons, 18-year-old Teddy and eight-year-old twins Three and Red. Under her rule, there is a strict and proper order to what is acceptable and what is not and no one defies her. Enter Rosie Kitto, a bubbly, eccentric British primary school teacher who is leaving behind her past to kickstart a new life in New York as the twins’ nanny and who has absolutely no appreciation for Glenn’s rules. But even Rosie couldn’t have imagined just how much she’s going to turn all of the Wilder-Binghams’ lives upside down. Although the novel is like Rosie herself a bit left of centre, with some downright questionable episodes, I finished it with a huge smile on my face and an implicit sense of hope. It’s a warming, hopeful novel if with some grit and complications. We do come into Rosie’s story partway through and there are some questions over her past that remain unanswered. Indeed, whilst the novel is split into Acts 1 through 3, it’s as if we’re seeing the middle three acts of a five-part play, with the first and last acts missing. But in fact it isn’t that much of an issue and we have the most significant parts present. The first part for me was slightly too uneventful with Rosie becoming a fixture in the family overnight and usurping Glenn in the blink of an eye. Her various relationships may also raise eyebrows but what I like about French is that she’s an audacious and surprising writer, offering unexpected and distinctive narratives that set her work apart. And as well as her unpredictable plotting, it’s the characters which define this novel. Three and Red are simply adorable and you can’t help but smile at their and Rosie’s antics and as for Rosie herself, well, imagine a feisty, potty-mouthed Mary Poppins and you’re getting there. If you can get past Rosie’s sexual misdemeanours, you may just find this to be a treat. (JC)

Rating 8/10
 
 

Dawn French's latest novel, According to Yes, is about an English teacher who has to adjust to life in Manhattan. The summary says: "The Foreign Land of the Very Wealthy - otherwise known as Manhattan's Upper East Side - has its own rigid code of behaviour. It's a code strictly adhered to by the Wilder-Bingham family. Emotional displays - unacceptable. Unruly behaviour - definitely not welcome. Fun - no thanks. This is Glenn Wilder-Bingham's kingdom. A beautifully displayed impeccably edited fortress of restraint. So when Rosie Kitto, an eccentric thirty-eight-year-old primary school teacher from England, bounces into their lives with a secret sorrow and a heart as big as the city, nobody realises that she hasn't read the rule book. For the Wilder-Bingham family, whose lives begin to unravel thread by thread, the consequences are explosive. Because after a lifetime of saying no, what happens when everyone starts saying . . . yes?" According to Yes is out in October 2015.

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