Best of Friends (by Cathy Kelly)

(Amazon UK link)

I’ve read three books by Cathy Kelly in the past year, and liked them all. She writes saga-style novels, mostly based in Ireland, about different women. So when I saw some of her books inexpensively at a church bookstall, I decided to buy two or three of them.

I have just finished reading ‘Best of Friends’. As with the other books by Cathy Kelly, there is rather a large cast of characters, and I found the first few chapters quite confusing. It wasn’t until I was almost half-way through the book that I had the main characters straight in my mind. They all live in or near an Irish village called Dunmore.

There’s an almost perfect married couple called Sally and Steve, who have two young sons. Sally works in a beauty salon. Then there’s a slightly older couple called Abby and Tom, who have a teenage daughter called Jess. Tom is a deputy headmaster, and Abby works as a de-cluttering expert. She has recently discovered fame, rather reluctantly, in her own TV show. Abby regularly pops into Sally’s salon for a facial or manicure.

Another important character is Lizzie, who works as the receptionist at the local GP surgery. Lizzie, at almost fifty, is the oldest of the main characters. She has two adult children, and is divorced. We learn something of her back-story through the book. Her daughter Debra is getting married soon, and the expenses keep mounting… it’s evident that Debra is extremely selfish, and also very spoiled (in the worst sense of the word) by both her parents.

Finally there are Erin and Greg, a young couple who have been living in the United States. They move to Ireland for Greg’s work, and they both have Irish roots. Erin has lost contact entirely with her family, and it was evidently very traumatic when she left home. She is quite certain she doesn’t want children...

The story takes place over a few months as the characters get to know each other, and we learn that they all have different problems. Sally hasn’t been very well; Erin hasn’t been feeling great, either. Abby’s husband Tom is not happy that she earns more than he does, and their daughter Jess is stressed by various things at her school. Erin is persuaded that she should try to get in contact with her long-lost family. Lizzie decides she wants to make her life more interesting…

It’s character-based, so there’s not a great deal of plot. There’s a tragic event in the middle of the book, but it’s foreshadowed for some time, and is no surprise when it happens. It draws some of the characters closer together, although hardly in the sense of their becoming the ‘Best of Friends’, as the blurb on the back suggests. However, they do pull together to consider some fund-raising, and try to support each other, not taking what they have for granted.

It’s not a difficult or stressful read, though I found myself increasingly irritated with Lizzie, who seems to have no clue how to handle her unbelievably self-centred daughter. I also found Abby’s over-protectiveness towards her daughter to be rather annoying; Jess is a very likeable, caring person with a lot of self-confidence. But Abby wants to know where she is and what she’s doing - yet she doesn’t listen, and is unaware of the many stresses that Jess is suffering at school.

It’s a sign of good characterisation when I find myself irritated with people in books; it means I expect more of them, and want to give them advice. So I was glad that one of these problems essentially solved itself, although I found it hard to swallow the sudden change in Debra’s character after a few angry words exchanged with her aunt.

But the most unlikely scenario is that of Abby who does something unbelievably stupid and out of character. It happens fairly early in the book and has repercussions that continue until nearly the end when another rather-too-dramatic event makes both Abby and Tom rethink their priorities.

The pace of the book works well, and the writing is good, if a bit rambling in places. I felt there was too much internal reflection; characters would have a conversation, or learn something new, and then the author would recount their thoughts, which essentially repeated what had just been said or discovered. I also found the constant references to appearances and beauty treatments to be a bit tedious and I was unimpressed that there’s one sordid scene with too much intimate detail.

But at the same time it was a very readable book, and I found myself caring about some of the characters - particularly Jess and Erin. The ending is nicely done, with most of the threads tidily resolved, and the future encouraging and hopeful for most of the people.

‘Best of Friends’ would make a good holiday read for anyone who likes character-based women’s fiction.

Review copyright 2019 Sue's Book Reviews