I think we’ve all had the misfortune at some time to receive one of those cheery Christmas missives which inform us what a successful, enviable life their writer has enjoyed over the last year, often appended by photographs of the family looking suitably satisfied with themselves. Angela had written such a missive for each of the thirty-three years of her marriage, proclaiming her love of the Australian outback to those she left behind in England, her blissfully happy marriage and of course information regarding her four children’s equally happy and successful lives, to her neighbours, friends, doctor and a myriad of other recipients from near and far.
All those bright, happy letters, putting the best possible spin on their lives, making it sound as though the Gillespies were the luckiest, loveliest, most successful, well-balanced, supportive family in all Australia, and possibly even the world. She had always skipped over any troubles. Avoided mention of any tensions. Edited out any sticky subjects. It had felt like the right thing to do, even if she knew they sometimes sounded too good to be true.
This year Angela sits down at the family computer and can’t think of a word to say beyond the subject line ‘Hello From The Gillespies’ and instead writes a stream of consciousness about her children’s faults which include the delights of an affair, living a fake life, weight problems, over-dramatic and plain weird. She then moves onto her husband Nick who no longer talks to her, has become obsessed with family research and is planning a trip to meet Gillespies from all over the world in Ireland without her. With these details plus a toe-curling fantasy of another life in London, the path she might have taken if she hadn’t met Nick Gillespie, Angela has to abandon the letter to deal with a medical crisis. Little did she know that Nick having seen the Christmas letter had decided to be helpful and forward it to the 100 people on the distribution list.
At over 600 pages long I did wonder how the author was going to spin the fall-out of the letter laced with truth-serum, but she has cleverly added a twist that keeps the momentum moving and adding more warm-hearted details of a family under all kinds pressure. Monica McInereny manages to avoid the saccharine sweetness by keeping her characters real, especially those of her elder daughters who although pretty immature for their ages (early thirties) all come across as individuals with their own personalities, problems and sometimes novel solutions. The story spans the best part of a year in the life of the Gillespie family and although the ending was somewhat predictable it kept my spirits up as I battled the first virus of the winter season.
I received my copy of Hello From The Gillespies from the publishers Penguin Books (UK) ahead of the publication date of 6 November 2014 in return for this honest review.
Hahaha!!! I HATE those letters . We have some friends who send one every year and I have often jokily composed an imaginary reply . I am going to
Look out for this book !
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Just make sure you don’t accidently send the response 😉
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Well this one sounds like fun! I, too, have a friend who insists on sending out one of those dreadful round-robin letters which just makes me want to punch the walls…
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Considering how much everyone hates them I wonder how it is that so many are in existence… 😉
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You know, I actually don’t mind quite so much these round-robin letters – perhaps because the few friends who do send them are quite self-depreciating and witty about them. I hate the self-congratulatory Facebook updates though…
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I clearly don’t have the right kind of friends 😉 I have a healthy aversion to what is basically what my Grandmother would have called ‘boasting and showing off’
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Sorry to hear you’ve been ill, Cleo! I hope you feel better now. And you’re now the third trustworthy person to recommend this book. I may just have to add it to the list. I must say I’m not much of a one for those letters, though…
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Those letters are annoying especially if they arrive when nothing seems to be going right in your world even though we all have a sneaky suspicion life can’t possibly have been that wonderful for a whole year. This was a great read, not as funny as I thought it would be but a very ‘comfortable’ read about what felt like were true characters living a real life.
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I definitely remember getting those letters…and then seeing the marriages of those perfect couples fall apart over the years…and tried not to feel smug. So did mine, but I never sent letters of our perfect lives, either…LOL.
I loved how the author turned this into a family saga…and enjoyed it a lot. It was a favorite read for October for me.
Those daughters (especially the youngest!) were so annoying…but that made them real.
Thanks for sharing..glad you enjoyed it.
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You are so right and it’s much harder to re-write history once it has been committed to paper 😉
It wasn’t quite what I expected but a great read and yes the annoying whiney daughter certainly added a touch of realism.
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Ooh, I’m very, very tempted but…600 pages? I think it will have to wait at least till the Christmas rush is over. I get one of these every year from an old schoolfriend who is now married to a hugely successful author, filled with tales of their world travels and appearances at awards dos – it truly makes me wants to spit! It’s always the first card that arrives too – a great start to the festive spirit… 😉
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Haha – all the effort that goes into them and my straw poll shows that most of us dislike them! It is much longer than I’d have expected, I read it on the kindle and only checked out the page count once I’d finished.
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This sounds like a worthy break from all of your usual murder and mayhem! Hope you’re feeling better!
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It was a much gentler read, just what you need when you feel under the weather 🙂
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A rich read, once you get through the 600 pages, is Richard Wagamese’s Medicine Walk
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Amazing how this was a 600 paged read. I usually send a newsletter with our Mele Kalikimaka pic. Didn’t last year as I was too tired.
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There was much more than the immediate aftermath of the 100 people reading the truth, a clever plot device quite a way into the book kept the momentum going.
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Just finished reading this too. I wasn’t loving it until more than half way through. When the “Twist” comes, I thought it was going to get crazy, but it got even better!
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It wasn’t quite what I expected and as you say the twist gave it a new lease of life, the family kept me company while I felt poorly 🙂
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I hope you are feeling better!
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Sadly not but hopefully I’ll get there soon – stupid virus 🙂
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I guess ‘twists’ in books which are otherwise predictable keeps them going for the readers. BTW I hope you are feeling better now! 🙂
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Thank you – I’m getting there but far too slowly for my liking. Working and sniffling is no fun 😦
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Take care! 🙂
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This is sure my kind of book. What books have you put on your Christmas present list?
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This was such a good read, a long book but it didn’t feel like it. Unusually I don’t have lots of books on my list for specifically Christmas apart from The Zig Zag Girl by Elly Griffiths but hopefully I’ll get an Amazon voucher too so that I can choose ones from my wishlist (which is enormous) at my leisure.
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