Getting Over It

Twenty-something Helen's life is turned upside down when her father dies suddenly and unexpectedly. As Helen, her mother, and her grandmother each try to deal with their grief in their own way, Helen also battles with her thankless job, her string of bad relationships, her boorish roommates, her troublesome cat, and various tiffs with her best gal pals. With all this going on, how will Helen ever survive a year of grief and guilt?

I'm not sure what to make of this book. In the beginning, Helen was so incredibly shallow and vapid that I was ready to give up on the book. My need to see books through to the end was stronger than my dislike of Helen, and I found she could redeem herself ... although she often went back to being just as dumb show more again, at least her motives started being in the right place. And while part of me is ready to write this book of as fluff, there are rather deep subjects covered; in addition to the through-line about grief, there is a side story about domestic violence. While the prose style manages to stay pretty airy throughout, these topics are looked at seriously enough.

My big complaint with the book might be more that it seems to ramble and jump about a great deal. Yet somehow, even after 400 pages worth of Helen's various issues, the ending seems a bit abrupt. Overall, it's a pretty entertaining read for when you're looking for something fairly light and quick, but it's not a great work of literature. show less

#92, 2004

This is the third of Maxted's books I've read, and once again she has dealt with some serious issues, but manages to be humorous along the way. This book did make me laugh out loud in a few spots, and I cried once, as well. Helen is going through some typical mid-20s stuff - boyfriends, issues with flat-mates, a less-than-thrilling job - when her father dies suddenly of a heart-attack. As she watches her mother fall apart, she wonders why she, herself, isn't feeling more grief. Sure, she wasn't that close to her dad, but still, she'd have thought she'd feel more than she does. And, of course, during the course of the book, she meets a guy who just might be "the one," but will they ever manage to stay together? I thought that show more the big subject of the book - dealing with a lack of grief for one's dead father - would be the thing to affect me the most, considering that my own father died two years ago, and I stlll haven't managed to work up any real grief. Well, as it turns out, that's not where this book touched me - I found one of the subplots to be far more heart-wrenching (but I don't want to say what, as it's spoilerish). This was a good book - funny, and Helen is a loveable character, although at times her lack of tact and ability to embarass herself are *almost* over-the-top. But not quite. I'd recommend, especially to anyone who likes chick lit. show less

Marian Keyes är min favorit författare när det gäller böcker i det genre, ocj jag har läst massa av liknade böcker från andra av storbritaniens kvinnliga författare och Anna Maxted är första författaren som jag tycker kan mätta sig med Keyes.
Jag gillar huvudkaraktären Helen Bradshaw som tillskillnad från många andra huvudkaraktärer i sådana böcker är en kaxig tjej med skinn på näsan.
Även hennes familj är härlig en omogen och egocentrisk mamma och en bitter polsk farmor

The title Getting Over It refers to the death of the heroine's father, I believe. And what I most appreciated with regard to that was the that novel spanned a full year, at which point Helen felt as though she'd only skimmed the surface of her grief. In other words, she hasn't gotten over it. But she has made a conscious decision to move forward. Not that the whole book is about Helen being grief-striken. It's about a gamut of feelings that occur in the year following her father's passing. It's about her relationships with friends, roommates, mother, grand-mother and a special man she meets on the day of her father's funeral who she keeps accidentally pushing out of her life.
There were a sprinkling of really clever wordings that made show more me chuckle and even laugh out loud a few times. And I was really down after reading the portion of the book where one of Helen's good friends is subject to a severely abusive relationship. So the book was successful at evoking emotion.
And yet... it somehow didn't fully do it for me. I can't point to anything in particular that I would have wanted added or removed. Perhaps part of the problem for me was that I had quite a bit in common with Helen, like being an only child and having my father die in the past few years, but yet didn't relate to her all that well. She was a quite likeable character but not one that I would crave to meet. I felt like we could run in the same circles but would not likely become good friends. show less

I just reread this book, which I remember reading a loving years ago. It's still so funny and touching, but some of the plot seems a bit awkward. If anybody could just sit down and talk to another character for two minutes, everything could have been sorted out SO EASILY! But I guess without that tension, there wouldn't have been a book to read.

Well, I don't fall into either the loveit or hateit camp here, but the book was really pretty good and, much more than just a chick-lit. The heroine's father dies in the opening pages of the book, and the story really revolves about the trauma she and her mother have coming to grip with his sudden death. Then it does have the chick-lit relationships frenzy, but some more dark than frivolous. I'm glad I read it.

Helen Bradshaw's father has just died of a heart attack. Helen's selfish mother is falling apart. Helen herself isn't doing too well: unresolved issues about her father, roommate problems, boss from hell, etc. This is chick lit but with a few dark edges that keep it interesting and fun.