Under the Duvet

A mostly amiable and low-key amusing collection of short essays, ideal for an ex-pat who's missing being surrounded by Irish voices and diction. (Though Marian Keyes never actually explains what words like stocious, wan, yoke, etc. mean so parts might be confusing for non-Irish people.) The essays about Keyes' battles with depression and alcoholism are less frothy pieces than the pink cover might lead you to expect, but that's par for the course with her style of writing. The one real bum note is the very last piece, about a trip which she and her husband made to Vietnam—it takes a patronising, infantilising approach to the Vietnamese which earlier pieces in the book criticise the English for adopting towards the Irish.

I wanted something light to read, and this was definitely light, but maybe too shallow. There was occasional humor. I think the biggest problem is I didn't realize how old it was. Most of the stories were written between the years 1998-2000, so they felt really outdated.

Marian Keyes is as deliciously fun & interesting when talking about her life as when telling about the lives of her fictional characters; a quick fun bit of fluff to read when you're feeling all girly girl.

What a fun collection of essays! I'm a big fan of Marian Keyes, so when I saw this as an Amazon bargain book, I couldn't resist it. I've been reading this an few essays at a time, mostly while I'm on campus, waiting for class to start - it's perfect for that kind of "pick it up and read a few pages" reading, since each essay is only about 3 or 4 pages, max.

Marian Keyes is a delight and gift to the reading public. Love her so much and this collection of essays is as Marian as they get.

The odd piece made me chuckle, but many of them were not interesting & much of a muchness.

Cute book but a bit repetitive in places. The house buying stories were the most amusing just because we've recently gone through that ourselves.