A Tiny Bit Marvellous by Dawn French
| A Tiny Bit Marvellous by Dawn French | |
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| Category: General Fiction | |
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Reviewer: Katie Pullen
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| Summary: Mother Mo and siblings Dora and Peter tell the story of the Battles, an average dysfunctional family full of turmoil, on the brink of meltdown as they face the twists and turns of modern life. I had high hopes for this book, but found it sadly lacking in originality, laughs and an engaging story. | |
| Buy? Maybe | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 432 | Date: June 2011 |
| Publisher: Michael Joseph | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 978-0718157869 | |
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Over the years I have become something of a Dawn French fan. She has consistently entertained and quite frankly made my sides split with laughter as an actor, comedian, and most recently as a writer with her wonderful autobiographyDear Fatty. So when I saw her first novel ‘’A Tiny Bit Marvellous’’ waiting for me on The Bookbag shelves I thought here’s another treat from this remarkable entertainer.
The story surrounds the Battle family, an average family living on the outskirts of Reading, a family full of the usual tensions, arguments and secrets. The story is told in diary form by Mo, the matriarch of the family and her two teenage children, Dora and Peter.
Mo, a successful child psychologist, is about to turn 50 and is writing a book on her chosen career. However, Mo is somewhat lost, unsure of who she is as she faces this milestone of a birthday and is about to do something particularly foolish that will surely mean consequences for all her family. She thinks she has this wonderful understanding of her children thanks to her chosen career, but of course she really hasn’t a clue. At first I warmed to Mo, finding her narrative light hearted and amusing, a character I could find empathy with. But soon she started to irritate me as she really does have the blinkers on when it comes to her family and becomes increasingly self-centred.
Mo’s daughter, Dora, is about to turn eighteen, and is planning to head off to university, although writing her UCAS personal statement leaves a lot to be desired. She has recently split up with her long-standing boyfriend of six weeks, Sam, and is planning to become famous thanks to the upcoming X Factor auditions. Dora is a rebel full of teenage angst, hates her family, except her dad, and feels life is altogether very unfair. It’s hard to really pinpoint Dora’s story, apart from it perhaps being one of simple teenage life in all its hideousness and melodrama. Her narrative is strong in that without even looking at the chapter headings, you can tell that Dora is speaking. However, her unique way of putting things sadly grates on the reader after a while. Everything is ‘’like so’’ this, that or the other. Just a bit too melodramatic for me.
Luckily, Mo’s other child, Peter, is a much nicer teenager. Peter is channelling Oscar Wilde in all his gloriousness and as such his narrative reads like that of a much older person with a wonderful command of the English language. Peter (or Oscar as his chapters are named) is head over heels in love with Noel, Mo’s new assistant at work and has daily fantasies about the perfect smoking jacket. I did wonder whether Dawn had decided to make Peter a rather unusual teenager to provide some respite from Dora’s angst, or she would have had two angst-ridden teenagers on her hands which would probably be just a bit too much for most readers.
Dad sadly does not get his own narrative, apart from one chapter, but regularly pops up in the other three. Dad seems to be the only sane member of the family, and comes across as an all-round good guy looking out for his family. I wish Dawn had given him a voice, as this would surely have made the family more complete.
All in all the Battle family is one we have all heard of before, and for me there was little in originality in their characters and stories. Of course this means the reader can relate to them easily, as there are probably aspects of this family we have all experienced at some point, but unfortunately for me it all became just a bit of a cliché.
Dawn’s writing in itself is exemplary, concise, easy going, and it’s all very well put together, especially as she juggles three separate narratives without losing the individual voices. She clearly knows her characters inside and out and where the story is headed. However, the great laughs I was promised just didn’t materialise, as I only laughed out loud once – a huge disappointment. I also found it a shame that Dawn relies on the use of modern life references such as X Factor and Facebook throughout which will surely date this book quite quickly. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a bad book by any means, it’s perfectly readable, and I wanted to love it so much, but it’s just not as good as I imagined it would be from someone as talented as Dawn.
I’d like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to The Bookbag.
Further Reading Suggestion: If you like the sound of this book, you may also enjoy Dawn French’s excellent autobiography Dear Fatty.
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You can read more book reviews or buy A Tiny Bit Marvellous by Dawn French at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
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