Review: Finding Oneself in a New Place
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 12, 2014
Finding Penelope follows a thirty-something bestselling Irish romance novelist after her move to a Spanish beach town. Her writing success has enable her to leave Dublin and the suffocating influence of her controlling father and drug addicted brother. Once in a new place with nothing to do but concentrate on her writing and hanging out at the beach with her friend Gwen, she is free to reflect on her family and upbringing, but also poised for new things. Ramon, a handsome school teacher with nothing to do over the summer but playing volleyball in the beach in a fetching swimsuit, is that new thing. A gentle romance is an invitation into living a life Penelope Eames had not been able to previously.Lawless writes with warm, fluid lucidity, and the book flows along nicely, but interestingly it hits two different genres:  following a woman romance writer “finding herself” puts the novel in chick lit territory, which is interesting as the author of the novel is male. At the same time, it is based around reflection and reconciliation of memory and the need to move forward, which is very much what British and Irish literature has been revolving around for the last ten years. Although someone like Ian McEwan is regarded as “literary,” he is writing using the same mix of emotion, memory, and the need to reconcile and change.  Lawless, however, doesn’t have McEwan’s penchant for writing in historical mode (which is probably how McEwan evades the chick-lit label), but Lawless’ contemporary world of ex-pat Brits and Irish having a chance to warm up and grow in different climes actually seems a little more honest.