Review: SWAN is marketed as the next BRIDGET JONES'S DIARY but unfortunately it falls well short of the mark.
Rating: 1 out of 5
Date: 09 20, 2013
Oiy! What a pickle! SWAN is marketed as the next BRIDGET JONES'S DIARY but unfortunately it falls well short of the mark. Madeline, our heroine, is experiencing a mid life crisis when we meet her. Single, stuck in a dead end job and terribly lonely, Madeline is comforted by her obsession with a famous American film star. Determined to make a change, Madeline reaches out to her new neighbor, David, and so begins a relationship of the most demeaning sort. Madeline is encouraged to put up with David's frequent unannounced disappearances, mysterious lack of funds or work, and overall lack of intimacy. The book strongly stresses the idea that a relationship with any man is better than being single. A plot twist towards the end of the book provides a happily ever after of such ridiculous proportions it was difficult to resist throwing the book against the wall.The writing is conversational, contemporary and utterly depressing. The characters are cartoonish and self obsessed. The novel's "funnier" moments are disturbingly off key. Even offered as a free read, I would pass on this one.