One-Hit Wonder

I just finished reading this book a few minutes ago, and I don't know what else to exclaim except "I totally loved it!" Confession time... despite the scores of books I have read, I am one of those who will browse in a bookstore, see a flashy book cover or a catchy title and, like a fish to bait, grab it, and peek at what's inside (yeah, many of you probably do it too, but think you're too hep & packed full of intelligentsia to admit it, even to yourselves!). The title "One-Hit Wonder" and its day-glo cover lured me in, but what convinced me to buy it was to opening chapter, which consists of a former pop-star's letter to her estranged kid sister. Without knowing anything else about the plot, I was moved by the letter itself. Out of the letter and into the story: young, tall, nerdy and awkward Ana Wills travels from her sleepy hometown of Devon to London, where her big sister was recently found dead. The original purpose of this trip is to clear out her sister's apartment and tie up loose ends. But after searching through her sister's belongings ---and making the seemingly simple discovery that her sister had a cat named John (who is MIA)--- Ana decides to search out people who were friends with the sister she barely knew. What is intended to be a one day clean-up trip into the big city turns into a belated coming of age novel. And if one had to boil this story down to one category, that's how I would nail it: "belated coming-of-age." The cool thing is, we don't have to nail it down to one genre. This book can be categorized as a mystery, saga, pop-culture, slice of life, romance... Lisa Jewell encompasses quite a lot of stories in just one story. What intrigued me throughout the story was the unpredictable nature of the characters as a whole. It's not that each character did things mind-blowingly against his or her nature. The unpredictability shows in the wide variety of characters strolling in- & -out of this novel; some are as simple and predictable as a Charles Dickens character or a Speed Racer villain; other folks have much more substance than meets the eye. Lisa Jewell will keep you guessing, which I found to be half the fun of the book. "One-Hit Wonder" is both a fun and emotional read. And if you are one of those guys who can't get into "chick-flicks" and see this as a literary chick-flick, well... just like the occasional "Steel Magnolias," I think you'll be pleasantly surprised by this totally awesome tale!

Lisa Jewell has done it again. After her success with Ralph's Party and Thirtysomething, she manages to deliver yet another literary art. With her latest book, One Hit Wonder, Jewell has already proved herself just the opposite of what this title claims.You find yourself stuck inside the thoughts of a tall, lanky woman, Anabella, who has never really been able to live for herself. With the help of her overbearing mother and her already insecure self-esteem, she has never managed to become her own person. While constantly in the shadow of her successful celebrity sister who left home at age fifteen, Ana still has yet to leave home at the age of twenty-six.Bee is everything Ana wishes she could be and beyond. With a successful popstar reputation, a hefty amount of money on the table and her very own loft in London, she seems almost untouchable, immortal to her younger sister. What Ana wouldnt give to have Bee's life for just one day.. or perhaps forever.When Bee suddenly commits suicide, Ana finds herself hurrying to London to retrieve the last precious possesions of a foreign older sister. Little did she know that this innocent lapse of her lifestyle would turn into a permanent way of life and she would never be the same again. With the help of Bee's old friends, lovers and money, Ana discovers her extreme ability to live, laugh and love for herself for the first time in her life.Jewell keeps you on your toes with each mind-blowing secret that Ana uncovers on the search to find out who her beloved older sister really was- and on the search to find herself.

Here is just a little something from this salacious novel to get you going: "This man was obscenely sexual. He oozed it. He stank of it. He may as well have been walking around with a twenty-inch erection growing out of his forehead." OI, this book is laughing-out-loud good. Third Lisa Jewell novel I've read and it is the best. And they are all good.There is this fabulous mystery surrounding Ana's ex-pop-star sister. And on the journey Ana takes to tear down wall after wall that Bee has put up around who she really was and what her life really was, many things, many good things, start happening to Ana. And the people she meets along the way are sometimes crazy, disgusting, rude, gorgeous, neurotic, sweet, naked, smelly, confused, serene, sex-crazed, fluffy, short, tall, gangly, muscled, old, precocious, irritating, boring and fat. I was gripped all the way to the end. I love love love loved it! Fresh, fun, riveting, hilarious, surprising & sexy!

I'm not sure what I was expecting from this book, but whatever it was, I got more. This is not your typical Brit Chic Lit. This is the story of Ana, shy, quiet, self-effacing who is sent to London by her overbearing mother to pack up the belongings of her half-sister Bee who has died suddenly. Ana barely knew her half-sister who was several years old than she, but had always imagined that her life was glamorous and fun-filled. But after arriving in London, going through Bee's things and meeting some of Bee's friends, a different picture of Bee emerges. Ana finds that Bee's life seems to be a mystery on top of a mystery. She becomes determined to find out all she can about Bee's life and what led her to suicide. This story is beautifully told. I couldn't stop reading, although did not want the book to end. This is the one of the best books I've read in a long time.

Much as I loved Lisa Jewell's "Ralph's Party," this, her 3rd novel, is infinitely better. I can even put my finger on what makes this novel so special. It is the way Jewell captures the essence of unfinished issues between sisters. Ana's sister Bee dies, a suicide no less, years after Ana last saw her. Bee was a huge pop star at one point but could never move beyond her "one hit wonder." As Ana starts looking into Bee's life, she discovers that much more may have behind Bee's subsequent decline in life other than the failure to record a 2nd hit song. She even discovers an adolescent boy who she initially suspects may have been Bee's son. However, Jewell takes no such easy resolution. Thankfully, she spares us a secret baby plotline. Ana meets a wonderful cast of supporting characters in her quest, people who intersected with her late sister's life. She also must resolve living within the confines of her agoraphobic mother's home and too much under her mother's influence. Moving into Bee's London apartment is her first big step to break that unwholesome situation. Jewell is perhaps the brightest light among all the UK women writers who have distinguished themselves in the last few years in the fiction which has come to the USA.