Review: The Mystery of Mercy Close

Marian Keyes is really wonderful. Through four other books and over 17 years, she has slowly created Helen Walsh, the protagonist at the heart of her latest book The Mystery of Mercy Close.
  
Helen is first introduced at the start of Keyes' novel-writing career when she appeared as the stroppy, selfish youngest sister in Watermelon. Now the baby in that book is the terrifying, stroppy teenager and Helen is an adult, hit hard by the recession and battling depression.

At times, the Walsh sisters seem to undergo personality transplants as they step up for their turn in the spotlight.  I get that there's a difference between how one is perceived, and how they perceive themselves (or indeed, how they actually are).  But here, Keyes not only nails the core of the Helen that she crafted over the years, she gives depth to our assumptions and expectations.

For example, Helen has always had this deliciously hilarious and enviable ability to speak her mind, charging through life at her own beat.  But in a quietly vulnerable moment in Mercy Close, she reveals that she struggles to get along with people, that she's hard to like and has no friends.

Of course the most striking accomplishment is Keyes' honest and matter-of-fact portrayal of a person who is not only depressed, but suicidal.   As a society we may be increasingly open-minded and knowledgeable, but it is still easy and common to misunderstand depression.

We are in Helen's head, so we follow her train of thought from sex to suicide, from hating a 13 year old boy to the psychiatric hospital.  At times it's hard to comprehend that Helen is functional and going about her day while contemplating killing herself later.  It's scary because it isn't dramatic,  it's subtle and desperate.  Helen is never a victim, she doesn't want pity, nor is she in denial.  Although she does all the right things, she seems to be walking on a tightrope the entire time.

BUT (and this might sound a wee bit crazy) this was a very fun and funny book.  Fans of Marian Keyes will know that she doesn't leave you in the dark for long.  There is a moment in the book which simultaneously had me giggling and sobbing, and that's the reason I love her books.  They are comforting because they provide a level of escapism, but escapism can be boring after a while, it's just a fairy tale.  Keyes does issues, she does the heavy thematic woes but she lets you bask in moments of joy, and she finds humour and hope in the darkest situations.

While the heart of this book is all in the characters, the titular Mystery is fine, perfectly suited and used to propel the story forward while Keyes masterfully weaves together the really meaty parts of her book.

I also have to give special kudos to her depiction of her boy band Laddz.  Boy bands make their fame on being young and cute, singing corny pop songs and doing cheesy dance moves.  But boys grow into men, and what is once cute, indeed becomes more then a little demeaning.  She perfectly captures the celebrity, the mortification and the waves of nostalgia that people feel for the likes of the Backstreet Boys, 5ive, the Spice Girls.

This is a great book, and a great example of why the term "Chick-Lit" is a terrible crime against fiction, and while I believe that term shouldn't be used at all, Marian Keyes' books certainly don't belong in that category so don't let the stigma put you off.