Book Review: The Ex-Wife's Survival Guide by Debby Holt

FIRST BOOK REVIEW

The Ex-Wife's Survival Guide by Debby Holt

Binding: Paperback
Pages: 327
Price: BND 16.80
Rate: 8.5 out of 10

Synopsis: (from the back cover of the book)

“You've been a great friend to me as well as a wife – and I hope we'll always be friends.”

Sarah Stagg thought she had it all: a lovely husband, twin teenage sons, a cottage in the country. Then her husband, a keen amateur thespian, leaves her for his leading lady, her sons go off to India, and for the first time in twenty years, Sarah is very alone and very single.

The path of a discarded wife is strewn with hazards and humiliations – and Sarah needs to acquire skills for survival . . . fast!

Help (and hindrance) is at hand in the form of well-meaning neighbours, a psychopathic mongrel, an unassuming plumber – and an unwelcome role as Mrs De Winter in the forthcoming Ambercross Players' production of Rebecca.

Warm, witty and utterly beguiling, this sharply observed comedy of (anything but) peaceful village life will appeal to anyone who has lost the love of their life and had to start over again.

I bought this book from Best Eastern, just like 96% of my book collection. I first noticed this book because of it's pretty cover and I was desperate to buy new books on that day so I just chose this and another book by the same author.

In the beginning of the book, Sarah Stagg's husband, Andrew Stagg, had dumped her. He had fallen in love with his fellow actress, Hyacinth Harrington, a beautiful 26 year old lady. Based from the statement by Sarah that if she and Andrew had children at seventeen, then Hyacinth would be old enough to be their daughter, shows that Sarah and Andrew are in their 40s. Andrew had an affair with Hyacinth, thanks to late night rehearsals. Sarah at first didn't believe Andrew and thought he was just joking. But Andrew's serious and leaves Sarah. Well, based on this dumping scene, I thought that it was quite calm since dumping someone always gives me the impression that the whole scene becomes irrational and the person who got dumped would start to shout endlessly and begged the partner not to dumped them. In my mind, dumping scene is always theatrical and dramatic.

Sarah has to deal with the reactions of her neighbours and friends towards Andrew's behaviour towards Sarah. And also, because of all this episode, Andrew and Hyacinth decided to withdraw themselves from the next production of the play, which will be Rebecca. Audrey, the director of Ambercross Players, called Sarah and asked her to go for audition. Sarah ended up as the female lead role, Mrs De Winter. And a kind plumber, Martin Chamberlain, got the male lead role, Maxim. Throughout the book, Andrew remains friendly to Sarah and Sarah continuously thinks of reasons of continuing living as an abandoned wife and why Andrew left her. Sarah and Martin became close friends, as a result of their daily walks to lose some weight. Sarah's sons are also off to India. Her sons are not the sympathetic and consoling type since they didn't do much consoling to their mom. They are the type who like to do their own stuff, so typical of twins. And I thought it was nice of Andrew to still being friendly towards Sarah. I would have thought he would totally ignore her. Granted all those calls he made to Sarah are mostly about business, but his care and concern towards Sarah seems genuine. Yet, Sarah is still bitter and would treat him coldly. Well, I don't blame her. He DID dumped her unceremoniously and without much warning. I do like stories about ex-wife and husband getting along quite well even after divorce. If I got married in the future, and somehow ended up in a divorce, I would rather like to become friends with my husband, even after the separation (of course, I'll have to consider on the reason of the separation).

Sarah got a dog, given by her son's girlfriend. Her son wanted Sarah to have a dog so that she won't be lonely. But the dog hates Sarah and Sarah hates him. The dog is a “psycho” named Jacko. The dog only becomes tame when Martin's around or Martin's brother, Jean-Pierre. In the end, Jacko is given to Jean-Pierre, much to the relief of Sarah.

Thanks to this book, that I got to know an interesting story called Rebecca. I would read it in the future if I can. At a point of the book, Sarah's friend, Miriam, asked Sarah to follow her on a holiday to Majorca. In Majorca, Sarah met her long time crush, Barney. They get acquainted, had sex and he asked her to live with him, which she agreed. In the later part of the book, Barney hit Sarah and scolded her. Later he became sober and was very sorry. Sarah then found out that he's still in love with his ex-wife. He explained that he's using Sarah to make his ex-wife jealous. But his plan backfired since his ex-wife is seeing someone else and is pregnant and wished him to be happy. Sarah is disappointed, angry and upset because Barney is just using her. After that, she never sees him again. This goes to show that never do irrational decisions.

Throughout the book, Sarah showed some, maybe blossoming feelings, to Martin. Those feelings and reaction aren't exactly like, “my heart can't stop beating when I'm with Martin” or all those cliché reactions. Her feelings is much more subtle. Sarah is also gifted in arts, doing paintings to make a living. She landed a job of making four paintings of four “sexy” fruits for a nightclub. In the end, the buyer are very satisfied and gives her four thousand dollars cheque for the four paintings. She was invited to the premier of the club, which Andrew is in charge on the publicity. In here, it seems that Andrew is seeking her out most of the time since Sarah is in the centre of attraction. Earlier, when Sarah told Martin that she'll be meeting with Andrew in the club and he offered to give her a lift home, Martin responded very little and was cold and curt. In the lift back home, Andrew told her he misses her and loves her very much and all those cliché thing that men says to the women they dumped earlier. Basically he's regretting leaving Sarah in the first place and wants to get back to her.

The end of the book is the much awaited play. The play went really well. During the interval, Audrey told Sarah that she's doing a good job. Sarah shocked everyone by announcing that she wants to speak with Martin privately. She confesses to him and before he gives an answer, they had to leave for the play. In the ending scene is where Maxim kisses Mrs De Winter passionately. Martin shows to Sarah and the whole audience that he loves her very much by kissing her so passionately and deeply that makes both of them forgot that they're still acting. Audrey is very anxious, since Martin shows no sign of stopping and continuously pester him to stop. When he did stop, Sarah said to Martin that she loves him. To which Audrey finally exploded and shouted for someone to close the curtains.

I absolutely love this book. There is no messy relationship, no annoying complication, no annoying twist in the love life of the protagonist. The book has some funny parts and overall, it's a rather sweet (in a way) story.