Mumsnet Discussions - i have read A Special Relationship by Dpouglas Kennedy which chiefly is about post natal depression and found it (Adult fiction)

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Mumsnet Discussions: Adult fiction : i have read A Special Relationship by Dpouglas Kennedy which chiefly is about post natal depression and found it (12 messages)

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By zippitippitoes on Thu 23-Oct-08 13:00:16

..really quite tedious

a big disappointment as I liked The Woman on the Fifth a lot

I am now giving a go to my third of his State of the Union, IF IT DOESNT GO WELL i MAY ABANDON HIM WHICH SEEMS A SHAME AS i REALLY LIKED THE FIRST ONE AND HIS MOST REASON tHE wOMAN ON THE fIFTH

whoops

The Special Relationship seemed to be very stiff and I didnt find any of it convincing from the relationship point of view it felt very stilted and made tedious repetitive reading

anyone else read it or the others

By zippitippitoes on Thu 23-Oct-08 13:01:47

bothe A Special Relationship and The State of the Union are written from the point of view of a woman I wonder if that is the problem I am just not convinced

By rosmerta on Thu 23-Oct-08 13:42:10

I found A Special Relationship hard going as well. It just didn't ring true with me for some reason.

I haven't read his others and wasn't sure whether to bother or not

By bratnav on Thu 23-Oct-08 13:44:35

I recently managed the first few pages then gave up, I thought it would be fab, esp as I suffered with PND, but I thought it was awful

By zippitippitoes on Thu 23-Oct-08 13:49:16

Th Woman on the Fifth is good

nothing to do with women or depression but an interesting read but slightly odd and with a strange ending (the most disappointing bit)

having read that I thought oh here is an author that is quite easy going but better than just a holiday read

I think A Special Relationship just didn't work as a credible novel

I seem to have read a few mental health novels recently..noit intentionally...and it seems an area which is lacking in a wel done novel

Rachels Holiday..chick lit..was similarly heavy going because it didnt ring true at all to me or my experience just slid over the suubject in a totally unconvincing way

I also felt the same about A Spot of Bother

By overthemill on Thu 23-Oct-08 13:51:40

i hatyed tehse 2 but liked the job and teh big picture, find him a bit 'airport novel' but nothing wrong with that! try anita shreve

By Yorky on Thu 23-Oct-08 13:52:38

I found special relationship depressing without feeling particularly sympathetic to the main character.
While Pursuit of Happiness is about a depressing subject but maybe better done as it held my interest.
Does he only write depressing books?

By zippitippitoes on Thu 23-Oct-08 13:55:15

yes I was totally unsympathetic

I also think judging by those two books he is not good at endings

it all ends up wrapped up in a well that was the end but not especially satisfactory

I don't know

after completing only two I am feeling there is a bit of formula tho havent read enough to quite analyse what it is

By nuttymum303 on Thu 23-Oct-08 17:25:50

I have State of the Union on my TBR pile.

By FlossCampi on Thu 23-Oct-08 22:02:12

I read this via a MN bookswap... I found the last 50 or so pages completely gripping, but most of the rest of the book annoying - and this probably makes me really sad, but most of that was because I thought the quality of his research into ante- and post-natal care in Britain was very poor.

I didn't really enjoy it enough to want to read any more of his tbh. Also the jacket design is <eurgh>.

By zippitippitoes on Thu 23-Oct-08 22:08:15

yesd i thought it didnt have any understasnding of england

same for the mental health care

was not at all true to life

maybe an american man writing from the popint of view of a woman experiencing this in london was too big a task lol

yes the end was the last few pages were better but the conclusion was at odds with what led up to it so a bit pointless really

By zippitippitoes on Mon 27-Oct-08 14:00:13

right the State of the Union

is much better than A Special Relationship

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