Book Reviews
Love & Punishment - reviewed by Jacqui Lester
"Revenge can have surprising consequences…" For anyone who's ever been dumped, done something crazy, or wanted revenge on an ex, this book is just perfect for you. Francis McKenzie makes her living giving people answers to all their love woes. As the Agony Aunt for the Sunday Press's Seriously Single column she's used to tales of betrayal, lost love and rocky relationships. But she never thought it would happen to her. Her life was perfect. Great job, great flat, great boyfriend. Well, make that ex-boyfriend as the man she thought she was going to spend the rest of her life with suddenly dumps her for another woman. But not just any other woman; an older woman. Francie can't believe it. She knows all the stereotypes, the comforts, the jokes about being dumped for a younger model, but an older one? Suddenly it's Francie who needs the Agony Aunt. And as her world crumbles around her, Francie is driven to do something crazy, something embarrassing, something she knows she'll regret. Something she absolutely cannot let anyone find out about. But the more she tries to hide her secret, the worse it becomes.
With her second novel, Australian comedienne Wendy Harmer offers a hilarious and often heart-wrenching account of a woman depressed, obsessed and very handy with a pair of scissors. You'll laugh just as much as you'll cry with this achingly real story about a girl who's been pushed to the edge by love – think Bridget Jones with an Aussie twist and more guts. You'll love it because: Wendy Harmer gives you the perfect portrayal of a break up. Anyone who's ever been dumped will be able to relate to Francie's despair and temporary insanity, and plus, the entire novel is set in Melbourne – you'll get all the references and know all the sights.
Love and Punishment - reviewed by Tonia from Mary Martin Bookshop
In Wendy Harmer’s book Love and Punishment, Francie gets to do what every jilted lover has always wanted to do… get revenge. But the end result is far from what she imagined… In this entertaining romantic comedy Francie, an average woman working for a newspaper column, is suddenly flung from her safe haven of a five year de-facto relationship into a horrid nightmare. Her long-time boyfriend has run off with a much older woman (even worse, an actress!) leaving Francie to pick up the pieces of her own fragile life. She is left in an emotional wasteland asking the big question everyone asks when they are suddenly ditched…“why?” What begins at first as a typical “my boyfriend ran off with another woman” story soon develops into a much more complex, and at times not so pretty, journey of self discovery. Francie is forced to face not only a failed relationship, but her own personal demons.
She begins to question her attitude and actions with the help of a therapist, who encourages her to see past the relationship issues and confront some scarier monsters from her past. Along the way Francie is joined by some new flatmates, her domesticated mother who is in denial, a brother who has a secret of his own, and also her close friends who are incredibly supportive towards her at first, but what will they think when the real truth is exposed?
As the story progresses you as the reader, as well as the other characters, are slowly leaked the truth behind Frankie’s (so far) well hidden secret. You can’t help but feel for Francie as you both grimace and laugh at her and with her at the same time. I liked that Francie was a character who anyone could relate to. She was very likeable, and she was neither too dramatic nor too pathetic. The story was both funny, yet at the same time made you think about things on a serious level too.
For anyone who as ever been in a similar situation or seen someone who has, the story was very believable. It’s always great when you can see a character evolving and changing as the story goes along, and Wendy Harmer does this brilliantly, without being too preachy or over the top. It is a gradual process and is both entertaining and heart-warming. I was hooked from the first few pages and looked forward to picking up the book again whenever I had the chance. As for any faults in the book, there weren’t many that I could see. If you are a fan of romantic comedies then you should definitely have a read of this one.
Love and Punishment - reviewed by Denise Pickles
Wendy Harmer has written a new novel, an occasion for rejoicing, indeed. With her keen eye, acerbic wit and wry humour, the author cannot fail to delight her readers. Francie McKenzie is seeing a therapist. Perhaps the therapist isn't quite the one for her since Francie realises she is smarter than Faith and in any case, Faith doesn't seem to be making her feel better about herself, but Francie is desperate. Her boyfriend, Nick, has dumped her and taken up with a woman, an accomplished actress, who is eleven years Francie's senior. Francie needs help. Francie is a journalist writing an agony column for a Sunday paper; an ironical situation given her present condition. Nonetheless, she struggles along attempting to bring surcease to the hearts of others while enduring her own broken heart. Gabby, the editor imported and placed in authority over her, attempts to help Francie and she is bullied into leaving the house she called home when her boyfriend lived there with her.
Her new domicile, Elysium, a Victorian mansion, is shared with a television comedian, Jessie, Dave, a gorgeous hunk who specialises in one night stands and Robbie, a gay musician. The four tenants have the fact that they are currently single (and seemingly doomed to remain so) in common. Wherever Francie goes she is haunted by reminders of Nick and his new love Poppy. The journalist is driven to sharing a one night stand with Dave, who seems unwelcomingly inclined to prolong the experience. Francie's mother was deserted by her father when she and her brother Joel were children. Now Francie seems to be doomed to living out her mother's fate. To add to her distress, she is haunted by strange dreams. Despite being not in the slightest reluctant to share the story of Nick's shameful desertion with all and sundry, Francie is concealing a secret, one which, in the fullness of time, is told, by courtesy of Jessie and Poppy, on national television. Francie feels humiliated, especially when Poppy appears ready to vanquish all the shreds remaining to Francie of self respect, but then a strange phenomenon occurs.
Harmer has a wonderfully sharp eye and the ability to capture what she sees in devastatingly funny prose. The emotions Francie experiences have surely been felt by most women and so most women should be able to laugh at their former heartbreak when the author reflects their subtly distorted ruin in the cruelly necessary mirror of mockery. The heartrending tale of Francie's misery, her revenge and her attempt at recovery is most entertaining and acutely if somewhat wryly entertaining. Harmer's characters are the sort of people one meets every day (if one moves in such circles) and Francie's revenge something which no doubt most jilted women would delight in perpetrating. Chick lit? Perhaps it could be so categorised but Harmer's wit and characterisation lifts it out of that rather frothy classification. Cut up over love
Love and Punishment - reviewed by Poppy Gee
WHEN Wendy Harmer was in her early thirties her boyfriend dumped her for an older woman. Hurt, bewildered and furious, Harmer embarked on a short-lived revenge campaign involving an embarrassing incident with a handful of his undies and a pair of scissors. Now happily married with children and well and truly over the betrayal (the old boyfriend was a guest at her wedding) Harmer has drawn on the incident for inspiration in her latest novel in which the main character, Francie, vindictively tries to ruin the lives of her ex-boyfriend and his new girlfriend.
But Harmer insists that there's a vital point of difference between Francie and herself. "Although I did cut up some of his underwear, I wasn't quite as vicious as Francie. One of my girlfriends was standing in the doorway (while I was doing it) and she said 'that looks like fun, can I have a turn?'," Harmer recalls. "Vandalism is fun to joke about. There is no end to the amount of talkback that asks for what is your best revenge story. We all make jokes about it but it is quite serious. My true character went AWOL. Looking back, I can't imagine it was me." Harmer first used the breakup revenge scenario in her 1990 Edinburgh Festival act, Love Gone Wrong, and admits to having drawn on it for different sketches over the years. "It turned out to be the most profitable break-up I have ever had. I should send him a cheque," she says.
Love and Punishment is a racy read about Francie, the 32-year-old writer of a Sunday newspaper's Seriously Single column, whose boyfriend hasn't left her for just any other woman, but Poppy Sommerville-Smith, a famous actor who is, to add insult to injury, 11 years Francie's senior. In the aftermath of the break-up Francie moves into a share house in St Kilda with a girl-comedian, a gay bloke and a really hot guy. She sleeps with the hot guy in the first week, drinks copious amounts of alcohol, bores her friends senseless with her bitterness and obsessive jealousy, books herself in for therapy and eventually tries to get on with her life. Unfortunately no amount of champagne will wipe out Francie's nasty secret of vile revenge which threatens to reveal itself and destroy her life.
The story is thoughtfully crafted and fluidly written and Harmer's comedic skill contributes to the engaging plot. Scenes such as Francie's flatmate turning the share house secrets into fodder for her live television panel, Talkfest, and late-night booze-fuelled conversations are realistic, sharp and funny. However, beneath the lighthearted tales of one-night stands, vodka hangovers and glamorous careers, Harmer explores serious issues such as infidelity, the relationship between memory and identity, friendship, family, with a particular focus on the dynamics of grief. "I do believe that grief is something you have to attend to. If you don't you will have a nervous breakdown," Harmer says. "After my break-up I went to a counsellor. I was at the point where all my friends said we've had a gutful and I had to pay some one to listen. I was so boring. "Therapy and alcohol got me through. Therapy helped me break the pattern."
The novel starts with Francie's relationship counsellor telling her to look in a mirror and describe the qualities she loves about herself. Francie can only see someone she hates, an utter loser, a fat lump of nothing. Harmer's warm style is faithful to the chick-lit genre: simple word choice, clear ideas and punchy one-liners. "I love chick lit," Harmer said. "I'm not trying to write the most beautiful sentence in the world. The prose doesn't get in the way. "That doesn't mean it is written like a pamphlet. I get bored with over-written books." With a career that includes 11 years' hosting 2Day FM's top-rating breakfast show, stints on television, theatre and live comedy, Harmer lists writing as one of the most challenging and stimulating things she has done. "It is so much fun. You wake up and you think, I'm writing a book. It is wonderfully fulfilling and incredibly lonely," she says. "A courier knocks on the door and you're so friendly he is chewing his arm off to get away. I went to parties and would get drunk and just talk and talk since I'd been alone all day." Not everyone will like this book but if chick-lit is your thing, Love and Punishment is the deluxe triple chocolate fudge bar of the genre – great flavour, memorable aftertaste and impossible to put down until you've gorged the lot.