countess_eva's Full Review: Sophie Kinsella - The Undomestic Goddess
Samantha Sweeting is a skilled lawyer, quickly moving up the corporate ladder into an immanent partnership in the acclaimed law firm of Carter & Spink. She works endlessly never allowing time for friends, family, or anything else that might distract her from her main goal, that glorious, blissful day when she may be a partner in that prestigious realm where the greatest lawyers confer over the strict legal terminology that rules their existence. So obsessed is she by her all consuming desire that her birthday gift from a friend, a relaxing stress free day at the spa, turns into a nightmare; after all, how can one sneak a BlackBerry into a stress free atmosphere of peace and tranquility where all forms of work related technology are banned? However, when a cataclysmic fifty million pound mistake costs her everything she ever held dear, Samantha accidentally flees into a simpler life. Disoriented and stunned, she arrives at a couple’s home asking for some aspirin and ends up being mistaken as their new maid. Realizing that her old life can never be reclaimed she jumps at the challenge and the chance to forget. There is only one small problem, she can’t cook, clean, or do housework and her new employers have the mistaken impression that she’s a Cordon Bleu chef, a renowned housekeeper with possible connections to aristocrats, and an overall household genius. How will she be able to hide the fact that to her a broom is an alien contraption with unknown uses, a stove is just a big box that sets in the room, and she doesn’t even know what a vacuum cleaner bag is? Will she be able to hide the fact that she’s never cleaned a house in her life, her Cordon Bleu experience has never extended beyond a microwave meal, and that secretly she’s a lawyer with a tragic past? Fraught with endless laughs and amusing mishaps, a smattering of romance, and one woman’s struggle to rise above crushing defeat, The Undomestic Goddess is Sophie Kinsella’s best work to date. Encompassing everything that a good novel should have, Undomestic Goddess succeeds on every level.
Embracing that dream we all hold dear, Samantha’s flee from the rat race to a simpler more idyllic existence is part of the charm of this novel. The very idea of abandoning everything to seek refuge in a country setting where the details of one’s prior life are inconsequential is such a sweet cherished dream that countless generations have come to harbour over the years that it is a particularly effecting theme for this tale. To actually see someone who gets tired of their life and simply abandons it for a chance to start all over again is a fascinating concept that instantly captures the reader’s imagination.
The hilariously misguided Samantha Sweeting was a character that instantly captured the reader’s heart making her dilemmas truly come alive; she was a protagonist that the reader could whole heartedly sympathize with. The author not only revealed Samantha’s lovable attributes but her all too human failings as well. As the tale progressed the reader felt deeply for Samantha as her life tragically fell apart, all her dreams being mercilessly shattered by one fatal error. Her sorrow over her accidental transgression combined with her continual disbelief over how her carefully planned life could be so easily fractured was revealed with such heartrending realism that it effectively created a heroine that we could truly route for. As Samantha seamlessly narrates her tale, the joys and disappointments of her new life as housekeeper as well as her comical mishaps along the way are so vividly evoked as to truly endear her to the reader making them feel by the conclusion of the tale as if they really knew Samantha and had not only watched but participated in the enfolding drama of her life as well.
As usual, Sophie Kinsella employs her standard literary formula of authorship, taking the reader into the protagonist’s mind. Undomestic Goddess did not feel like the mere recanting of a tale, rather, the drama was narrated through a first person perspective allowing the reader into Samantha’s mind as she navigates the turbulent waters of her unsteady life. This invasion of Samantha’s thought process was the main reason for the novel’s charm. Her wit, continual solutions to life’s little problems, and her general bad luck, was made more amusing by the revelations of her feelings on these issues. As her life continues to relentlessly spiral out of control her emotional reactions, from the dismal depths of despair to the awakening of hope and romance, were so well evoked as to truly bring her alive not only immersing the reader, but also showing us all that even when things go bad there is always hope for the future and that sometimes bad situations are merely the preludes to something far better than was ever imagined. Through the easy flowing dialogue of Samantha’s innermost feelings the reader is allowed to truly feel her pain and this marvel of literary ingenuity effortlessly creates a fairy tale world where everything is all right, even when it isn’t.
As Samantha struggles with her new job as housekeeper, desperately trying to hide her general ineptness from her clueless employers, the outlandish situations grow even more hilarious from her struggle to make the morning coffee to her disastrous first Cordon Bleu meal where her chick peas were blackened and the consistency of bullets, her gooey meringue steadily oozing onto the floor in the background, and her delectable pork chops a charred ruin. How then can she ever expect to keep her idyllic country life when her housekeeping is a sham, her life a lie, and her hopes for the future nil? Things could simply not be worse. Her life is over. Both ludicrous and sad, her short career as a housekeeper is now completely finished; that is, until she meets Nathanial, the gardener, whose compassionate outlook on her situation stifles the urge to flee in her soul. Maybe everything will be all right after all. Maybe she should try again. As with all Sophie Kinsella novels, our characters are presented with seemingly insurmountable obstacles yet, the search for hope and the newness of love is always enough to soothe the sorrow in their spirits and prove to us, the cynical readers, that everything isn’t always so hopeless. “Life’s a pretty resilient thing after all.”
So, infused with dashes of hope and love, Samantha makes her way in this new life of hers realizing that despite all her humorous mistakes, including that time when she tried to make those sandwiches, first used a washing machine, and yes that terrible incident with the bleach, everything will be okay. Only, there’s still one doubt in her mind about that error she was accused of. Should she return to Carter Spink and try to vindicate her name or should she let bygones alone and embrace her charming country life where a simple carefree existence is worth far more than a fancy London career? As the tale spirals toward an emotional climax fraught with plenty of drama and a good few laughs, Samantha’s future hangs in the balance. Will she choose love or vindication? Will she choose the simple life or will she return to her old life, where the most recent contract was all that filled her waking hours? Read to find out!
Workaholic attorney Samantha Sweeting has made a mistake so huge, it ll wreck any chance of a partnership. Going into utter meltdown, she gets on a tr...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
Workaholic attorney Samantha Sweeting has made a mistake so huge, it ll wreck any chance of a partnership. Going into utter meltdown, she gets on a tr...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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