Ralph's Party

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There's a funny butcher with a good, but impractical approach to life. And yes, I've met guys like that. There was some weird descriptions of the fact she’d put on weight and her husband liked it because she ‘felt like a chubby school girl’ and he’d never gotten to sleep with a chubby school girl. These six star-crossed tenants become more enamored, and more confused, as the story progresses-until their true destinies are revealed on one crucial night-the evening of the extravaganza that is . . . Ralph's party. ABOUT THIS BOOK: Meet the residents of the London brownstone on 31 Almanac Road who together weave a tangled web of romance. Ralph, a ne'er-do-well artist, suddenly realizes he's head over heels in love with his new flatmate Jem, the most fun and sensible girl he's ever encountered. Unfortunately, Ralph's best friend, Smith, has already won Jem's affections, although Smith has not entirely given up his passion for the femme fatale, Cheri, who lives upstairs. Across the hall, Karl and Siobhan have been happily unmarried for years, until Karl gets a smashing job as a London rush-hour DJ and momentarily gets tempted into Cheri's cozy lair.

Meet the residents of the London brownstone on 31 Almanac Road who together weave a tangled web of romance. Ralph, a ne'er-do-well artist, suddenly realizes he's head over heels in love with his new flatmate Jem, the most fun and sensible girl he's ever encountered. Unfortunately, Ralph's best friend, Smith, has already won Jem's affections, although Smith has not entirely given up his passion for the femme fatale, Cheri, who lives upstairs. Across the hall, Karl and Siobhan have been happily unmarried for years, until Karl gets a smashing job as a London rush-hour DJ and momentarily gets tempted into Cheri's cozy lair. Meet the residents of the London brownstone on 31 Almanac Road who together weave a tangled web of romance. Ralph, a ne'er-do-well artist, suddenly realizes he's head over heels in love with his new flatmate Jem, the most fun and sensible girl he's ever encountered. Unfortunately, Ralph's best friend, Smith, has already won Jem's affections, although Smith has not entirely given up his passion for the femme fatale, Cheri, who lives upstairs. Across the hall, Karl and Siobhan have been happily unmarried for years, until Karl gets a smashing job as a London rush-hour DJ and momentarily gets tempted into Cheri's cozy lair. These six star-crossed tenants become more enamored, and more confused, as the story progresses-until their true destinies are revealed on one crucial night-the evening of the extravaganza that is . . . Ralph's party. This wonderfully hip new novel was an instant popular success when it was first published in England, and American readers are sure to be captivated by the debut of a talented new writer. I won’t continue with what happens through the book as I don’t want to spoil it if you are thinking of reading, but all I will say is I don’t recommend and if you want to read Lisa Jewell, I would recommend these by her instead as they are all a thousand times better: Jem and Ralph are blissfully in love and make the perfect couple. But several years later, it's not going so well. They fell in love at an art gallery so it's bad karma that Ralph feels he has lost his sense of artistry. His paintings just don't look or feel the same and Jem feels like she is Ralph's wife and the children's mother - she's lost who she is.It's also interesting for me in that Ralph's Party was very much set in the approach to 1997, the arse-end of a pretty bad recession and a moribund Tory-led Britain before the expectation of a New Labour victory. This one is set literally after that party. Not exactly that you notice it much in the text -- she's not a political writer or anything of the sort, but it's interesting that she dabbles fleetingly in religion and the spiritual, and even hints that the jollies the central couple used to get was sort of, well, vacuous. The good times are gone.

After The Party is an incredibly emotional read because it’s clear that Ralph and Jem belong together no matter what so to see their relationship self-destruct is horrible to read. I wanted to shake them both and tell them to stop being so silly. I rarely get so involved with characters but with Jem and Ralph I just couldn’t get enough. It helps that Lisa Jewell gives us both Ralph and Jem’s point of view, making for a very fair view of their relationship. Lisa Jewell really is a fantastic writer because, to be blunt, After The Party isn’t your usual boy-meets-girl-they-fall-in-love affair, After The Party is about what it’s like after being together for a huge amount of time and all the troubles a modern couple face these days. It was a very turbulent year in the life of Jem and Ralph and I really didn’t know how it would end. Ned finds high school sweetheart, but she's all grown up and over him now. Ned's Australia girl starts sending him pieces of herself (hair, toenails, eyelashes, etc.) in the mail and texting him "cunt" over and over. He finally writes a letter to her parents and we never hear anything more from her. Ned finally decides he needs to get a job and starts working for a temp agency. He meets a girl on the job and they hit it off, but when Ned makes a move, she turns him down stating that he hasn't grown up yet. Ned and Gervase are get close.MY THOUGHTS: Light, fluffy, funny but with hidden depths, Ralph's Party is reminiscent of the Oscar Wilde classic The Importance of Being Ernest. I enjoyed this comedic romp, Lisa Jewell's first novel which she wrote as the result of a dare. There are a few cringeworthy moments, but nothing out of character. Though I must admit that Ralph's character could be extremely irritating at times. There are several more incidents of this sort of selfish behaviour that made me thoroughly dislike them both. They came across as the epitome of pampered London types, used to getting their own way, using others without thought of the consequences and so forth, and I really didn't like either of them.

Lisa Jewell is a really good writer and I was surprised when I realised I hadn't read her first book, the cover is simple but perfect for the story behind it. Jem is the centre of attention in this book and I love that as she's such a lovely character she's someone you want as a friend as she's a good listener and counts everyone she has in her life as important. Ralph is a shy person to begin with but as the book went on he grew as a person and it was good to see his shy side firstly and then for him to come out of his shell put a smile on my face.Smith is a different person altogether, In my opinion he loves being the centre of attention and goes in sulks and moods if things don't go his way. I wasn't keen on at the beginning and still wasn't at the end. During all this drama, Gervase has spent time with each of the boys. He does this thing where he holds their hands and looks deep into their eyes and they go all gooey inside and wind up spilling everything to him. Turns out he's a bit psychic, a gift he got from his mom. He advises all the boys. this novel represents the culmination of days of trying to be a goodreads giveaway winner. thank you, goodreads!Sean proposes to Milly, she says "yes". They announce it to the family on her first meeting the parents. Then Milly finds out she's pregnant. Sean isn't so happy about it. He likes their life of bar-hopping and recreational drug use. She wants to keep it and Sean starts avoiding her under the pretense of writing his book. He get the idea to write about how women make all the decisions in the world because they are the only ones to decide to keep a baby. I don't know whether it was due to this massive excitement, but my overwhelming feeling having finished this book is one of disappointment. It was wonderful delving into the lives of Jem and Ralph again, meeting their beautiful children and seeing how hard it can be to keep a sense of love alive after years of being together. The sentiment behind the book, as presented most succinctly by the quote from Mignon McLaughlin: "A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person" is believable and very pertinent to many couples. Jewell's ability to round her characters out is already in evidence here, as is her ability to think outside the box. Not everything went as I expected, she has thrown a few surprises in the mix.