Behaving Like Adults Book

Anna Maxted is not one to shy away from difficult and emotionally traumatic issues. Here in Behaving Like Adults she tackles date rape having dealt with bereavement in her first book, Getting Over It, and with eating disorders in her second novel, Running In Heels. It sounds grim--"doomed chick lit"--but the joy of Anna Maxted's books (and they are joyful, despite everything) is the humour and sympathy of her writing. The heroine of this story is Holly, who runs a dating agency. She split up with Nick, her childish boyfriend of five years, because "he didn't know how to make an effort in a relationship" (he lives on "hygiene's edge" not washing or talking enough, and being a generally lacklustre dating companion). She decides to throw a party to celebrate the success of her business and chooses rich and arrogant Stuart as her date for the evening. He brings Holly home, pushes her to the floor, and rapes her, and she doesn't tell anyone. As she says: "as long as I skated along the surface of my composure, I was fine. There was more underneath, I knew, but it was dark and cold and deathly and I refused to go there." The rest of the novel deals with the repercussions of the rape, with Holly trying to carry on as normal, but being unable to. She is forced to redefine her life and her relationships, especially with Nick. Behaving Like Adults is well observed, moving, funny and intensely readable. --Eithne FarryRead More