PS, I Love You

PS, I Love You, Cecelia Ahern, 2004, Hyperion. Genre: Chick Lit. 375 pages. Finished 3/14/2010. Reviewer's Note: this book must be read in your best "magically delicious!" Irish accent for proper effect.

LesOpinion: I was fully prepared to hate this book. Here are 5 reasons why:
1. I couldn't sit through the entire movie based on the book.
2. The author was 22 years old at the time...and cute as a bug's ear...and the daughter of the Irish prime minister. Whatever.
3. Only 22-year-old cute rich girls believe in soul mates.
4. 43-year-old divorcees who haven't been on a date in 2 years not only do not believe in soul mates but they have a de facto policy of loathing against 22-year-old cute rich girls who do.
5. I have a degree in literature, thank you very much. I don't do Chick Lit.

I was wrong. That's what I love about the Library Quest. Every single book I've dreaded reading--the fantasy book, the romantic suspense books, this one--have surprised me. They are books I would never have read if not for the Quest.

No, this book still isn't great literature. No, I still don't believe in soul mates. But I now know that the movie adaptation missed the two best things about the book (to wit, that its characters are working class Irish and the main character and her friends are party girls). The writing could use an occasional edit: "She was a woman who had been given advice from a man she loved, who had taken it and tried her hardest to help heal herself." (Uh huh. I just read the last 374 pages. I think I know). But it was funny, occasionally moving, and charming. I especially like hearing Irish people use words like "nick," and "boot" in ways that we Yanks do not.