Oh Dear Silvia

April 15, 2013
The eponymous Silvia of this darkly comic novel, the second from popular British comedienne French, lies in a coma after a fall from her balcony. Each chapter features a visitor to her bedside, including Ed, her banally silly ex-husband; Jo, her frighteningly silly sister; Cat, her “best best ever friend” (self-described); Winnie, her good-hearted Jamaican nurse; Tia, her not-so-good-hearted East Asian housekeeper; and her estranged adult children, Jamie and Cassie. Their musings, elliptically, relate how Silvia came to be lying in a coma in a hospital somewhere in England, and, more tellingly, reveal something of the visitors’ own lives. With a couple of exceptions (Winnie and Jamie), those lives are maddeningly inane: Ed tries (and predictably fails) to kill himself; Cat can’t believe Silvia doesn’t share her romantic feelings; and Jo is an “unhinged woman with acres of confidence, which is a worrisome combination.” All three make the novel an uneasy, uneven mixture of farce and pathos, but it’s funny and, occasionally, impressively well written. One section, about Jamie’s experience in Afghanistan, is particularly fine, but very much at odds with the otherwise slapstick tone. Agent: Zoe Pagnamenta, Zoe Pagnamenta Agency.

May 15, 2013

While Silvia is in a coma as a result of a fall from a balcony, her life story is revealed through those who come to visit her in the hospital and by her nurse Winnie. Silvia's sister Jo has felt responsible for Silvia's well-being since their mother died when they were children and is sure she can coax her out of her unresponsive state. Ex-husband Ed is a faithful visitor as he relives their happier times, and Silvia's estranged daughter, Cassie, finds a way to mend the fissures between herself and her mother. Housekeeper Tia makes the most of her employer's hospitalization as Silvia's lover Cat becomes more manic with each visit. It soon becomes clear that being unconscious has greatly improved Silvia's relationship with those closest to her. But Silvia has had strained relationships with them for years--could one of them be responsible for her fall? VERDICT Making her U.S. debut, British comedian (French and Saunders) and writer French has written a laugh-out-loud novel that is interestingly narrated in alternating chapters by characters with diverse backgrounds and perspectives. This is sure to appeal to fans of contemporary British humor like Absolutely Fabulous or Bridget Jones's Diary with a dash of mystery mixed in.--Karen Core, Detroit P.L.

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2013
Will Silvia, who's in a coma in the hospital, ever speak again? If not, then her visitors, friends and family will help piece together her story, while also revealing their own. Popular British television comedian French, who has already published two best-sellers in the U.K., makes her American debut with a downbeat story of family fracture narrated from multiple perspectives, using voices sometimes profane, sometimes strongly colored by dialect for comic effect, although the result is more clumsy than funny. If there's a plot, it's the mystery of why Silvia Shute became a different woman five years ago, suddenly divorcing her husband and estranging herself from her two children. The explanation emerges through the drip-drip repetitive pattern of chapters devoted to the individual visitors to her bedside after her mysterious three-story fall, each of these characters heavily delineated on each visit. Wacky sister Jo tries many offbeat remedies to wake Silvia up, even bringing a male stripper to the hospital bedside. Friend Cat and Indonesian housekeeper Tia reveal agendas, while busy Nurse Winnie tells her own tale while tending to Sylvia's physical needs. It's a labored form, and the conclusion is thin. French has a big, buoyant TV personality; how different from this dull, incomplete little story.

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