Product Description

When Claire's husband James leaves her the day after their child is born, in the absence of any better offers, she returns to her family - to her beautiful sister, her soap-watching mother and bewildered father. By the time James slithers back, he's in for a bit of a surprise.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #188488 in Books
• Published on: 1996-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 608 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Marian Keyes begins Watermelon with a rather inauspicious romantic opening when the heroine's husband leaves her for Denise from the flat downstairs the day their first child is born. Claire, the deserted wife and mother, returns to her family in Dublin and, after going through the required stages of "Loss, Loneliness, Hopelessness and Humiliation", begins to feel much better--so much better that when James tries to win his way back into her affections, he gets more than he bargained for.

The author's style is too blunt and her setting too suburban (with its all-too-human heroine struggling to keep her sanity, tend to her new-born baby, fight it out with siblings and begin to love again) to be a traditional romance, but there is enough chemistry and mystery to keep you guessing in the lip-smacking Watermelon--a dish that may not fill you up but will certainly give you a taster of Marian Keyes' work, of which there is much to sample, including Lucy Sullivan is getting Married, Rachel's Holiday and Last Chance Saloon. --Nicola Perry

Review
A grand first novel by Irish writer Keyes is a hilarious treatise on love's roller coaster. Both elated and exhausted after giving birth to a daughter, the 29-year-old Claire is shocked senseless when her husband James comes to the London hospital not to celebrate, but instead to break the news that he's leaving her for their dowdy downstairs neighbor. The stunned Claire, with new baby in tow, and feeling as big as a summer melon, hightails it back to her family in Dublin to sort out her life. Wandering around her childhood home in her mother's old nightgowns, a vodka bottle in one hand and the bawling Kate in the other, Claire tries to banish images of the frolicking James and his "other woman." Her two younger sisters prove to be a comfort - sweet Anna, a hippie drug-dealer, loans Claire money for booze, and haughty Helen deigns to buy it for her. And drunken anguish does have its rewards, for in no time Claire sheds her extra weight, thanks to a steady liquid diet and nights spent on the family rowing machine fantasizing James's ruin. But it is only when Gorgeous Adam appears on the scene that Claire begins to recover a sense of purpose. A college friend of Helen's, Adam exemplifies perfect manhood - and helpfully takes a liking to her, too. But just as things begin crackling between them, James shows up, oh-so-generously ready to forgive Claire for driving him into the arms of the other woman. Torn between the comforts of her former life in London and a new, heartening sense of self-worth and self-sufficiency - not to mention the Gorgeous Adam - Claire finds herself hard put to make a decision. A candid, irresistibly funny debut and perfect summertime read. (Kirkus Reviews)

Synopsis
A debut novel about a woman whose husband leaves her on the day she gives birth to her first child. With her new-born baby, she returns to her family and begins to find the strength to start again.

Customer Reviews

wow
A story of a woman's triumph through grief. As Claire is landed with a new born baby and a deserted husband, she's not quite sure what to do with herself. It seem's the only option is to go home to her quirky family. After she passes a few weeks of grief for her soon to be ex - husband, James, she meets her 18 year old sister's friend, Adam. He helps her through the worst time of her life and she finally comes to the decision that she doesn't need James anymore - that is until, he shows up. This book manages to capture the devestating and refreshing qualities of a broken marriage and how what may seem the worst thing in your life can also be the best.

Fabulous & So Real!
Oh what a great book! This was my first Marian Keyes read and since I have read a further 2 and now on my fourth!
An excellent, funny read. It really does make you laugh out loud, and I guarantee most parts of the book you will really be able to relate to!
It's not one of those books where it takes a few chapters before it gets going as it really starts from chapter 1.
This is the first book about the Walsh family, I highly recommend you go on to read Rachels Holiday, Angels & Anybody Out There after this one.

Marian Keyes starts as she means to go on!
Marian Keyes first novel and the first book to follow the Walsh sisters starting with the oldest Claire.Marian Keyes starts as she means to go on!