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Expats, not migrants
Aug. 21st, 2021 07:57 pmBook Review: Not Quite Nice, by Celia Imrie
After a couple of more heavyweight books, I was looking for something a bit lighter, and discovered that the Kindle edition of the first in Celia Imrie's Nice series was heavily discounted. I jumped straight in at the second in the series a few years ago, without feeling that I'd missed anything, so I wondered how it would work to read them out of sequence.
It turns out to be much the same. There is a bit more background in this one, setting the scene for Theresa in particular, with a rather caricatured picture of her daughter and granddaughters that reminds me of the simplistic good-and-evil view we get of Harry Potter's adoptive parents at the start of some of the films. But the overall impression is similar - it's enjoyable light reading with some irritations. It's difficult to keep track of the cast, and sometimes the plot evolution is quite jerky. I also have the feeling that some of the characters may just disappear between the first and second books, which may have added for me an intermittent sense of displacement. Not expecting a deep literary experience, one makes do with the occasionally stereotypical plots and characters, and just goes along with the slightly whimsical escapism, for fun.
After a couple of more heavyweight books, I was looking for something a bit lighter, and discovered that the Kindle edition of the first in Celia Imrie's Nice series was heavily discounted. I jumped straight in at the second in the series a few years ago, without feeling that I'd missed anything, so I wondered how it would work to read them out of sequence.
It turns out to be much the same. There is a bit more background in this one, setting the scene for Theresa in particular, with a rather caricatured picture of her daughter and granddaughters that reminds me of the simplistic good-and-evil view we get of Harry Potter's adoptive parents at the start of some of the films. But the overall impression is similar - it's enjoyable light reading with some irritations. It's difficult to keep track of the cast, and sometimes the plot evolution is quite jerky. I also have the feeling that some of the characters may just disappear between the first and second books, which may have added for me an intermittent sense of displacement. Not expecting a deep literary experience, one makes do with the occasionally stereotypical plots and characters, and just goes along with the slightly whimsical escapism, for fun.