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Shvoong Home>Books>Novels>The Other Side of the Story Summary

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The Other Side of the Story

Book Review by: fiascosmind     

Original Author: Marian Keyes
    A well-written story about how intertwined human lives are.  It''s got the concept of the "Six Degrees"
philosophy where everyone in the world, regardless of where you are from are connected to the sixth degree.  Philosophically speaking that is.  In this novel, the story evolves around 3 people whose lives, although far apart from each other, connect in a seemingly random but logical way. 
    Personally speaking, my literary preferences usually include crime-action-suspense types and this was a "risk-purchase" as some may call it.  The part which really got my attention while reading through the back covers - you know, the one which we usually skim through to get a feel of whether a book is really worth reading or not...is whether there could really be just one heroine in a novel where the three women involved seem to have outdone one another in more ways than you can imagine.   As a reader, it is not impossible to feel yourself becoming a part of the characters you are reading.  This is most prominent as you scroll through the pages of this book...a total page-turner and one which is VERY difficult to put down once you really get into the meat of the plot.
    This book is not just one which glorifies the female sex, it also shows how much strength of character a woman has.  In going through ordeals a normal person faces in life - career choices, love over career, money over love and friendship above all else.  Noticeably, these are topics more women can relate to than men.  It involves the age old question of whether a woman has enough male ego strength in her to make it in the corporate, familial and personal world.  The book not only emphasizes that a woman is strong and able, but that a woman has enough depth of character to think things through to the end - and the willpower to go through with a decision no matter how difficult or hurtful it seems in order to serve the better good.  
    In the book, the world shows we are still a predominantly paternal society but the three heroines completely capture the essence of being a woman in today''s modern society.  The world may very well be a difficult one to be in if you were a woman - at the same time, it shows how a woman is the driving force which makes a man succeed.  It is the woman who carries the men through their ups and downs.  This is not to belittle the role the males play in the society....the main point in all of these is that man and woman are there to complement each other.  One cannot exist without the other. And in this dog eat dog world, women really need to learn how to co-exist to make life easier for all those who are trying to cope.
Published: March 15, 2008
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