Showing posts with label Can You Keep a Secret? by Sophie Kinsella. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Can You Keep a Secret? by Sophie Kinsella. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

The Undomestic Goddess

The Undomestic Goddess is a cute little chick-lit book by (of course) Sophie Kinsella. I liked this one a lot less than the last two Kinsella novels I read recently: Remember Me? and Can You Keep a Secret? but it's still cute, and would actually make a killing as a movie. The climactic scene is a lot more tense than her other stuff, and likely to be more fun at the box-office.

We'll start with Samantha, our main girl. She's twenty nine and about to be made the youngest partner in her law firm's history. Naturally, she's completely married to her job. She works sixteen hour days, every day. So she's a little... stressed. Then, she makes a huge (gigantic!) mistake and leaves the legal field, and accidentally becomes a (gulp) full-time housekeeper. Yes, accidentally. Samantha is stubborn, determined and incredibly bright. But then, when life slows down, she learns to be softer, and she... well, you'll have to read the book to find out what else she learns :) Is it weird that I totally pictured Rachel McAdams?

I know she's supposed to be British, but I just could.not. get her out of my head. And if Renee Zellwegger can pull of being British as well as she did, surely somebody else can do it, too, yes? Yes. I vote for Rachel McAdams. She's the only one I can think of who is the right age and can be both the workhorse and the slower, sweeter Samantha, and still look like a sex kitten doing so.

Ketterman is one of the partners at Samantha's firm. He's a... well, there's not really a nice term for it: he's a hardass. He's tough, though fair, and he is not the least bit friendly. It took about one page for me to see Daniel Craig in this part.


Arthur is the senior most partner at Samantha's firm. He's a nice guy, kind of a Santa-comes-to-life crossed with a corporate executive type of lawyer man. Yeah. That's an accurate description. He also needs to be capable of subterfuge, but you didn't hear that from me. I vote for Jim Broadbent.

Guy is one of Samantha's colleagues. He's dashing and handsome (not available... darn!) and a partner in one of the other departments. He's an American, and Harvard educated. He's also cocky and overly efficient. I kind of picture Ryan Reynolds, even though he's waaaaay too big of a star to have this small of a role. But you know, somebody like Ryan Reynolds.




Nathaniel is the gardener at Samantha's new location after she absconds from London. He's one of those work-outside-all-day types, but has a head for business and is (of course) absolutely gorgeous. I like Sean Maguire for this part.

Iris is Nathaniel's mother. She's a homey, simple, beautiful woman who loves her role as a housewife. She cooks, bakes, cleans and keeps a beautiful English country home with class and grace. She's well mannered and sweet and the epitome of English manners. I could not help thinking of Helen Mirren.

Trish Geiger is Samantha's new employer. She's an average lady in her late forties who is now trying to keep up with the trophy wives of the English society, and not doing a very good job of it. Again, there's no real "average looking" women in acting. So you need somebody who you can frumpify. I pick Jane Leeves.

Eddie Geiger is Trish's husband and Samantha's new employer. He's a "Joe Six Pack" who made big money kind of by accident. He's kind of a doof and not really attractive. He's just an average guy who got lucky and is now living the good life. Somebody who looks kind of like Mark Addy.


Melissa is Trish and Eddie's niece. She's a second year law student and life is just. so. hard. :: pout :: She has to, you know, read. And she doesn't get to go out with her friends like she used to. Like I said, life is so hard. She's young and pretty and looks like the words she's reading maybe aren't sticking in her head so well... I like somebody like Talulah Riley.
You can read my review of this book on Goodreads.com


Monday, March 7, 2011

Can You Keep A Secret?

Can You Keep A Secret by Sophie Kinsella is a fun, if typical, chick-lit novel. Emma, our star, is your average twenty-something living in London and trying to piece it all together. One day, she gets drunk, gets on a plane, and gets bumped to business class. During some terrible turbulence, she gets nervous panicked and begins confessing her life to the handsome American next to her.

Three days later, the CEO of the company she works for comes into the office to meet the front-line employees and jumpstart some failing brands (Emma works in marketing).

Do those two events sound disconnected? Well, then you haven't read enough chick-lit or seen enough chick-flicks. The handsome American in the first paragraph? He's the CEO, of course. Cue embarrassment, backpedaling, eventual admission of life story, and complete upheaval of Emma's life. It's actually really, really funny, and somehow relateable.

Emma is our main star. She's a typical twenty-something living in London. Her career is new, she's unsure of who she is and what she wants. She's insecure, and she keeps secrets. Not big secrets, like, "I've cheated on my boyfriend with his dad" type of secrets, more like "I weigh ten pounds less than my driver's license says." or "I don't actually like jazz, I just said that to impress a guy, and it stuck somehow." You know, little, embarrassing things. I think somebody pretty, but capable of coming completely unglued is needed for this role, and I pick a capable actress like Rosamund Pike
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Connor is Emma's boyfriend. He's sweet, generous, hard working, and a total bore. He loves her to death, and is so, so good to her, but he's like a 75 year old man trapped in the body of a 30 year old. Oh, and he's gorgeous. Like a living Ken doll. Who else but Oliver Jackson-Cohen?
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Lissy is Emma's best friend. She's a lawyer, and a top notch one at that. She's smart above all else, but she's also caring, and petite and sweet. She, of course, has an embarrassing secret of her own! I saw Carey Mulligan in this and I think she'd be brilliant.
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Jemima is the flatmate of Emma and Lissy. She's rich, beautiful, a little snobby, and very vindictive. Her whole aim in life is to land a rich man, "get a rock on her finger" and live the life of a trophy wife. She'll probably succeed, too. I think Alice Eve would make a good choice.
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Kerry is Emma's older cousin, though she was orphaned as a young teen and actually lived in Emma's house while they were growing up. She's a bit older, and even though she's a cousin, she holds the spot of the annoying older sibling: she does everything first, and she does everything better. She's successful, ambitious, wealthy, snotty, thin, pretty... you get the picture. I pictured Vanessa Branch immediately (though this was inspired by a brief guest spot on the Gilmore Girls, not Orbit gum commercials, actually.)
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Jack Harper is our main man. He's the American CEO of Panther Cola, a company that seems to have melded Coke and Nike, and Jack is the brilliant marketing genius behind it all. His best friend and business partner has just died, and Jack is trying to put his life back into gear, when wouldn't you know, this drunken, adorable girl babbles incoherently at him on an airplane and captures his curiosity. He's supposed to be sort of the frat-boy-grown-old, charming yet disheveled, wealthy yet completely casual kind of guy that you wish you could bring home to mom. You know, a multimillionaire who eats pizza on a park bench and loves it. I cannot, absolutely cannot see anybody but  Robert. Downey. Jr.
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You can read my review of this book at Goodreads.com