Oh Dear Silvia: The gloriously heartwarming novel from the No. 1 bestselling author of Because of You

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They must be Dawn French fans and so am I, but her books are bestsellers because of her name, not her writing talent. It also seems like a cop-out that every accusation every leveled at Silvia occurs when she's unconscious and unable to respond.

There isn't really a progressive plot as such, but this is more of a collection of memories, wishes and thoughts have about Silvia and how she has changed each narrator's life. Hai così disperatamente bisogno di vedere un po' di bellezza per mitigare tutto lo schifo che hai attorno, che gli alberi finiscono per essere più verdi, il sole più caldo e il pane più buono di quanto non lo fosse quando pensavi di essere felice, e per niente solo. We meet her ex-husband, her estranged daughter, her best friend, her cleaner and her nurse, who all talk to the sleeping Silvia, revealing what has happened in the past.Though this is written by a comedienne, it does have quite a lot of serious issues brought up which added sincerity and seriousness to the writing, which I appreciated.

I had no problems with the book being told from so many different points of view, in fact it was more interesting that way, however, each one of the characters seemed to either a) hate Silvia; or b) be completely ambivalent about her so I started to wonder why they were even there. It starts slowly and the reader is introduced one by one to Sylvia's visitors ( Tia was a brilliant character to lift the mood of the book)and I wondered where exactly the plot was going, but right in the middle the book took a completely different direction and from then on i couldn't put this book down! I actually liked Cassie's character and had immediate sympathy for her but my problem with her character was the timeline.

It's just so hard to read, and you really don't need that much of it to understand that the character has a thick Jamaican accent. Silvia, who seemingly without reason has rejected her whole family, is not a very likeable person, as it appears. Additionally, it's hard to believe that each one of these characters would speak aloud and at such length to the comatose Silvia - pouring out their thoughts and dreams in a busy hospital.