Confessions of a shopaholic - Sophie Kinsella

Date of Reading: 28/05/2012

Author: Sophie Kinsella

Alter Name: The Secret Dreamworld of  a Shopaholic

          Recently I have got this Shopaholic novels mania; must have started after watching the film. I have collected the first five books and two are already finished. So here is the first . . .

          Rebecca Bloomwood lives in Flat 2, Burney Rd., London SW6 8FD with her best friend Suze. She is a financial journalist at Successful Saving though her own finance is a bit out of joint. As for her dark side, she is a shopaholic; her boring job doesn't pay much and dismal letters from Visa and Endwich Bank - informing her of the bills unpaid - chases her and are hard to ignore. She tries cutting back and to make more money, with no avail.

         So when her credit cards are frozen, she transforms the bank manager Derek Smeath into a stalker and retires to the protection of home and parents. There another drama is going on; her neighbours, Martin and Janice Webster are tricked by a mutual fund - Falgstaff Life - from some windfalls they deserved. The justice lady inside her is aroused and she writes an article on them in The Daily World.

         Unfortunately the public face of Falgstaff Life was maintained by the PR company of Luke Brandon, the multi-millionaire who has once helped her to buy a precious Denny and George scarf. This pisses him off and when the TV program Morning Coffee gets the scent, they organises a debate. Everyone including Becky herself, expects her to be crushed under the genius of Luke, but when she explains the case using the metaphor of shopping, surprisingly he agrees.

          Everything runs smoothly after that; She gets a part as a financial adviser in the show, uses the money to pay her debts and . . . well, it goes without saying she got a rich boyfriend.

          I hate shopping, especially dresses, but faces the same problem of Becky when it comes to books. So no verdict from my part. After all everyone will have some obsession or other. . . mmm, if you say 'no' you are lying. It may not involve money as in this case, but time is as precious as cash.

           Film is also wonderful, it has absorbed the comic spirit of the book completely. It is actually a combination of the first two books and the story and characters are somewhat twisted too. But that makes it much better as this story itself won't make a successful movie. The script writer has done well indeed, and so do Isla Fisher (as Rebecca) and Hugh Dancy (as Luke Brandon).
From the same author:

THE UNDOMESTIC GODDESS

THE GATECRASHER