'The Undomestic Goddess' by Sophie Kensella

                 Sophie Kinsella is my favorite chick-lit author. I enjoy her books a lot for their fun factor. And after reading a lot of serious but rewarding books lately, I needed to laugh while still enjoying the experience. Really laugh, as in rolling-on-the-floor laughing! 




The humor in The Undomestic Goddess was quite tickling. Not always, but mostly. It started with Samantha sitting in a spa, to use a gift voucher that she got on her birthday the previous year. She is a highly busy lawyer, with a non-existent social life, hoping to become the youngest partner in her firm. There, we get a rib-tickling insight into her stressed life and obsessive preoccupation with her work. Her work is scheduled at 6 minute-phases. Her daily routine would look like this: 

11:00-11.06  drafted contract for Project A

11.06-11.12  amended documentation for Client B

11.12-11.18  consulted on point for Agreement C

                                                                     

One day, when she makes a costly error, of the value of 50 million pounds, she loses her job and almost in a trance, gets herself employed as a housekeeper. Samantha Sweeting - who couldn't cook to even save her life, or even take care of her own apartment - was suddenly in charge of looking after a mansion and its two owners. What follows is a hilarious follow-up of her transformation! I liked Samantha Sweeting the best of the Sophie Kinsella heroines so far, because for a change, here is a woman who is not obsessed with make-up or clothes and shoes, or any of the things that fascinate most women in fluff chick-lit books. While I wish she had some "me" time, she was still a smart woman who got things done. Even when she tries to resign from the housekeeper job, she does it so diplomatically that the owners offer her a raise. Initially, she even tried applying her principles from her job to housekeeping, starting with a schedule. 

9:30-9.36 Make Geiger's bed

9.36-9.42 Take laundry out of machine and put in dryer

9.42-10.00 Clean bathrooms

Needless to say, the result is hilarious! 


As with other Sophie Kinsella reads, this one is also predictable, and that's about the only other thing I have to complain about. Although  I would have loved some more unpredictability thrown into the ending. In a real world, I find what Samantha did in the ending to be extreme and personally I don't quite agree with it.

But then most of the Sophie Kinsella books have heroines who probably wouldn't exist in the real world, such as Lara Lington of Twenties Girl, who could talk to the ghost of her great aunt, Rebecca Bloomwood of Confessions of a Shopaholic, who is very deep in debt and still can't put a stop to her buying behavior.

Overall : Good, but I still find the Becky humor of Shopaholic series lacking....