Title: InconceivableAuthor: Ben Elton
Publisher: Black Swan
Publication Date: 2000
Pages: 367
Source: Own copy
Genre: Humor
Goodreads | Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk
I'm not going to spend too much time on this one because in short I wasn't too impressed. The premise is that Inconceivable is about a couple who are trying to have a baby but things aren't quite working out how they planned. Lucy is desperate for a child and does everything imaginable to make that happen while Sam is also preoccupied by his failure to write a hit movie.
This book had all the right elements; British wit and humour and an interesting storyline which should make for a great weekend read, right? And yet somehow this one just misses the mark. I enjoyed the writing narrative - it's told in the context of both Lucy and Sam as they write in their 'diaries', a therapeutic device to help them work through their thoughts and feelings surrounding their inability to conceive. Naturally Sam takes a little longer to get into it. But overall I found the characters themselves superficial and flat, especially Lucy. And since I couldn't really connect with them I simply couldn't get into the book. I think it simply comes down to that. However I also didn't find it that funny which was very disappointing, there were a few great lines that gave me the a good odd snort or two but overall it was, well, just flat.
This is the first book I have read by Ben Elton and I did enjoy his writing style so I probably would try another one but I wouldn't recommend this one.
Skip It.
********** SPOILERS *************
Normally I don't include spoilers but I just had to get this one off my chest as it's one of the reasons I didn't like the book. Lucy really really annoyed me. From my perspective she simply wasn't very like-able and I think that culminated with her cheating on her husband. Now the thing that bugged me the most is that she was so blasé about it. She didn't think that snogging some other guy really counted as being unfaithful and she was so proud of herself for not sleeping with him and showing such restraint. I mean since she didn't sleep with him she wasn't unfaithful, not really. Um hello? I'm sorry but there simply needed to be far more guilt for this to feel realistic. Sam wasn't too bad, he was a bit more realistic, I liked him at the start but then in the end he just becomes a complete sap. Not appealing.
