Rachel's Holiday

The fast lane is much too slow for Rachel Walsh. And Manhattan is the perfect place for a young Irish female to overdo everything. But Rachel's love of a good time is about to land her in the emergency room. It will also cost her a job and the boyfriend she adores.

When her loving family hustles her back home and checks her into Ireland's answer to the Betty Ford Clinic, Rachel is hopeful. Perhaps it will be lovely—spa treatments, celebrities, that kind of thing. Instead, she finds a lot of group therapy, which leads her, against her will, to some important self-knowledge. She will also find something that all women like herself fear: a man who might actually be good for her.

Rachel's Holiday is a wonderfully entertaining book about Rachel, the sister of Watermelon's heroine Claire. Rachel is addicted to drugs and alcohol and nearly ruins her life although she thinks there isn't anything wrong. She looks at rehab as a "holiday", she could use a vacation anyway, and she might get to see some celebrities while she is there. This isn't your typical book about a 20-something hitting rock bottom and having to pick up the pieces of the life she has ruined. The story is so witty and so funny that I laughed out loud but it is much more than that. I really fell in love with this book and the author. I wait for her books the way kids wait for Harry Potter!

Buy this book and you won't be disappointed. Better yet buy all of Marian Keyes' books.


Rachel's Holiday Is Filled With Laughter and Tears   September 14, 2002
Antoinette Klein (Hoover, Alabama USA)
14 out of 16 found this review helpful

Marian Keyes explores the most complex of the Walsh sisters as she tells the story of twenty-seven year old Rachel, the middle daughter of the whacky Walsh clan. While Claire's story was told more light-heartedly in WATERMELON and sister Maggie's story was the subject of ANGELS, middle sister Rachel suffers the most serious problems in the family---drug and alcohol addiction.

I had put off reading this one for a long time fearing it would be too depressing, but after being captivated by Marian Keyes style in LUCY SULLIVAN IS GETTING MARRIED, LAST CHANCE SALOON and others, I decided to give this one a try. Although the same biting humor is present and the wonderfully conversational tone is used by the first-person narrator, this book tackles a much more serious problem than her others and therefore packs a grimmer punch.

Though Rachel considers her drug abuse just a form of socializing, her family is justifiably concerned when she ends up in a New York City hospital nearly dead from an overdose. They whisk her home to Dublin to a rehab center. Adamant that she is not a druggie, Rachel only consents to being admitted because she hopes to meet rock stars and other celebrities. What Rachel does encounter is other people like herself who abuse drugs, alcohol, food, sex, whatever. There are no celebs, just dowdy men clad in brown sweaters and unhappy women deep in denial. She feels above them and takes a long time (nearly 400 pages) before she realizes that she too is an addict.

I thought the best part of this book was when she leaves rehab and struggles with staying clean and sober in the real world. All is not rosy and Rachel hits rock bottom before winding up in the hospital again. Can she ever come to terms with her parents perceived dislike of her? Can she overcome her feelings of being the least pretty and least bright of the five Walsh sisters? Will she reconcile with the friends she has hurt, the siblings she is jealous of, and the boyfriend who just can't take any more?

Rachel's journey is not a pleasant one. Her situation is serious and only her hang-tough humor and deep vulnerability kept me rooting for her to overcome her demons. Marian Keyes gives a disturbingly accurate portrayal of someone whose life has spun out of control and the long and difficult journey necessary to gain self-respect.


A wonderfully entertaining and enlightening read!   July 27, 2000
Amy Smith (Michigan, USA)
12 out of 12 found this review helpful

I thoroughly enjoyed Rachel's Holiday by Marian Keyes. First of all, the depth of information it gave about addiction was astounding -- Ms. Keyes really seems to have done her research. I don't see how anyone could become an addict after reading this book!

What I especially found interesting was the dichotomy of Rachel's viewpoints -- she thought one way while she was still abusing drugs (and when she first started at the treatment center), and a completely different way when she began to recover. There were people she considered "stingy" or "no fun" while she was abusing drugs; she later realized they were only trying to help her. On the other side of the coin, there were people she used to think were almost godlike, and she finally realized that these people were human just like her -- and not really as great as she originally made them out to be.

Above all, though, I found this book entertaining. Marian Keyes has a wonderfully wicked sense of humor that I can truly appreciate. I'm starting to figure out that I really like books told in the first person; this book and Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married (which I read first) both drew me in with their cozy girl-talk style. I know this is a major cliche, but I really did not want to put this book down -- I felt so involved in everything that was happening to Rachel.

The only problem I found with the book is that I thought the ending was a little too convenient and a tad too predictable. Anyone who read it kind of knew how it would end about a quarter of the way through the book. That in itself was not necessarily so bad; to me, a lot of the enjoyment in a book is watching the journey from point A to point B, even if you already know what point B is. (This is a key philosophy to keep in mind when reading romance novels.) However, it seems to me Rachel should have had to work a little harder for that outcome than she actually did.

All in all, though, it was a very pleasant, worthwhile read, and I'm looking forward to reading more of Ms. Keyes' books.


Serious topic inside of a good read   August 9, 2000
12 out of 12 found this review helpful

I read this book a few months ago after much internet hunting trying to find it so I didn't have to wait for its US release.

While Keyes' previous works have also dealt with serious subjects, they were underlying, not at all the main topic in the book. This book, however, takes a hard look at addiction. While she does it with humor, she doesn't necessarily sugarcoat it. I especially appreciated that it was the main character's point of view the story was coming from. This book is written in first person, which I like, but at first you may find it rather disconcerting. The story coming directly from Rachel helped me to relate to what addiction is like, how hard it is to overcome. In the beginning, I actually found myself truly wondering if she was an addict. That kind of scares me. It told me why addicts have such a hard time overcoming.

I don't want to scare anyone off in making them think that this is an depressing, deep book filled with sorrow and woe. It's not. It's very funny at times. I love the way the family interacts. I think they're a lot like most families, just most families would never admit it. If you've read Watermelon then you've already been introduced to the family, if you haven't, read it. It doens't really matter which one you read first. Just enjoy them.


Take Rachel's Holiday on Vacation With You   November 25, 2000
Elizabeth Hendry (New Jersey USA)
12 out of 13 found this review helpful

Rachel's Holiday is a delightful book. Marion Keyes has done it again. It's the perfect choice if you are looking for some quality light reading. I see on these pages, everyone mentions which of her books is their favorite. Well, Rachel's Holiday is mine. While Watermelon and Lucy Sullivan were definitely great and funny, in my opinion, Rachel's Holiday is a cut above. We still get the same chatty, humorous tone that makes all of Keyes' novels such a pleasure to read, but this story is a little different a little more daring. Keyes has added the complication of addiction on the girl meets boy, girl loses boy, girl gets that boy or another boy story. Rachel narrates this story with much humor and we see her grow as a person. When we first meet her, she is about to be admitted to the Cloisters, a sort of Betty Ford Clinic in Ireland. She is in denial. She had me fooled. For the first part of the book, she is pretty shallow and definitely mired in her denial, but she grows as a person through her therapy and her friendships with other recovering addicts and finally admits to her addiction and ultimately beats it. In the background is her life in New York that got her in The Cloisters in the first place, and Luke, the hunky Irishman who finally could take no more of her antics. (It wouldn't be a Marion Keyes novel without a perfect hunky guy). Be prepared. This novel has a standard story book happy ending that I felt was just a tad too much. But it's a funny book with charming characters (you can't even dislike Rachel). You'll find yourself sneaking away for a quick fix of this wonderful, funny, breezy novel. Enjoy!