Publishing year: 2012
SPOILERS!!!
This books is made up of all the emails that Coco Pinchard sends to her family friends. Coco is a writer and has written a comedy about an alternative reality of Diana Spencer’s life. Coco has been married to Daniel for twenty years, and they have a nineteen-year-old son, Rosentcratz, who is gay and studying grammar.
The first email we read from Coco is to her friend Chris, who comes from a wealthy family and is gay. The email is about Christmas when Coco hosts dinner for her family and in-laws. Daniel’s mother, his sister, and brother-in-law all stay with them for a week at Christmas. Coco gets upset when Daniel, who is a mediocre actor, announces that he has signed a contract to perform a musical in America. There have been other projects for Daniel, and Coco reminds him that all of them ended up bad, them losing money. Daniel insists that this is a real project, and he is fed up with performing in pantomimes as he is doing now.
A momentous moment is when Coco returns to find her husband in bed with a young actress of the pantomime. Coco kicks him out of the house, and she feels miserable and lonely. Her friends, Chris and Marika, who is a former colleague of hers at school, try to help her, making her go out. Daniel has gone to America for his musical, and things are not going well for Coco financially. Her book deal hasn’t come through as the sales have plunged; besides, in one of her low days she has an interview on the radio while she is drunk, and she makes some unfortunate comments about some important journalists who were considering including her book in their TV book club. After the radio programme the deal is off the table, and then her agent terminates their contract as he has to think of his reputation. So Coco is left without her relative fame and any money, and Daniel isn’t helping.
Then her mother-in-law Ethel has a fall in the nursing home after having a fight with another resident. She breaks her hip and has to have a hip replacement, but things become more complicated when the woman has a heart attack and is in a coma. Daniel returns, and the doctors are not optimistic about Ethel. Daniel is maudlin and tells Coco that the reason why he slept with Sophie was because he has always felt less than a man around her; Coco has a big house left by her parents, had some temporary fame with her book, and had good friends. Coco feels sorry for him, and they make up. This is not appreciated by Chris and Marika, who think that Coco is making a huge mistake. Yet, Coco has no doubts: she wants to save her marriage of twenty years.
The doctors think that Ethel won’t make it as there is no brain activity. The family decides to disconnect the machines, and Daniel asks Coco to be the one to turn off the ventilator. So the whole family gather around Ethel, say a few words, and Coco presses the off-button. Yet, Ethel keeps breathing, but the medical staff says that is normal. Yet, as time goes by, Ethel keeps breathing unassisted, and then a few days later the woman recovers consciousness.
Daniel has to return to America, making promises to Coco. Yet, a few days later she gets an email from him, telling him that his mother’s condition had affected him more than he thought, so while in England, he had not been himself, and been rash. Now Daniel tells her that he wants a divorce as their marriage has been dead for long. Coco is shocked and hurt, especially when he tells her that he wants a part of the house. Thanks to Chris, Coco hires a lawyer, and he tells her that since Daniel was the unfaithful part, he isn’t entitled to anything from her, but she has a right to alimony as long as she wants. After that, Daniel panics and writes an email, begging her to be merciful. Good for Coco!
I love the book. It has good humour, and Coco is really funny and has a special way to see and tell things. I hope that Coco meets someone ten times better than Daniel, and then he will regret losing such a great woman.
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