Book Review: The Undomestic Goddess

I love Sophie Kinsella (or Madeleine Wickham - her real name)!

I've read everything she has had published ( I think), and she is one of the few authors who can still make me laugh out loud.

I admit I do have to suspend disbelief just a bit. I mean - really - how can anyone really demonstrate the supreme level of poor judgement that her main characters do. But I still find it humourous, all the same.

In The Undomestic Goddess, 29-year-old Samantha Sweeting is a workaholic attorney in one of the most prestigious law firms in London. She is on the fast track to becoming a partner. She has no social life, no family life, and no food in her refrigerator.

Samantha is not the most organized person in the world, but she is a tremendously competent lawyer.

Until she makes THE ERROR.

I won't go into detail about Samantha's error. Suffice it to say that it is an error of such magnitude that the poor girl basically goes into shock, walks out of the firm's building, and, after wandering aimlessly, somehow finds herself on a train headed for she-knows-not-where.

One thing leads to another, until finally Samantha finds herself wandering the streets of a country village, wrestling a massive migraine. Seeing no shops open (it is by now evening), she decides to ring a doorbell, where she will ask for a drink of water, an aspirin, and directions to a hotel.

Unfortunately for Samantha (but rather fortunately for readers, as this is where the real adventure begins), the woman answering the door is eagerly anticipating an applicant for their housekeeper/cook position. Of course she mistakes Samantha - who can not boil water without burning it - for the applicant.

The book allows us to join Samantha on a journey of self discovery, and, in a light, reader-friendly manner, it asks both the main character and the reader to question, "Just what is feminism, anyway?" Is it having a hugely successful career in which you become famous and wealthy, or is it having the ability to choose what you want out of life?

This is the perfect book for summer beach reading. And you may just pick up some domestic tips. I know I did!