Lace by Shirley Conran, a review

After a prolonged absence from the world of blogging I have decided to return with a review of a scandalous classic. The past couple of months has seen me ploughing though about 40 books classified as children's titles, from picture books right through to teenage, so I felt it time to shrug off all the kid's literature and get my nose firmly inserted into Lace by Shirley Conran. What a blinder of a decision. This novel has consumed my life for the past fortnight and quite rightly so. This has just seen a big re-release after a few years out of print, having first been published in the 1980s. I have not doubt we are seeing this adorning our shelves due to the massive success of ladies smut as per the sales of the E.L. James Fifty Shades trilogy, but don't think this is the same sort of novel, you would be very, very wrong.

We are thrown into the tumultuous world of five very rich and very powerful women, sharing an unexpected and awkward reunion in a room in the centre of New York for one very important reason. Four of these women share a secret and the other is determined to discover an answer to a question that has plagued her life since childhood. Known worldwide as a film star, Lili wants to know "which one of you Bitches is my mother?" Conran takes us back in time to an affluent school in Switzerland to begin a tale of four young girls and their journey into adulthood. This story spans several decades and takes us from the charming streets of Paris to the war torn countries of the Middle East, from the fashion industry to the film industry, to the magazine industry. Most poignantly it reveals the lives of five very different women and the importance of their friendships above and beyond the glamour, the men and the money.

Wow, this was guilty pleasure central. A pulse beating, addictive narrative, impossible to put down. This is no flimsy tome either, at a staggering 750 pages, don't expect to finish it in a day.  In spite of the hefty page count, it never feels like a chore, this is a gossip columnist's dream, no story really goes on for too long and the novel is effortlessly split into manageable parts and chapters to allow the tale to move along quickly and offer very different stories within the main body of the narrative. We are drawn into the personal lives of all of these fabulous women, to see their strengths, their flaws and, not forgetting, their deepest desires. This is the sort of novel that leaves its mark, not in a deeply philosophical manner you understand, but in the manner of friendship, you feel as though each woman in the book has become your best friend over the course of the novel. It becomes effortless to empathise with Kate's attraction to awful, controlling men and with Lili's alluring innocence, exploited time and time again.

Let's face it, there is smatterings of sex throughout the novel, used to expose the characters in a multitude of ways and to reveal some very old fashioned ideas about sex and where women fit into the world. This adds an interesting insight into a time I never lived through, and am grateful for having avoided. These ideas are of course rather old fashioned now, but it is clear how much of an impact this novel will have had upon its release. People talk at great length about 'that goldfish scene', which to be honest loses it's shock factor in this day and age. I was more shocked by the revelation at the end, kept as a coveted secret throughout the telling of the story. Conran gives nothing away of Lili's parentage, whilst tossing red herrings here and there to keep us guessing. Crafty writing that will bring a smile, a tear or a grimace to every readers face this is certainly worthy of a cult classic status and I will be throwing this novel at every woman I know. It is true what India Knight says on the back of the new edition, "There was life before Lace and life after Lace, and nothing was ever the same again".

If you were ever tempted by the Fifty Shades trilogy, don't bother, read this instead and you wont be sorry!