THE UNDOMESTIC GODDESS

Sophie Kinsella;

Transworld,

Rs 325.

Available at leading bookstores.

Are you good at fibbing? Have you ever made a horrific blunder and made a frightful escape? Probably. However, you can hardly beat Sophie Kinsella’s protagonist from her adventurous comedy The Undomestic Goddess.

Samantha Sweeting is a fantastic but equally frustrated lawyer. She finally heaves a sigh, when almost sure of becoming a partner at Carter Spink – one of the leading law firms in London. She barely sleeps, has no family life and cares a damn about domestic chores. A shocking twist occurs in Samantha’s boring life, when she faces her appalling mistake that might cost her law firm £50 million. Terror filled, she flees to an unknown countryside, landing her at a mansion in Cotswold. After a slight ruse, Samantha earns herself the post of a housekeeper there. If only her domestic skills were good enough …

The peaceful country life offers Samantha plenty of time for herself. The scenic arena introduces her to a caring man. She temporarily forgets her past and enjoys her life to the fullest.

However, she finds herself in doldrums, when her man’s hatred for the lawyers is revealed. (He is known to punch lawyers!) Will Samantha confess her identity or play safe? Is the housekeeper life a new beginning or just a freshening break from work? Will her past haunt her again?

You can easily connect with Sophie’s heroine. Her failure has made her twitchy. It’s hard for her to accept her weaknesses. She cries and often times calls it quits. Nevertheless, she tries her best and sustains until the time when she has to cross her life’s bridge.

Sophie provokes you to think – Are fame and money enough to fulfill one’s life? Can love and care really change a shattering existence?

In spite of these, the novel provides us with plethora of comic moments, mostly occurred due to domestic disasters. How Samantha escapes from them is worth reading. However, this book proves as a useful guide to budding cooks and definitely motivates the one’s (like me), who cringe from cooking.

The novel also clearly portrays the steely world of lawyers and the politics involved to reach the highest ladder. It makes you wonder why society works in a blinded way. Samantha, who spent her best seven years of youthful life in the law industry, is shamefully thrown out for a mistake. Lawyers cannot make mistakes. Are not lawyers human beings?

Sophie cheerfully states the two ideas that inspire this novel. “… I am completely useless domestically and … I’ve always loved the concept of making a horrendous mistake and running away.”

Far from being useless, the lovely author has gifted us a smooth and helpful chick-lit narrative. While sharing one of her cherished domestic failures, she divulges, “Well, the meringue scene in the book is lifted straight from my life.” Nevertheless her favourite one is when she prepared cupcakes with her sons from Nigella Lawson’s recipes. All went well. The cakes were placed in the oven. Until, “After they had been cooking for about ten minutes, I suddenly noticed the flour that I had measured out still sitting on the side. And it was awful because the boys were so excited. So I didn’t tell them. I just baked these eggy horrendous things!”

Touching and brilliantly written, the beautiful novelist manages to convince her readers that at times it is okay to take a break from work and enjoy life. Her factional anecdotes prove as quick tips to save one’s day from the stickiest of situations. Offering us a budding romance, she emotionally weaves in human relationships. Worth a read!