Chick Praxis in the novel The Other Side of The Story by Marian Keyes

Dr. K. Sindhu, A. T. Princy,

Assistant Professor, PhD scholar,
Ksr.nina10@gmail.com Periyar University,
9443281240 Salem-11.

Abstract

I would rather spend one lifetime with you, than face all the ages of this world alone(Lord of

the Rings) these are the lines which are often heard from the lovers when they are filled with

delight. But these lines will fade away when they get into conflict. Nowadays to save their self

identity, women do anything. For women, cope up with emotional stress. Their partner does not

respect them and feel dissatisfied with love. To a woman especially a modern woman, dignity

and self respect are like the apple of her eyes. The women nowadays are not so submissive. They

question and argue for their equality and for some good reasons they go through break ups and

turn their lives for a better future. Jojo Harvey is inconvincibly attracted to her boss and has an

affair with him. As well, Lily Wright too is attracted to her best friend Gemmas, lover and she

expresses her love for Anton without any shame. These two girls pretty well know they are

betraying another woman to satiate their own needs. At last, when they find that their selected

lovers also betray them and they feel as though as they are stirred up in the middle of their

dreams. Instead of feeling guilty, they prepared themselves for a break up and make their track

towards the different part, where they enjoy their own self and identities which they feel that

they had lost earlier.

 Chick lit novels are very popular, especially among young women. These novels deal

with current issues. Suzanne Ferriss and Mallory Young (2006: 3) define chick lit as a type of

womens fiction that tells about single, young career women and their problems in working life

as well as challenges with relationships and everyday life. Ferriss and Young (2006: 3) further

continue that chick lit has a specific audience and narrative style. Helen Fieldings Bridget

Joness Diary (1996) is considered to be the cornerstone of chick lit. However, according to

Roco Montoro (2012: 6), by the time Bridget Joness Diary appeared in Britain, Marian Keyess

first novel, Watermelon, published in 1996, was already creating interest in Ireland.

The Other Side of the Story includes themes that are important to women and belong to

their everyday lives. They depict a womans place in the world and in romantic relationships,

creating a possibility to explore and discuss societys views in the process. Social and political

change in society has altered the position of women as well as expectations of society. These

changes have also an effect on literature, and as a result, chick lit has an opportunity to introduce

new matters into discussion in addition to the issues that classic romance literature presented.

Marian Keyes as a woman faced a lot of struggles like male dominance, gender

discriminations e.t.c. She expressed her woman power in her novel The Other Side of The Story.

The protagonists Jojo Harvey, Gemma Hogans and Lily Wright. Though the heroines love their

beloved more than themselves, it is necessary for them to express their self respect at times. The

true love will exist only if the position given by the beloved to his lady love subsists. Though

Gemma loves to be with Anton to the rest of her life, it is destroyed by her best friend Lily

Wright, when she gets pregnant with Anton. Like Jojo Harvey pretty well aware that she is in

love with a married man, she expects him to set a life with her. And Jojos dream is to become a

partner in her workplace, but the total dream and the love life breaks down when she comes to
know that her own lover voted against her during the selection of partnership. These two ladies

are pretty clear in their decisions and are ready to set the life of their own.

Lily starts a relationship with Gemmas boyfriend, Anton. The end of her friendship with

Gemma bothers Lily, because she has to live with a bad conscience for stealing Gemmas

boyfriend. All of the heroines have relationship issues with their romantic partners. Lilys

domestic partnership crumples under financial difficulties and a stressful house building process.

Jojo believes that her beloved Mark will do anything for her. And she expected him to

vote for her during the partnership selection, but she is betrayed by him and that betrayal is

informed to her by her rival. This makes her shocked and burst into her beloved Marks cabin and

shoots out her anxiety to hear the truth from his own mouth

He looked up, as she came in.

Mark, tell me the truth because Ill find out anyway. Did you vote for me?

A too-long silence. Then, No.

She stood stock-still for the longest time. Yet again, she felt like she was

dreaming. She was getting kinda tired of these out-of-body experiences(Keyes

558).

This unexpected answer from her beloved Mark makes her breakdown and she cant even

believe the words which she heard from him. She expresses her shock and pain equally by

standing Mum in front of him. But Jojo is not a type of submissive and accepts the reasonings,

instead she just expresses her hatreds by resigning her job. Though the Dalkin Emery is ready to

give her the partnership, she is not ready to accept it because she shows her opposition by

ignoring the reward. She waits for the proper announcement of her partnership and acted like,
 Jojo checked that the announcement of her partnership was in Book News, then

she went to Marks office and handed him a letter. He looked at it. Whats

this?

My notice. Im leaving.

Mark looked weary beyond weary. Jojo, for Gods sake

Youre a partner, isnt that what you wanted?

Only because my boyfriend pulled strings.

If your boyfriend had done the right thing in the first place by voting for you, he

wouldnt have had to pull strings. Im so sorry(keyes 568)

She feels fulfilled when she thinks that she makes a revenge against Mark. Whatever the

consequences she is ready to face it, to save her self respect. This is what woman power which

she expresses to this male dominated corporate world.

On the other hand Lily is aware that her lover Anton is giving some importance for

Gemma, his former lady love. And also his spendthrift attitude makes her feel insecure. She also

needs some savings for her little girl Emas future. So she likes to depart from him. She

expressed it to her friend Irina:

Unfortunately, no: Antons brush with Gemma, or at least her book, had revealed

the full extent of the rot in Antons and my relationship.

And the fact that, once again, another of Antons business ventures had collapsed,

convinced me that my life with him would always be a financial roller coaster. I

could not live that way. I owed it to Ema to seek stability(keyes 580)

Here Lily expresses her womanly power by splitting up with Anton to seek a life for the

promising future of Ema. She feels insecure with Anton and is in a confusing state. She thinks
that he is going away with his former lover Gemma and she prepares herself to split up with

him. She also experienced the male attitude of Anton by hanging up with his old relationship.

Both the heroines are well experienced the backlash society and are ready to express their

reactions straight away to them in a powerful way. Though the heroines have emotional

bondings towards their beloveds, they are ready to split up with them to save their self respect

and also they awakes the society to understand the importance of the womans feelings and

emotions. They break the phallocentric society and insists the society to accept the reality of the

Chick praxis.
Work Cited:
1, Keyes, Marian (2005). The Other Side of the Story. London: Penguin Books.

2, Ferriss, Suzanne & Mallory Young (2006). Introduction in Chick Lit. The New Womans

Fiction. Eds. Suzanne Ferriss and Mallory Young. New York: Routledge. 113.

3, Montoro, Roco (2012). Chick Lit. The Stylistics of Cappuccino Fiction. London: Continuum

International Publishing Group.