Being Committed by Anna Maxted

I have not told you about Anna Maxted on the blog before. I should have, as I adore her. As far as I can tell, she has 5 published novels –

• Getting over it
• Running in Heels
• Behaving like Adults
• Being Committed
• A Tale of Two Sisters

I have now read at least 3 of them…possibly four but it was a while ago so I’d have to go back and check. I know I’ve read A Tale and Behaving like Adults, and I just recently finished reading Being Committed. I think I’ve also read Running in Heels but I’d have to check again to be sure. Regardless, I really enjoy her work and do plan to read all of her novels.

She’s a fiction author based in the UK, and while her work is usually mostly humorous, it always deals with a bigger, deeper issue at some point in the novel. It comes across as very British – dry, sarcastic humor used to cover up a deeper issue until it comes to a head. Her work is entertaining and insightful.

Being Committed is the story of a young woman (Hannah) who is having commitment issues at age 31 and is forced to dig into her past (including an infidelity in her parents marriage as well as a failed previous marriage of her own) to discover what is preventing her to move forward into her future. Hannah is selfish, sarcastic, unmotivated, and quite funny. Rather how I imagine I would come across were I to be a character in someone’s novel. It was somewhat refreshing to find a character who, at age 31, wasn’t particularly bothered to get married. Finally, someone acknowledges that there are things that should be dealt with prior to marriage – and it’s better to get them out of the way first. Then again, I’m dragging my own opinion into this instead of giving it an objective review, so I should probably back up (but not enough to delete what I just wrote. Anyway, point is, this isn't a romantic comedy of a novel. It's better than that. It doesn't give you, or its characters, all the answers on an unrealistic platter (or any platter for that matter).

I think when it comes down to it, I like Anna Maxted so much because she writes life the way that I would like to live it - dealing with the big issues when necessary, but with humor.