Only Human

by Susie Boyt

Marjorie Hemmings, marriage guidance counsellor, craves concord and harmony the way other people need cigarettes. She longs for all her quarrelling couples to be reconciled, and is delighted when people start to mistake her for an angelic nurse in a hospital t.v. drama series. But her alarmingly skinny teenage daughter has secrets she won't reveal, and some couples just refuse to kiss and make up. Even stalwart Nurse Rose is acting out of character as she launches herself into an obviously doomed marriage. Marjorie has knitted her world together with care - is it starting to fray?

Genres: Fiction

243 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Susie Boyt (born January 1969) is a British novelist.

The daughter of Suzy Boyt and artist Lucian Freud, and great-granddaughter of Sigmund Freud. Susie Boyt was educated at Channing and at Camden School for Girls and read English at St Catherine's College, Oxford, graduating in 1992. Working variously at a PR agency, and a literary agency, she completed her first novel, The Normal Man, which was published in 1995 by Weidenfeld and Nicholson. She returned to university to do a Masters in Anglo American Literary Relations at University College London studying the works of Henry James and the poet John Berryman.

To date she has published four novels. In 2008, she published My Judy Garland Life, a layering of biography, hero-worship and self-help. Her journalism includes an ongoing column in the weekend Life & Arts section of the Financial Times. She is married to Tom Astor, a film producer. They live with their two daughters in London.

Reviews

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this very readable and well written book. Marjorie is a sympathetic character, but does not always seem suitable for her role as a marriage counsellor, for reasons that gradually become apparent. We are drawn into her struggles to keep the relationship with her daughter that has been key to her life for many years. A short book in length but one that will resonate for a long time.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely writing for all Anglophiles.

[Correen Robinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book focuses on the life of a woman who was widowed in her twenties as she struggles with adjusting to change and the different values of those she works with.
Marjorie is a romantic at heart who tries her best to heal the relationships of the unhappy couples that come for counselling with her. When she often overthinks what has been said in her counselling office, mourns her husband or pines for her daughter who has recently moved out.
I found this book quite slow paced, it is not my usual read but I read it as I was lent it by a friend.
This is a book which focuses mainly on the thoughts and feelings of a woman as she tries to navigate a new part of her life. The main character was quite interesting but I didn't feel like there was a lot happening in the book so that's why I gave it this rating.

[Kirsty Darbyshire · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've really enjoyed some of Susie Boyt's other books in the past but this one didn't really do it for me. One of those cases where I think it's a case of "just me, not the book" though. One of the things I've liked about her other books in how realistic the characters are. This one features a marriage guidance counsellor who is rather falling apart and I never quite believed in her, her relationships or the most of the couples whose relationships she was counselling. Everything seemed to be that little bit too overdone.

[Liz Owen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought this book looked promising, but ultimately I was disappointed. Quite well written, but I found it a bit disjointed and unconvincing. Shame.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Marriage guidance counsellor Marjorie is having trouble keeping her life on the rails.However by the end of the book, there's light at the end of Marjorie's tunnel.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

This woman is unbelievable.

[Sukhpreet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Susie Boyt rapidly climbing the ranks of my favourite authors.

[Ronnie Clarkson · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was just ok. What I enjoyed mostly about it was the attention to detail and the words used for those details. It was a snapshot into a woman's life, and I'm not actually sure how I'm meant to feel. It kept me interested enough to finish reading it, but also there wasn't a lot of drive to NEED to know what happened. This could have been because I felt the amount of internal dialogue was annoying, as opposed to the amount that was actually said. I suppose I'm glad I read it, but I wouldn't read it again.

[Pat Osment · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just about liked this book enough to complete it but only just.I found the character Marjorie at times annoying because of the things she didn,t say,For someone who was supposed to be a marriage guidance counsellor she seemed to have no idea how to sort her life out. I enjoyed small parts of it but the book on the whole was a disappointment.