Today's book review is about It's Raining Men by Milly Johnson. Like the last book I reviewed (Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty) this book also focuses on the life of three women, three friends. Apparently these kinds of stories appeal to me. I picked up this book because it was in my Goodreads recommendations, simple as that. Here's a quick lay-down of the life of the three ladies at the beginning of the story:
May is dating Michael. She's ashamed of it: he's married. His wife is in a retirement home with early dementia. But is she really? One day May is in the neighborhood of the retirement home so she drops by to ask the staff if she can do anything for Susan but what she discovers rattles her world and beliefs in men.
Clare is engaged to Ludwig, her childhood best friend and high school sweetheart. Her parents don't really approve of him because he has German roots. Clare's family is a little pretentious to say the least. There's constant competition between the siblings to earn their parents respect by accomplishing something great, getting promoted, winning an award, ... Clare always feels like the one her parents respect least, the underdog, but when she tells them she's getting promoted to partner in her firm, for once she feels like she's good enough. But then Ludwig gets promoted too, a job in Dubai, and he asks her to go with him.
Lara is living with her boyfriend James and his two children. He's almost never home and they hate her. She feels like the nanny. James' daughter makes it a point of telling her every day he'll cheat on her with his ex Tiane. That she'll be dumped in no time, just like the last girl. But when Lara asks James about it, he laughs it away as silly teenage bullying. Don't worry about it, I love you, he says. But does he?This is how their stories start, but things are about to change. These three ladies have been friends for a couple of years now. Although they work at the same company they rarely get to see each other. So they decide to go on vacation together: a heavenly week of massages and treatments in a luxurious spa resort. Or so they think. But after something goes wrong with their reservation they end up somewhere entirely different.
Secrets
As the reader of this book you know all the secrets every character in the story has. And there are a bunch. At first it looked like a regular housewife kind of read but there are certainly also some fantasy elements in there. But what I found most intriguing about this book was to see how long these ladies managed to keep their secrets hidden from their (best) friends. I wondered if they would eventually tell each other what was going on in their lives. And if they did, when. And how. And all of this got me wondering. Do you tell your best friends everything? (Please tell me in the comments!)
Girl friends vs man friend
To answer my own question: I do. And I don't. I'm the kind of person that's just not able to keep large secrets to myself. I need people to talk to in my life and those people are my (girl) friends. I don't necessarily tell all of them everything or all of them the same things but whatever is going on in my life (good or bad) I know I have someone to turn to who will not judge me. Girl friends are the people I turn to to talk about relationships, frustrations, emotions. They are the people you can have fun with but they are also the people who will give you a shoulder to cry on and they know they can come to me anytime for all of those things too.
But there are also certain things that I don't tell my girl friends. Things that I'd like to keep a secret and not tell anyone. Things that I'm too ashamed about, too insecure about. But even though I'd love some things to remain a secret, nobody can bear all burdens alone. For those things I'd rather keep secret but need to talk about anyway I have my special man friend. He knows all of me. He doesn't judge. I'm glad he's my best friend. There's no need to hide the ugly parts from him. I can be myself. All of myself.
And of course there's Twitter friends. Online friends. People you don't actually know but feel like you can relate to. People that are there for you when you need someone. I like those friendships. They're uncomplicated, a little anonymous but so supportive. So if I didn't have my special man friend I'd still be able to talk about those things I'd rather keep a secret from my girl friends. Weird but true. Online friends are a big part of life nowadays.
The ideal situation
But maybe I'm a little wrong here. Maybe girl friends should tell each other everything. Or maybe there are no friendship rules and everyone just needs to do what feels right. I guess for me the ideal girl friend situation would be like the women in Sex and The City. They tell each other everything. Like everything. Down to the dirty shameful secrets. But for some reason I'm not ready yet for that kind of openness in all my real life relationships. And the three ladies in this book aren't either. Are you?
To answer my own question: I do. And I don't. I'm the kind of person that's just not able to keep large secrets to myself. I need people to talk to in my life and those people are my (girl) friends. I don't necessarily tell all of them everything or all of them the same things but whatever is going on in my life (good or bad) I know I have someone to turn to who will not judge me. Girl friends are the people I turn to to talk about relationships, frustrations, emotions. They are the people you can have fun with but they are also the people who will give you a shoulder to cry on and they know they can come to me anytime for all of those things too.
But there are also certain things that I don't tell my girl friends. Things that I'd like to keep a secret and not tell anyone. Things that I'm too ashamed about, too insecure about. But even though I'd love some things to remain a secret, nobody can bear all burdens alone. For those things I'd rather keep secret but need to talk about anyway I have my special man friend. He knows all of me. He doesn't judge. I'm glad he's my best friend. There's no need to hide the ugly parts from him. I can be myself. All of myself.
And of course there's Twitter friends. Online friends. People you don't actually know but feel like you can relate to. People that are there for you when you need someone. I like those friendships. They're uncomplicated, a little anonymous but so supportive. So if I didn't have my special man friend I'd still be able to talk about those things I'd rather keep a secret from my girl friends. Weird but true. Online friends are a big part of life nowadays.
The ideal situation
But maybe I'm a little wrong here. Maybe girl friends should tell each other everything. Or maybe there are no friendship rules and everyone just needs to do what feels right. I guess for me the ideal girl friend situation would be like the women in Sex and The City. They tell each other everything. Like everything. Down to the dirty shameful secrets. But for some reason I'm not ready yet for that kind of openness in all my real life relationships. And the three ladies in this book aren't either. Are you?
