Keyes is never one to shy away from difficult issues and in this book bulimia is explored with skill and sensitivity. Finally, there is spoilt brat youngest brother Liam - womaniser, selfish-pig and borderline paedophile, he has little going for him.

Ed demonstrates an unnerving depth of understanding about life. Seemingly ordinary his love for his wife is unwavering and solid. There’s the eldest brother Johnny, a good-looking extroverted, moderately successful business and family man, who finds himself in the midst of something like a mid-life crisis. Keyes uses the brothers as a backbone around which to structure the book, but the focus is equally on their wives, children, nephews and nieces. Grown Ups somewhat ironically named, explores the family relationships of the three Casey brothers. The issues explored kept entering my thoughts literally months after I’d finished reading I don’t know what the magic writing ingredient Keyes has but I found this happened to me, not only when I read Grown Ups, but also when I read The Break. Keyes' observations are incredibly astute and so perceptive that the reader is left pondering and worrying about the characters and their lives as if they are actual friends and neighbours. (We readers can infer and intuit!) Having said that Keyes books are so successfully representative of contemporary life that it is impossible not to forgive her for this occasional sledgehammer approach. Whilst there is nothing wrong with some element of soul searching, self-revealing chat in any novel there’s no need to spell absolutely everything out for us. I guess this is how she ‘shows’ rather than ‘tells’, but it reaches a point where it is intrusive. I do think that Keyes tends to include too much dialogue in her books.

Grown ups marian keyes amazon