Your second life begins... by Raphaelle Giordano

Published: September 2015, transworld publishers

Genre: fiction/self help

Themes: psychology, self improvement

My rating (out of 5): ❤❤

The full title of this book is: 'Your second life begins when you realize you only have one.'

On the back of the book it says (among other things):

The feel-good global sensation that will help you transform your life

A charming, feel-good and universal story of one woman's journey from boredom and dissatisfaction to self confidence and contentment...'

'you'll love this'

I selected this book as something uplifting to read during the lockdown but I really didn't enjoy it very much. Maybe I shouldn't have read it on the back of The Bone People as it was only ever going to come off badly against that.

This book has been the number one best seller in France, and claims to have made over 2 million readers happier, but I can't claim to have undergone any radical change in mood since getting to the last page. It is written for the same market as 'Eat, Pray, Love' by Elizabeth Gilbert, but the story feels forced and the characters very one-dimensional.

I felt as though the author, Raphaelle Giordano, had read all the popular self help books and then looked at how he could tie all the key messages together as a novel. The self-help market is huge, particularly during this difficult year, and it is almost impossible to come up with something new, so all that is left to do is rework what is already out there.

At times it is so obviously cherry-picking that I found it annoying. The book includes a lot of obvious advice for feeling better such as losing weight, making an effort with your appearance, not being a grouch around the house and being grateful for what you've got, but I thought it was struggling a bit when it veered into office management techniques such as using SMART objectives. I used these on my personal report for years, and spent many a happy hour training other staff to write them effectively, but it was like tripping over a kerb stone when they cropped up in the story.

I think using self-help techniques on a fictional character makes it all to easy to achieve the perfect ending but doesn't improve the probability of it happening in real life. It's not a book that I would recommend to others.

Comments

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