Adele Parks Lust for Life

Lust for Life

Adele Parks

Downtown, Nov 2005, $13.00, 352 pp.

ISBN: 0743477650

Raising two infants (two and a half year old Matthew, and ten month old Maisie) is hard work, but Martha loves being a mother and wife to Michael, though at times she covets the freedom that her sister Eliza enjoys. Thirty year old Eliza lives with Greg the musician in his flat, but envies her sibling, as she wants marriage and children with a man whose vocabulary is a shade wider than that of her nephew.

Eliza dumps Greg, fleeing to her sister, only to find Martha heartbroken because Michael has left her. After a weeping fit, both siblings agree they must enter the dating game, though their goals vary; Martha wants the F fling with no commitments, while Eliza desires the marital thing with total commitments. Martha meets Jack who wants more from her, while Eliza goes through a horde of men seeking her Mr. Perfect husband. Neither has found love, not even comfort with the hunks they have bagged.

LUST FOR LIFE uses humour and intimate relations, to somewhat mute the overall serious tone of the storyline that focuses on what one desires in life, and relationships that enhance or impede, whilst obtaining these aspirations. Martha and Eliza are fabulous sisters, both yearning to a degree to have what the other possesses, yet clearly love and care for one another. While the supporting male cast augments insight into the sisters, the complex relationship between Martha and Eliza keeps the tale from spinning into an inane chick lit throwaway, as each sibling walks in the others moccasins.