Confessions of a Shopaholic
Confessions of a Shopaholic
It is a light, fun read, and a chic book. Perfect for crazy shoppers.
Meet Rebbeca Bloomwood
Rebecca Bloomwood is the personification of the expression "living beyond ones means." Becky craves the urban stuff: Prada, Dior and Chanel, but she lives off the mere wages of a low financial writer for Successful Savings - a not very famous financial magazine. She is a single twenty-five year old young journalist, lives in a very trendy flat in London, has many socialite friends, and a closet of beautiful clothes, she has all of what every other woman of her age can only dream of. Her only comfort is to buy herself something – just a little something… The only thing which can comfort her.
Basically, she uses purchasing things, pretty much anything, as a coping mechanism.
When she is happy- she shops, but when she is sad- she just doesn’t shop more, she breathes shopping.
But she is not as well-off as she seems; she is very much into mess - money mess. Rebecca has a serious problem with shopping far too much, a crazy obsession to put it in the right words and her obsession has taxed out all her credit cards, as well as her account being overdrawn at the bank.
And like most of us, she has expensive taste, so by the time the book starts she is already in serious debt, and denial. She knows she should have stopped long back, but she just gives up on everything when it comes to her dear shopping. She tries cutting back her expenses and making more money, but neither seems to work. The story of her life becomes more and more interesting as she tries to untangle her increasingly dire financial difficulties. Sophie Kinsella set's up several hilarious situations, one after another, for our shopper Rebecca Bloomwood to work through.
The book revolves around her struggle with her desire to shop and shop more with a vast cloud of debt hanging over her head. She lives a life of irony because even though she's a financial writer for a boring financial magazine, she is clueless when it comes to her own finances. She has painted a picture of herself that isn't completely honest and then spends a lot of the book getting out of her, self created mess. Her job as a journalist does not even begin to fulfill her luxurious shopping needs and cover her debts, besides, it bores her to tears every day. Things go from bad to worse for Rebecca as she is clueless about her life.
In most part of the book, her interpretation of being incapable to control her urge to purchase and getting into excuse after excuse for not paying up has been portrayed. From glandular fever to broken legs, imaginary stalkers to the only true stalkers in her life --- The Visa and The Bank.
At one time she is so desperate, that she decides lottery is the solution to all her problems and when that also doesn't work, she takes dad's suggestion: frugality - Controlling Your Cash- a book, the answer to all her prayers. For starters, she cuts out on expensive lunches, which does not mean any less than an hour of shopping, followed by an overpriced cappuccino and biscotti.
With every failed attempt to save, make money or marry the richest bachelor in London, she consoles herself with another expensive but oh-so-fabulous shopping she does perpetuating her habit and her troubles. At each turn, Becky sinks deeper and deeper into debt and dishonesty.
And just when she has sunk to the deepest levels, she gets resurrected. Near the end Becky finds a financial article that she cares enough to write about which brings a whole life change. She uncovers a headline-making financial story, with a grand opportunity to go on television and make a name for herself which very decently manages to change her life for the better. It is only then that she is able to catch up with her debt and get her life back in order. And in the process, she finds a man in her life who completes her and make her truly a happier person - A multimillionaire who could give Prince Charming a run for his money.
Its approach is from a really all or nothing. Reading about Becky's Confessions will help you to lighten up a bit and laugh at the silliness of it all. The circles we run ourselves in our daily hectic lives and how seriously we approach things- as if that defines indefinitely- it’s all we'll ever be.
Like Becky, we can grow and change. And the process of change doesn't has to be a big serious task. The process of finding ourselves can be fun, wonderful and even hilarious in some stupidly rare cases.
“What's the fun in making such a long journey to find ourselves if we can't laugh at what we've learned along the way?”
Author - Sophie Kinsella
Comments
Post a Comment