latest read - if you could see me now

Miss Ahern is one author I believe I have bought all her books to date. I am definitely a fan.



This is another unusual chic lit book by Miss Ahern - unusual because of who and what are involved in this story.

Of course, at the core of all her books, it is all about love - the best and worse of things.

This time around, the book tells from the perspective of a man who happens to have an unusual job.

Ivan, the narrator of the book, is an imaginary person, well, an imaginary man to be exact.

The book starts off telling about the life of Ivan, the imaginary friend of Luke. Luke is the nephew of Elizabeth Egan. Of course being an imaginary friend of Luke, only Luke is able to see him. Ivan tells that the whole purpose of an imaginary friend to help the person who can see them. So the fact that Luke can see him, thus his job was to help Luke.

Elizabeth is Luke's aunt. Why is Luke with his aunt rather than with his mother or father? Well, his mother, Saoirse, pronounced Seer-sha, is a bit of a bum - not able to take care of herself, not able to hold down a job, not able and not bothered. The father? Unknown.

Elizabeth was the reluctant mother of her sister's son seeing that even her father, Luke's grandfather, was also unable to take up the responsibility. Elizabeth, Saoirse and their father were all affected quite badly mentally by the absence of their mother/wife. The mental disability of her mother I think was passed down to her sister who seem to portray the same behaviour as their mother.


Being an adult, Elizabeth was not supposed to be able to see Ivan, an imaginary friend. But she did and Ivan although had an appearance of an adult, was clearly still mentally just a six year old boy. His infectious fun-loving innocence and spontaneity brought out the best in Elizabeth and in her enjoying his company and finally having a bit of fun herself after all these lonely years, Elizabeth did not notice that she was the only adult able to see Ivan.


Well as the story pans out, it was Elizabeth who needed the help. In helping Elizabeth, Ivan was also helping Luke.

In a nutshell, Elizabeth realized that the hurt she has been feeling was just not her own. Her father suffered just as much having her mother as his wife. Elizabeth always put her mother on a pedestal and her mother did no wrong but it was her mother who left them. Her mother was an alcoholic. Her father was left to care for two girls on his own. He tried and did what he thought was best. Ivan helped Elizabeth realize that her father had suffered just as badly as she has and that it is far better and so much more comforting to share the hurt with someone who understands the hurt rather than going at it alone.

The love story is between Elizabeth and Ivan of course. But this does not have the conventional ending. There was no death or cheating or anything of that sort. With Elizabeth now coming to terms with her life, Ivan is slowly becoming invisible to Elizabeth.

That's the life of an imaginary friend. They appear when they are really needed and they slowly make their exit when they know that the person they helped is in the right path.