Oh My God, What a Complete Aisling!: Just a Small-Town Girl Living in a Notions World

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I can't tell you about the plot because I didn't read enough to know what the plot was about -although I was already concerned about her father's appearance - my apologies.

Beware: you will laugh out loud whilst reading Oh My God, What a Complete Aisling. I tittered, chortled and guffawed all of the way through it but there are some serious notes which makes it scarily true to life. So (to quote Monty Python) even though this book makes you look on the bright side of life, it reminds us that sometimes life is a piece of shit, when you look at it...

Emer McLysaght and Sarah Breen, authors of Oh My God, What A Complete Aisling and The Importance of Being Aisling

Well, it’s not exactly on the horizon for us, is it? I’m twenty-nine and you’re only twenty-eight. You’d be a child bride by today’s standards,” he adds with a hollow laugh, spraying toast crumbs onto the white linen tablecloth. Emer McLysaght on her comfort reads, favourite Irish author and the toughest part of writing OMGWACA". VIP Magazine. 14 December 2020.The synopsis reads: “With her café BallyGoBrunch flying and the door firmly closed on her relationship with John, an unexpected job offer sees Aisling boarding a business-class flight to New York in her best wrap dress and heels. As she finds her feet in the Big Apple, she throws herself into the dating game, grapples with ‘always-on’ work culture, forges and fights for new friendships, and brings her good wedges to a party in the Hamptons (much to Sadhbh’s dismay). But after almost 500,000 copies sold in Ireland alone, they said they want to end on a high note, and feel ready to leave the world of Aisling behind.

When a week in Tenerife with John doesn’t end with the expected engagement, Aisling calls a halt to things, and soon she has surprised herself and everyone else by agreeing to move into a three-bed in Portobello with stylish Sadhbh from HR and her friend, the mysterious Elaine. Newly single and relocated to the big city, life is about to change utterly for this wonderful, strong, surprising and funny girl, who just happens to be a complete Aisling. We first meet Aisling as she’s attending a wedding with her boyfriend John, from a neighbouring rival village, and wistfully wondering when it’ll be her turn to get hitched and build a “McMansion” on the bit of land her dad has set aside for her. I'm not an Aisling, but I'd like to be." This statement is hollered over the noise of a busy Dublin brunch spot as I sit with a group of women, all of whom have read Emer McLysaght and Sarah Breen's novel Oh My God, What a Complete Aisling, and all of whom have a sense of ownership over the title character. As author John Boyne has said: "Aisling is the real Voice of Ireland. " Aisling, of the title, is a 28 year old Irish woman with a long-term boyfriend (seven years) who seems to have no intention of proposing anytime soon, despite the fact that his team mates are inviting them to engagement parties and weddings at increasingly regular intervals. Aisling seems to be one of those curvaceous, middle-aged before her time Irish girls whose only dream is the house that their Daddy will build them once they get married. She also appears to be the annoying office busybody who leaves passive-aggressive notes for their co-workers about the fridge and the dishwasher. She can't bear the idea of a buffet breakfast going uneaten, even if it means going to breakfast two minutes after waking up. There are universal elements to Aisling that make her relatable to almost anyone, anywhere, but she is written through a uniquely Irish lexicon – she is the Irish mammy so many of us have and are, and also the Irish daughter, the fish-out-of-water country girl in the big smoke, the young woman simultaneously navigating independence and her desire for a traditional relationship, the Irish person ensconced in a tight community in which they legitimately feel a sense of belonging.Without spoiling anything, the last line is so utterly and completely Aisling, it’s the perfect ending to the series and will be very satisfying for readers who have read all five books.

Then I had some mental health struggles like feeling the pressure of having to produce another book and really struggling with it. Meanwhile, in Ballygobbard, it’s all go. Baby showers are the new hen parties, Mammy and Dr Trevor are more serious than Aisling thought, and the prospect of two evil stepsisters has her doubting her place in the family. Pulled between head, heart and home, Aisling strives to finally create her own happy ever after.” At 12.31, we’re pulling out of the driveway, the atmosphere between us in the car a little warmer than in the diningroom, but there’s still a strange tension, hanging around like a ferocious smell.I let the words trail off and look down at my plate full of croissant crumbs so he won’t see my eyes fill with tears. I can’t cry here, in a room full of girls I went to school with and GAA lads. I haven’t even showered.