Running In Heels

Despite a wonderfully cheeky first-person narration, this second novel from British author Maxted ( Getting Over It, 2000) occasionally gets lost in its own plot. Natalie is terminally good. Not the dreary kind, just the tidy, polite, always-pleasing-others sort of good. Up until now, it's served her well. Though she's bullied by her golden big brother Tony, harangued by her well-meaning mother, and stuck in a proper relationship with an accountant, life moves on amiably enough until her best friend, Babs, gets married. Natalie feels as if she's been dumped, and a downward spiral ensues. She begins dating Chris, the manager of a really awful rock band, who introduces her to the world of drugs and bad manners; she loses her p.r. job at a London ballet company; she becomes so thin that her hair begins to fall out. That's when Babs confronts Natalie with her suspicions that she's become anorexic. It comes as a shock to both Natalie and the reader, over a hundred pages into the story, that mental illness may be the cause of her dramatic transformation. But it wasn't only working with prima ballerinas that gave Natalie a warped self-image, it was also a lifetime of acquiescing to everyone's wishes, of always being the good girl. With the help of Alex, a Pilates instructor, Natalie attempts to find inner peace (though she dreads these New Age notions) and slowly becomes more assertive. She gives her nosey Mum a talking to; she reveals Tony's shameful secret, bringing him down a rung or two on the family ladder; she ditches Chris, and finally begins to eat more than dry toast and coffee. Unfortunately, her efforts go sour through a series of misunderstandings that even threaten a promising relationship with Babs's kind brother Andy. Maxted's people are endearing, and she has a flair for comic turns of phrase, but a meandering story dampens the fun. (Kirkus Reviews)