Consider Yourself Kissed

Consider Yourself Kissed is the second novel by Australian author Jessica Stanley. An ode to home in all its forms, this is a charming account of a decade of womanhood.

We meet Coralie when she is young, freshly in London, anonymous. It’s 2013. She brings with her dreams of writing and a box of books by Helen Garner. She meets an attractive journalist, Adam, in a series of very convenient meet-cutes (for this we forgive Stanley, because Adam’s daughter, Zora, is one of the cutest literary toddlers ever to exist).

As Coralie’s life entwines with Adam’s, we see her put everything on the table for a familial life thousands of kilometres away from her own. Ceasing to write, renovating a home that isn’t hers, Coralie is slipping away into the UK. On returning home, she realises her relationship to her country and, by extension, to herself, is dynamic. Stanley offers us an authentic perspective on what it is to migrate, to hold two identities in your hands. At times, you may wish the writing embraced more of the grit of falling in love or feeling deathly homesick. Consider Yourself Kissed shines when Coralie’s emotions are messy, when she gives in to her raw, emotional rage.

This book relives the past decade from the eyes of a middle-class mother. Stanley writes humorously about the state of our world. While Coralie’s life fluctuates, so does the British political landscape (remember Boris Johnson?). The ensemble of characters is lovable; there is no far-fetched villain or cataclysmic subplot to push the novel along. It’s the story of a real woman surrounded by her flawed but ever-present blended family; when you reach the end of this book, you’ll have laughed, nodded, and sighed – and you will miss the children who grew up in front of you.