Culture Street

I'm getting married. He's perfect. It's a disaster.

Eliza Kennedy’s debut novel will have you laughing uproariously.

New Yorker Lily is about to get married. She returns to her home in Key West, a week before her wedding day. Her mother, stepmothers (of which she has a few), her grandmother and her friends all feel she is not really marriage material. They have good cause - Lily finds it impossible to be loyal to one man. Even in the week before her wedding day she seduces various men including friends of the groom.

Will is the perfect groom. He is smart, kind and ignorant of his fiancé’s predilections. So, why can’t Lily settle for this perfect man?

Will’s mother is not so perfect. Lily’s grandmother, who is a formidable defence attorney, warns Lily about her US Attorney future mother in law’s reputation but Lily ignores her words of warning and suffers the consequences. A well respected lawyer from New York, Lily seemed to fit the mould perfectly for Will’s wife but then lunch with his parents happened.

Told in the first person, I Take That is a hilarious account of one woman’s attempt to hide her past. Her notes to self include:

Do not buy into the social construct of fidelity – even if other people freak the hell out about it. But hey, for an easy life, do not let Will find out about all the other men (esp. my boss/his boss/his best friend). And do not let him find out about the Other Thing.

Smart and funny, it is no surprise that Material’s Tobey Maguire and Matthew Plouffe have acquired rights to I Take You. They will take on the movie adaptation along with Whiplash producer Helen Estabrook, who brought in the book. Kennedy is set to adapt the novel.