Maxine Gordon compares and contrasts two new chick-lit novels.

WOMEN on the verge of nervous breakdowns, on the brink of escape from family, work, love and facing dark secrets from their pasts are familiar territory in the chick-lit lexicon.

Here, two female authors tackle these issues in different ways and with varying degrees of success.

Hype plays a huge role in publishing and Barr's latest offering comes with a considerable dose, riding largely on her debut best-seller, Backpack, which won the WH Smith New Talent Award of 2002.

A former journalist and travel writer, Barr now lives in France. She wrote Atlantic Shift with a toddler at her feet and pregnant with her second son, which, while commendable, perhaps explains some of its faults.

Told in the first person present, this is the story of Evie Silverman, a selfish, 30-something classical musician who has made that rare crossover into commercial success, but through stunning looks rather than her mediocre talent.

It starts with Evie poised to leave her husband and 'break into America'. It is in New York where she has to come to terms with her past: a mistake in her teens that continues to haunt her.

The tone of the book is light and Barr struggles to pin down her heroine. At first, she paints Evie as a calculating and shallow operator who plays the media game to her own ends, a Posh Lite if you like. Then she tries to win us over by having Evie confess that it's all a front because she is running away from her teenage trauma.

Evie's endless reflections on her fake public image are frustratingly repetitive but there is enough in the plot to keep you turning the pages. One for the beach bag.

The word on newcomer Laura Marney is that she is Scotland's best-kept literary secret and, for once, the goods live up to the fanfare. Her first novel is a sparkling black comedy with guaranteed out-loud laughs.

Glaswegian divorcee Trisha has had enough of her job (as a drugs rep) her ex-husband (now holed up with a young Scandinavian) and despairs of ever enticing her son Steven back to live with her. When she inherits a cottage in the Highlands, she sees this as a way out.

But life in Heuchter Cheuchter-ville is not a bed of roses. Soon after arriving, Trisha falls out with the neighbours, the sole shopkeeper (from where will she buy her booze now, or hire the new Russell Crowe video?) and her gardener after making a misjudged pass at him. As the weeks roll on, she starts to appreciate the Highland ways and even finds she can live at peace with the midges. But a revelation about her past threatens to uproot her again.

Marney displays a natural flair for storytelling and her warts-and-all characters ring true.

Apparently her second novel is titled Nobody Loves A Ginger Baby. Can't wait.

Updated: 08:43 Wednesday, June 16, 2004