ANALYSIS OF NOVELS 2012 THE LAST YEAR OF BEING SINGLE

THE LAST YEAR OF BEING SINGLE
Protagonist Sarah Giles
Sarah Giles is a lively, curious, open, occasionally stupid, fun loving 
girl who wants to please. She’s a romantic and every woman.
LYOBS is a story of a woman who wants to be authentic but does not know 
who she is, Sarah Giles is an every woman wanting to please everyone 
but not knowing how to please herself.  Sarah has been brought up as a 
people pleaser.   She pleases her boyfriend, she pleases her lover, she 
pleases her mother, her friends. She is there for everyone except 
herself     She tries to escape one ‘trap’ as she perceives it, and 
finds herself being trapped, or creating a trap in another situation.   
  She strives to be authentic but finds herself increasingly lying to 
all those around her, only being able to open up (a little) to 
strangers she meets (at the wedding) or those she is not directly 
related to (her massage therapist).   She is a romantic but also a 
realist and realises something is not ‘wrong’ with a situation where 
everyone is telling her it is perfect  She does not feel it is perfect 
for her.   As the book progresses, the reader realises it is not 
perfect for her either, that neither man – the ‘solid’ Paul, who is 
emotionally damaged a sociopath who has no understanding of his 
actions, (forbidding sex, not allowing Sarah to explore and confront 
the issue) or himself for that matter, and John ‘the cowboy lover’ who 
is an opportunist and whom Sarah never allows to become close because 
she perceives him as others do as an amoral womanizer.  The book does 
not develop this character so the reader is left to decide if John is 
indeed a womanizer and only wants what he cannot have (as Sarah tells 
him at the end) or he has genuinely changed his ways (how romantic 
novels would have us believe).
The irony of the character is that although she lies to everyone, she 
never lies to herself. She tries to convince herself of facts – that 
she loves Paul, that she loves John, that she must leave John, that she 
must marry Paul, but her feelings of what is instinctively right for 
her never betray her, although she literally does leave it to the last 
page and the last moment to confront the issue.  She is an authentic 
character who deals with very real issues (terminations) by herself.   
There’s a strong hint of naivety to her throughout the book.  She is 
raped by her fiancée, not realising it is rape.  She writes about it in 
her diary in graphic detail as something she will never tell anyone 
about, not realising it is rape.  She is aware John is a womanizer but 
is not sure if his acts are of one that likes her or loathes her.   So 
the reader realises Sarah is a woman who is learning about herself 
through the relationships with others and actually does learn.   She is 
surrounded by those who do not – Catherine who is still with her lover 
and boyfriend, but cannot make a decision which one to be with.  Her 
massage therapist is unhappily married but stays in the relationship to 
‘punish her husband’ not realising it’s punishing her as well.    And 
so Sarah has no examples to show her how to behave
Sarah importantly does not have a wise woman, a confident whom she 
completely trusts or knows the whole story- because no one knows the 
whole story in life, they only know part of it and only judge on their 
own experiences rather than that of the person they are advising.   
Sarah instinctively knows this.
As for possible confidents, her mother is in denial her daughter is 
entering into a relationship with a man who has serious psychological 
issues – but because he is financially sound – she balances this as 
more important – due to her own needs (she perceives Sarahs’ father did 
not provide for them sufficiently and she wants her daughter to be 
‘provided for’).  This is also a very common theme for mothers and 
daughters although this is no longer the Victorian era!
The terminations are dealt with swiftly but powerfully in the novel, 
made more so by the simplicity.   Sarah deals with them by herself.   
Her stance is very much ‘my body, my decision’, and realising the 
impact the first termination has on Paul, she does not want to go 
through the same issues with John.   Although she is accompanied by 
Paul the first time he is not ‘supportive’ of her and isolates and 
betrays her by his actions following the termination (no sex).  He 
betrays her but Sarah never perceives it this way.  Her actions are 
taken not out of revenge but in an attempt to ‘please herself’.    
(ironically Paul shows her how to literally ‘please herself’ by showing 
her how to masturbate).
  A part from this, Sarah learns to please herself by standing back and 
realising who she is, gaining a voice and sense of identity, 
identifying clearly what she wants out of life and what she doesn’t 
want.  And ultimately she learns that the most important thing is to 
learn to love herself. When she does so, she will be able to love 
someone else.  But her priority is to know and love herself. The 
priority of all young women whether they intend to marry or not