Some weeks you finish your book two days early and still don’t get your post up for four days. Oops?
I have to be totally honest- I couldn’t remember the name of this book the entire week. It was a real game time decision to read this- it popped up on some “other readers liked” list and I went for it…and it worked out. (The smallest ever reminder of Blink?)
I’ve written before about loving stories that bring many different perspectives together (including last week), and this one does so quite artfully. The main characters each share their own vantage point of events surrounding one period of time in their collective and individual lives. When you’re really invested in the characters, it’s strange to know something that they don’t and can be frustrating when you want to tell them because you just want everything to work out for them. It’s easy to become connected to these characters, since they’re so well-developed and complex.
The author also devotes a lot of attention to the details. I felt the same thing as when I read BJ Novak’s book– it all felt very real in its minutiae. Take this line:
“She leaned across the table, toward where her son was watching her daughter ink outlines around the drawings of cocktails on her paper place mat.”
Every diner on Long Island- and probably other places- has the exact same placemats. I’ve done exactly that before. I’ve gotten it wrong too, as the daughter does. It’s the smallest reminder that not only are the characters connected to each other, but they’re also connected to us in some ways too. Reading can be so unifying in nature- it’s important to remember that.
My only complaint about this book is Kindle-related, to be honest: there are no chapter titles. Somewhere in the middle, the author gives a glimpse into the future- a really, really cool mechanism that allows you to see what happens to the characters after all of the drama of the present day before jumping back into the initial story. That said, when I found myself wanting to refer back to it, it was near impossible. It ends up paying off, but it was certainly frustrating at the time.
Read this book- it’s phenomenally written, with many elements that will keep you compelled throughout.
You’ll like this if: you liked well-formed characters whose motivations and relationships you want to understand in a deep way.
Happy reading!
carlyreads 