I can best share my opinion by comparing it to the quotes on the front. First, Nick Hornby: "Big, absorbing, smart, fantastically readable." I agree with all of this except "big," and with that I disagree heartily. It's small ... quite small. It's the lives of two people observed through a pin-hole view of one day each year of their lives for twenty years. But it's fleshed out in such detail that it sucks you right through until you're fast-forwarded through to the next chapter. Sometimes things change just a little, sometimes they change a lot. Other times not at all. In this way it's fascinating and, yes, "absorbing".
The other quote is from PEOPLE magazine: "One of the most hilarious and emotionally riveting love stories you'll ever encounter." Since PEOPLE is ALWAYS about the drama in the same way a teenage girl thinks celebrities are SO intriguing, typical rule of thumb is to dial it back about 2 notches, and you have a pretty good picture of reality.
While my "Dex" and I have only been in each other's lives for a mere 15 years, I feel hesitant to compare our relationship to theirs. But it was a needed reminder at how someone can expand your life by their very presence ... and, the scary flipside, diminish it in their absence.
I hated it. And then I liked it. And finally, I really liked it. It is interesting how fear can be so pervasive and invade every inch of one's life. Only when we have the courage to do what we really want and say what we really mean and allow our heart and dreams to dictate, only then are we then free to be happy. Wow. That sounds like a really bad fortune cookie edict. Still, I'm sticking to it.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you, though. I wasn't sure about this book ... then it totally stuck with me. I even still think about this book weeks after. Thanks for your comment!
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