The Borrower

*2.5 stars. There is something off about this book. I found Lucy and Ian unlikeable, for the most part, and the drawn out lesson from her insanity is so far removed from the narrative that I was just blah by that point. I get why she was upset and I see a very intriguing story hiding beneath this cosmetic one, but it never got there. It was too on the nose at times and other times meandered into meaninglessness. I liked the book references, obviously, and I don't question Makkai's writing talent, but I did suffer her soapbox approach to all her issue-driven parts of the story arch and it was too much for me. She wanted to show some mirroring between the horrors Ian was facing and the insanity he was permitted to endure by allowing him to highjack an adult for a road trip/escape and it just didn't work. It felt like a millennial railing against right wing ideology but having no chops to back it up or present an argument to the contrary...”Bush sucks. Religious zealots suck. Bigotry sucks...” But I (Lucy, Makkai) also suck because I can't face these real issues like an adult or in a meaningful way or even present a narrative between my two lead characters that does much of anything more than babble. I earn some grace because I fall back on books and the world they create and the lessons they hold and in these moments the story attempts to claw its way out...but, alas, I suck because I end right back in my whining, faux allegorical take. “I did a kinda awful thing, but I had reasons!” Meh.