The Lover's Dictionary

Picked this up in a walking hut. Odd to think someone would have carried it with them on a trek, I read it in an hour before dinner! Firstly just random entries, and then when I realised it was intended to be read in order - like a novel, not a dictionary! - I went back to the beginning.

And found myself charmed. A bold concept and executed perfectly. Entries are sometimes a line, others a page: poems or stories or random thoughts or rants or aphorisms or philosophy, but always engaging. Sometimes beautiful, often sad, but always rooted in the reality of being in a relationship. I enjoyed how neurotic the narrator was, how full of doubt: is she really the one? Even after heart wrenching descriptions of his feelings. In fact, that juxtaposition seemed to be the heart of it, and a couple of entries brilliantly capture that duality (I don't have the book now, but the gist being, for each tiny thing she does that twists you up with delight, and melts your heart, there's another habit that drives you insane). The titles (defined words) are rarely mentioned in the entries themselves, and often cause you to reevaluate the meaning of the piece.

I enjoyed how the format forces a non linear plot, so you're aware of... later developments early in the book, but the author still manages to reveal things in stages to some extent such that you feel there's some progression occurring.

But: there's no real ending - or beginning. Just like a dictionary. And just like love. Who can say exactly at which moment this magical thing occurs? Love affairs and relationships are made up of tiny instants, fleeting moments, simple words. This book is both a great descriptor of, and metaphor for, love itself.

“dumbfounded, adj.

And still, for all the jealousy, all the doubt, sometimes I will be struck with a kind of awe that we're together. That someone like me could find someone like you—it renders me wordless. Because surely words would conspire against such luck, would protest the unlikelihood of such a turn of events.

I didn't tell any of my friends about our first date. I waited until after the second, because I wanted to make sure it was real. I wouldn't believe it had happened until it happened again. Then, later on, I would be overwhelmed by the evidence, by all the lines connecting you to me, and us to love.”

I was really looking forward to reading this one, I mean, what a concept – tell a love story through a series of personal dictionary entries. Amazon gives a sample or two (I'd provide my own, but I don't have the book on me): “breathtaking (adj.),” the unnamed narrator explains, “Those moments when we kiss and surrender for an hour before we say a single word.” For “exacerbate (v.),” he notes, “I believe your exact words were: ‘You're getting too emotional.'“

Some of the entries are short, not even a sentence long; some go on for a page or two. Some are funny, some are bitter, some are lovey-dovey and sweet. The entries are listed alphabetically, rather than chronologically, so the reader has to piece together the story from beginning to end.

Great, great concept.

And that's pretty much all it is.

Sure, it was skillfully accomplished. Can't complain about the execution. But beyond that, there's little to be said about it. It comes across as little more than a clever exercise for a Creative Writing course.

I was pretty disappointed in case you can't tell.