Writers & Lovers

High hopes,deep fall.

The premise of this book was so good. All the praising reviews,the summary and quotes led me to believe I would love it and I was so sure of it. Finally,I thought to myself,a mature story with a female protagonist (almost) around my age. I couldn't wait to finish the previous book I was reading to start this one.

I picked it up with much excitement,but right off the hook I found the writing different from anything I've read before,which isn't necessarily a problem. Still,somehow I couldn't connect with it at all,despite reading it in my native language. The phrasing is simple,straight to the point and written in present tense for the most part,yet I got confused and frustrated by the structure,because even though it seemed easy to read,it felt difficult and distant (just like the characters) for some reason. I wrote this off in the beginning as maybe this writer and/or writing style isn't for me and continued with some struggle.

I don't want to go over the plot like so many did before me,I think everyone got the picture already. Let's talk about the characters as I dropped a crumble about them above. I love getting lost in a story,growing passionate and experiencing intense emotions,rooting for the people in there. I think my main obstacle for this here was that practically none of the characters were loveable for me and to go even further,the reason for that in my opinion was that I didn't get to learn much about them because of the writing style. Many many paragraphs of prose,very little conversations. The only character whose internal thoughts I got to know was the main character Casey,obviously,which were extremely cynical. I didn't know enough about the love interests to be appealing,let alone charming. The guy she chose in the end was barely in the book. I caught myself wishing she wouldn't choose anyone,but get her life together instead.

On the bright side,I liked Casey's friend Muriel Becker,who's also a writer. Everyone in this book is a writer... I'm usually good at remembering names,but here I needed to take notes because of the tidal wave of characters mentioned. I think that was totally unnecessary,cause half of them never showed up again.

The pacing was terrible. I was considering dnf-ing at several points up to 40%. The recurring descriptions of people's orders at the restaurant our protagonist works at were getting on my nerves. I learned a lot about being a waitress,but not much concerning the other characters' personalities. The plot only “picked up” around half of the book,but I was still waiting for something bigger to happen. Neither of the lovers were fleshed out enough and I felt like I was completely lost in time. Therefore some things I couldn't wrap my mind around regarding them. Everything happened so quickly with Oscar,the widowed writer. He asked Casey out immediately after being served by her at the restaurant. He kissed her right on that date,talked about her "baby-making hips" after,said he loved her,asked her to move in with them etc. Then he had an existential crisis and turned inside. I was so glad she broke up with him. I adored his sons though. Silas on the other hand,while closer to Casey's age,seemed unreliable and a bunch of details were highlighted like his chipped tooth and smell that weren't the most attractive attributes. I just didn't understand. Why?? I kept wondering where the affection is coming from,because I couldn't feel any between all these characters,and it gave me the illusion that I left something out. There was another male character in the first few chapters that gave me a headache: Luke. Two broken people getting tangled in each other - never would've worked out. I had a feeling Casey was,maybe unconsciously,leading them all on. Exactly why she should've sorted her stuff out first,but I understand the story has a starting point and it has to go from there.

The funny thing is,I never got to learn the name of Casey's deceased mother. I thought maybe she named the protagonist of the book Casey was writing after her but that was never directly confirmed. Then there were some random things that made me do a double take. For example being a golf prodigy and her real name cause it's not actually Casey,which I didn't exactly understand why she hasn't changed since the nickname was given by her perverted father. Her idea of how to teach literature was ridiculous too and the whole book was about how she can't write for different reasons. Well,she never even really sat down and tried.

The last couple of chapters and some wisely written lines made up for this ride,but the main character could've done those things much sooner and it felt a bit miraculous. Also feeding your mothers ashes to geese felt so freaking off,the description gave me a morbid sense of feeling. The last sentences provided a nice meaning and explanation,I still feel wrong about it.