I have to say thank you to my cousin for recommending Emily Giffin’s novels. A woman’s wisdom - just what the doctor ordered for me right now. And, it doesn’t hurt that it’s coming from a happily married woman with children (advice please).
I found this novel comforting and loved how honest and inspiring it was. I realised that we all have similar problems, joys, and experiences when it comes to matters of the heart, and that we should learn from each other.
Life is full of coincidences (serendipities, omens – whatever you want to call them). Like when the lead character, Ellen, describes one of the first moments with her soon-to-be-husband: she was playing scrabble with his family (her best friend) the night he asked her out, and her scrabble pieces spelled the word F-A-T-E. Her friend told her that true love is supposed to uplift you to be categorized as true love, and this same friend later intervened to change Ellen's life forever. {This is a double edged sword, however, because even the love that brings you down eventually brings you up, and and vice versa}. Meaning all love has purpose, and I think this is the essence – truth - of this novel. And also that friendship saves the day - even if our friends are a pain in the ass sometimes. Our friends and loves are our family. Our fate.
Being a 90s girl, I loved the trip down memory lane and the camaraderie I felt with the author. Those of us who grew up in those days remember Bo and Hope from Days of Our Lives (the perfect relationship! The guy had one eye - they had passion, commitment, and they made love in a hot tub. A lot.), Friends episodes, Bon Jovi, and cassette tapes. There was even the recollection of 1999 - the year and song.
Great writing, like a great friend, lends a hand, giving us a sense of peace during happy and sad times. Like the 90s commercial says: “TV...funny. Real life...not so funny”...something like that. I thought about this commercial while reading this novel, a few times, and realised that our real stories are the stuff that inspires fiction, and as glamorous as it all may seem sometimes in fiction, it doesn’t always feel this way in real life (even though it really is). It helps to grab a book like this one to change perspective, even if it’s just for a little while. Maybe having a sense of humour about it all will set us free. If nothing else, it helps us to know we are not alone in how we experience our troubles - it’s a human thing, not a personal thing.
My revelations (believe it or not, I did have some) are:
It’s not the destination; it’s the journey -
This is also what makes someone important in life (as this is where most of our time is spent). This is especially true of love, and in a way partly describes the difference between love and lust.
It is what it is -
You can’t argue with this.
You must follow your heart, at all times -
“Our lives are defined by opportunities, even the ones we miss” and “life being what it is.... a series of intercepting lives and incidences”...you get the point (from Curious Case movie -I watched this the night I started this novel, so it’s included in my revelations).
I love the honesty and the humanness and I can’t wait to read another by this author.
