I had missed the last meeting as I was sitting in the Sky Bar of the Hilton in London overlooking the Gherkin and the Shard drinking very expensive but gorgeous cocktails. Sorry, boast over, but it’s not every day a girl turns 30!
Missing the meeting meant I had missed why this book had been suggested/chosen and as I had never heard of it before I was totally walking in blind. My initial thought was that it appeared to be almost chick litty - the title, the cover, the synopsis on the back, however it had quite a few more pages than usually found in that genre and the saying goes ‘never judge a book by its cover’.
Let me officially confirm that the synopsis and the cover totally totally don’t do it justice. For a start a book about a quadriplegic who is wanting to exercise his right to die in Switzerland is a way more gritty subject matter than I expected to come across. I guessed what was going to happen about 2/3rd of the way through but it still didn’t stop me from crying bucket loads at the end – always the sign of a good book.
The book club thought so too.
We all really liked the characters, they were so vivid and really important to the story. It wasn’t just a book about two people with occasional friends coming along to provide a sound off. You felt for the outside characters, they were involved, important. I loved the relationship between Lou and her sister Treena. Moyes in general was very good at capturing real life – Dads stealing extra potatoes, sisters squabbling over hairdryers.
I even quite liked Patrick. I think it would have been very easy to paint him as the bad guy to make you squarely side with Will. Reporting to newspapers aside, Moyes didn’t make Patrick the automatic villain, he was just in his own little world with his running and you could see that he was genuinely hurt by Will and the effect he was having on Lou.
For being such a grim subject Moyes also managed to introduce humour – for example Lou when she inadvertently got drunk on Pimms, the splitting skirt in the interview and the neighbours arguing over an affair.
We all really loved the chapters that were from another persons point of view – Camilla and so forth. We really thought that Camillas chapter was essential in making us see her side of the story as from Lous eyes she came across as a very cold career minded woman. The same goes with Wills dad. His chapter showed how he was in catch twenty two. He wanted to be with his mistress but wouldn’t leave her whilst Will was alive. Yet to wish that Will would actually die would mean him losing his only son. He wasn’t just a ba$tard having an affair. (Sorry). I admit however I was quite worried that we were not going to get anymore from Lous point of view and was relieved that they were only short interspersed chapters.
We discussed peoples reactions to disabled persons and how unwilling people were to help. For example how Lou had to pretend Will was an ex-squaddie to obtain help in getting him over the sodden grass at the races. Is it really only ok to be a paraplegic if you are an ex squaddie/hero?
We also talked about how ironic it was that Will injured himself by taking the safe option – not taking his motorbike but trying to hail a taxi in pouring rain. How active he was before the accident and how that would have made things worse subsequently. That lead us on to discussing Will and whether he would have fallen for Lou as an able bodied person. We unanimously thought he wouldn’t have – Will even admitted this at the wedding. We also thought though that Lou would never have looked twice at him thinking that she was way way out of his league.
Inevitably we talked about Lou and the effect she had on Will. The prologue showed how attached he was to his Blackberry never truly turning off, yet in the Maldives he was content to just sit and watch Lou swimming. In a way he was much more open to life, yes I know that sounds silly when all he wanted to do was head to Switzerland.
Lou herself was an interesting person to talk about. She had always done things for other people and seemed to be quite happy in doing it. Only Will saw her for what she could be which lead to what, I thought at least, a couple of pretty woman moments – wearing a red dress to the theatre?!
We did worry about whether she would she still be putting someone else first now that Will had died given the fact that we left her in Paris following Wills instructions about buying a suggested perfume. Yes he left her money so she had the freedom to do things but he left instructions that she should use it to buy a house and study. Living for someone else is still not fully living even if you are able to buy a house and take trips to France.
We inevitably talked about Wills decision - could Lou have ever changed his mind? We doubted so. It was the one thing he had control of and for that reason he wouldn’t ever have changed his mind. I hated him at that point though. Lou put herself out there saying she loved him and he turned round and said you are not enough. For some people that is unrecoverable from. I did like however that she went to Switzerland in the end, cue the tissues
Thank you to those that choose the book. It’s books like this that make me love my book club. I had never heard of it and to be honest would never have looked twice at it on a shelf. The group had mixed reviews for her other work but this one is a star.
We gave it an 8.5
Next book Life of Pi - Yann Martel
Missing the meeting meant I had missed why this book had been suggested/chosen and as I had never heard of it before I was totally walking in blind. My initial thought was that it appeared to be almost chick litty - the title, the cover, the synopsis on the back, however it had quite a few more pages than usually found in that genre and the saying goes ‘never judge a book by its cover’.
Let me officially confirm that the synopsis and the cover totally totally don’t do it justice. For a start a book about a quadriplegic who is wanting to exercise his right to die in Switzerland is a way more gritty subject matter than I expected to come across. I guessed what was going to happen about 2/3rd of the way through but it still didn’t stop me from crying bucket loads at the end – always the sign of a good book.
The book club thought so too.
We all really liked the characters, they were so vivid and really important to the story. It wasn’t just a book about two people with occasional friends coming along to provide a sound off. You felt for the outside characters, they were involved, important. I loved the relationship between Lou and her sister Treena. Moyes in general was very good at capturing real life – Dads stealing extra potatoes, sisters squabbling over hairdryers.
I even quite liked Patrick. I think it would have been very easy to paint him as the bad guy to make you squarely side with Will. Reporting to newspapers aside, Moyes didn’t make Patrick the automatic villain, he was just in his own little world with his running and you could see that he was genuinely hurt by Will and the effect he was having on Lou.
For being such a grim subject Moyes also managed to introduce humour – for example Lou when she inadvertently got drunk on Pimms, the splitting skirt in the interview and the neighbours arguing over an affair.
We all really loved the chapters that were from another persons point of view – Camilla and so forth. We really thought that Camillas chapter was essential in making us see her side of the story as from Lous eyes she came across as a very cold career minded woman. The same goes with Wills dad. His chapter showed how he was in catch twenty two. He wanted to be with his mistress but wouldn’t leave her whilst Will was alive. Yet to wish that Will would actually die would mean him losing his only son. He wasn’t just a ba$tard having an affair. (Sorry). I admit however I was quite worried that we were not going to get anymore from Lous point of view and was relieved that they were only short interspersed chapters.
We discussed peoples reactions to disabled persons and how unwilling people were to help. For example how Lou had to pretend Will was an ex-squaddie to obtain help in getting him over the sodden grass at the races. Is it really only ok to be a paraplegic if you are an ex squaddie/hero?
We also talked about how ironic it was that Will injured himself by taking the safe option – not taking his motorbike but trying to hail a taxi in pouring rain. How active he was before the accident and how that would have made things worse subsequently. That lead us on to discussing Will and whether he would have fallen for Lou as an able bodied person. We unanimously thought he wouldn’t have – Will even admitted this at the wedding. We also thought though that Lou would never have looked twice at him thinking that she was way way out of his league.
Inevitably we talked about Lou and the effect she had on Will. The prologue showed how attached he was to his Blackberry never truly turning off, yet in the Maldives he was content to just sit and watch Lou swimming. In a way he was much more open to life, yes I know that sounds silly when all he wanted to do was head to Switzerland.
Lou herself was an interesting person to talk about. She had always done things for other people and seemed to be quite happy in doing it. Only Will saw her for what she could be which lead to what, I thought at least, a couple of pretty woman moments – wearing a red dress to the theatre?!
We did worry about whether she would she still be putting someone else first now that Will had died given the fact that we left her in Paris following Wills instructions about buying a suggested perfume. Yes he left her money so she had the freedom to do things but he left instructions that she should use it to buy a house and study. Living for someone else is still not fully living even if you are able to buy a house and take trips to France.
We inevitably talked about Wills decision - could Lou have ever changed his mind? We doubted so. It was the one thing he had control of and for that reason he wouldn’t ever have changed his mind. I hated him at that point though. Lou put herself out there saying she loved him and he turned round and said you are not enough. For some people that is unrecoverable from. I did like however that she went to Switzerland in the end, cue the tissues
Thank you to those that choose the book. It’s books like this that make me love my book club. I had never heard of it and to be honest would never have looked twice at it on a shelf. The group had mixed reviews for her other work but this one is a star.
We gave it an 8.5
Next book Life of Pi - Yann Martel
Great characters, great story line. I agree that the synopsis doesn't do it any favours. I was imagining a chick flicky book where girl meets boy through unfortunate circumstances, how wrong was I.
ReplyDeleteLou struck me as a naive person with little self confidence and conviction. The relationship she had with her boyfriend confirmed this as she seemed content to stay in a relationship for so many years because it was comfortable for her to do so.
I could see that she'd be disappointed that her efforts, to change Will's mind, had not been enough. I felt that she still didn't truly understand his decision until the very end.
Will was her total opposite. But due to his unfortunate circumstances the two of them were put together. It was good that Will saw the potential in Lou and I loved how he eventually, after the initial few weeks, tried to encourage her to broaden her horizons.
Lou's family were a great bunch of characters. I liked Treena, the younger yet older sister. Lou's mum and dad reminded me a little of Ma and Pa Larkin from the Darling Buds of May. Even Granddad, although showing signs of early onset dementure, made me think that he was fully aware of everything that was happening in the family home, even when he was staring at the tv most of the time.
Patrick, as far as I am concerned, was put in as the boring boyfriend to be dumped. Someone whom thinks it's exciting to run etcetera, in sub-zero temperatures, is frankly a sandwich short of a picnic....and boring. Although he didn't mean any harm, and was as comfortable with the long standing relationship with Lou as she was with him, I was glad when they split up as I felt that their relationship was holding Lou back.
I enjoyed the way the author added a single short chapter on the individuals that were closest to Will. They showed a snippet of how they were effected by the circumstances surrounding Will and the decisions he made.
I love a good cry, be it a movie or a book, and I usually score higher the more either pulls that emotion out of me. Me Before You had me shed a tear for Lou when she told Will that she was in love with him and he told her she wasn't enough. I cried for Camilla at the airport when she realised that Lou's efforts were never going to change her son's decision and she collapsed. I welled up when Lou's mother gave her the ultimatum about going to Switzerland and never returning home, and I wept as Lou spent the last few hours with Will, eventually understanding his decision and saying her goodbyes.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book and personally gave it a score of 9/10. Many thanks to the person that suggested reading it, and I agree, I would never have bought it to read from the synopsis on the back cover. Looking forward to reading the next book Life of Pi.
P.S. Just to let you know that this is the second comment that I've written. The first was far better and more detailed but for some reason Google decided to delete it before I could post it grrrr.
Wow what a brilliantly long detailed comment. Thank you. I can only guess how good the first one must have been x
ReplyDelete