Review: His and Hers

Synopsis

From their first meeting at the student union over a decade ago, Jim and Alison successfully navigated their way through first dates, meeting parents, moving in together and more . . . Then they split up and divided their worldly goods (including a sofa, a cat and their flat) into his 'n' hers. Now, three years on and with new lives and new loves, they couldn't be happier. 

Until a chance encounter throws them back together, and causes them to embark on a journey through their past to ask themselves the big question: where did it all go wrong, and is it too late to put it all right?

Review

Back when I was in a relationship I didn't quite understand how couples stayed together. I struggled to keep the relationship going, always in fear that it would end soon. I used to watch all kinds of couples, the kissing couples, the touchy feely couples, the couples who stood miles apart but still managed to say to the world that they were still a couple. I would wonder how and why they stayed together. The problem is that No one ever talks about staying together, they talk about chance meetings and falling in love but no one ever talks keeping it together. They perfect the beginning, gloss over the middle and before you know it, they are grey and old and talking about falling in love all over again.

I read His and Hers with this in mind, the story kicks off with the death of Disco, Jim and Alison's cat. These two ex lovers meet up to say their goodbyes to their cat. Gayle explores simply how they met, how they fell in love, how it fell apart but also how they try to make it work past the honeymoon period. I was consumed with finding out why these two seemingly perfect individuals couldn't make it work. What happened to drive these two apart? Mike Gayle explores what went wrong with Jim and Alison without intruding too much into their lives. When I read this I felt like a bystander watching as these two lived their lives, I could imagine them on the train as the touchy feely couple, on the bus home as the kissing couple and also at home in a kitchen with friends.

Usually this kind of book would be filled with melodrama and a dramatic ending but not His and Hers. Gayle excels in the simplifying relationships. His and Hers is simple story of a man who meets a women, they fall in love, get married and break up. There is no over the top ending or melodramatic music playing loudly over the closing credits. This book is funny, addictive and the most realistic portrayal of a relationship I've read in a long time. Relationships, ever afters and all that malarkey that is associated with life, he demystifies. Sometimes relationships end because the other person stops trying or falls out of love. In this case Jim becomes dissatisfied with the life he wished for, the ever after becomes a prison of his own making and decides to leave.

The story concludes anticlimactically with an open end.  The anti climatic end to this book although I found to be depressing is very true of life. Life isn't a soap opera, we don't run off into the sunshine holding hands while skipping to fairy tale music. We make conscious adult decisions with no symphonies in the background.  This story will transcend time.