Synopsis
Lou Clark knows lots of things. She knows how many footsteps there are between the bus stop and home. She knows she likes working in The Buttered Bun tea shop and she knows she might not love her boyfriend Patrick.
What Lou doesn't know is she's about to lose her job or that knowing what's coming is what keeps her sane.
Will Traynor knows his motorcycle accident took away his desire to live. He knows everything feels very small and rather joyless now and he knows exactly how he's going to put a stop to that.
What Will doesn't know is that Lou is about to burst into his world in a riot of colour. And neither of them knows they're going to change the other for all time.
Review
This week a member of my family died and it must have been fate because I picked up this book the day after, discarded it but came back to it that same night for no particular reason other than the fact that it was the closest book within my vicinity and I didn't put it down until I had read every single word. I'm terrified of death but I'm also more terrified of people who accept death, people who are ready and willing to accept death as an inevitable end. We are used to this Hollywood ending where the doctors come up with a miraculous cure for an illness and the world becomes a shinier place. There is no miracle cure in dear old England where this story is based. Will is middle class and rich and Lou is working class, poor and living with her mum and dad. Lou accepts a job as a carer for Will who is a quadriplegic.
Will Traynor has accepted death, he sees no other way, he knows what life was like before he was disabled and he knows he will never be happy with the knowledge of his former life as an adventurer/playboy and knows that death is the only option for him. I found his reluctance to adapt to his new way of life hard to accept since I'm conditioned to believe that life is life regardless of its limitations and God gives life and we should accept the fate we are dealt with. Lou attempts to change his mind but to no avail. Will wants to end his life. This book follows them as they learn to adapt and grow into love. This isn't a story about class, this is a story about lost opportunities and chances not taken. Although Lou and Will fall in love I don't think they are star crossed lovers, they are two people defined by awful circumstances who come together to make their world a better place. I would have thought less of Jojo Moyes if she'd penned a happy ending, a sort of collage of happy memories where the two main characters wheel off into the sunset but she doesn't and thank God for that.
There are books that come along once in a while that change your life and for me Me Before You has changed how I think about death. A friend told me recently that she didn't mourn the passing of her aunt and her reasoning was simple: why mourn someone who's gone to a better place. I think Will's desire to die is his way of fighting back, his way of taking control of a situation and I believe Will went to a better place, that sounds like a cliche but I've found cliches help because they are a source of comfort when faced with crummy fate.
The cover is pink, cheerful concealing the emotional contents of the book. I picked it up expecting a romance, this isn't romantic, it's a tale of a man's wish for his desires to be respected. I wept, I laughed, I scowled on the tube next to a woman reading Fifty Shades of Shades and thought to myself, she shouldn't have wasted her money. You should be reading this book. This books is one of the best books I've ever read. It's sweet, funny and surprisingly upbeat.
Favorite Quote
“Shhh. Just listen. You, of all people. Listen to what Im saying. This...tonight...is the most wonderful thing you could have done for me. What you have told me, what you have done in bringing me here...knowing that, somehow, from that complete arse, I was at the start of this, you managed to salvage something to love is astonishing to me. But...I need it to end here. No more chair. No more pneumonia. No more burning limbs. No more pain and tiredness and waking up every morning already wishing it was over. When we get back, I am still going to go to Switzerland. And if you do love me, Clark, as you say you do, the thing that would make me happier than anything is if you would come with me. So I'm asking you - if you feel the things you say you feel - then do it. Be with me. Give me the end I'm hoping for.”
No comments:
Post a Comment