“We think we know what is coming, but we can never know what it means.”
Our topsy-turvy world has once again gone upside down as only one uninvited guest, Miss Omicron-Covid, and no Bookers descended on the home of anybody to discuss this month’s selection. We erred on the side of caution as the pesky variant wreaked havoc in our community once again, but this change did not affect the reviewer as she provided us with her assessment of the novel as follows and offered what we might have talked about if we had met. I hope you enjoy this tongue-in-cheek narrative in hopes it beats a swab in the nose for entertainment.
This book has been called a “rare read-in-one sitting novel” and was a Good Morning America book club pick automatically vaulting it into the “sales stratosphere” of the bestsellers lists. Type-A Manhattan lawyer, Dannie Cohan, is asked the question, where do you see yourself in five years, at the most important interview of her career to which she offers a meticulously crafted answer. Later, after accepting her boyfriend’s marriage proposal, she slumbers away knowing she is right on track to achieve her five-year plan. But when she awakes, she’s in a different apartment, with a different ring on her hand, and beside a very different and quite studly man. The television news is on in the background…the date scrolling on the same night – December 15 – but the year is 2025, five years in the future. (At this point I think I said Holy Moley or something a little more intense.) Then when four-and-a-half years later Dannie meets the very same man, and her best friend Bella is in love with him…the plot thickens to say the least.
The author used two prominent elements in her novel, tragic hero/heroine and magic realism. The modern hero must have the sympathy of the readers and come to ruin because of some tragic flaw in their own character. Bella is complicated and flawed – her freedom of spirit and loyalty to friends rules her world but when she finally finds true love, she’s robbed of her happy-ever-after by terminal cancer. The “magic” in magic realism is the fast-forwarding and the tool that paints a realistic view of the world but adds magical elements that blur the lines between reality and fantasy to get the characters where they are going.
The characters are a diverse bunch at opposite ends of the spectrum. Dannie’s life is dictated by rules and plans with her job and the law empowering her black-and-white corporate world, but when her “power” is removed with her inability to save her best friend’s life and fully commit to her fiancé, she puts a Band-Aid on her real feelings relying on the way she sees the world in spite of it being wrong. Self-discovery is part of her journey with it unfolding when her dream/vision/nightmare completely changes the course of her life and begins to impact every decision she makes in the present. We can identify with her having a plan and watching it completely fall apart – the key is how we pick ourselves up when life takes a different direction. David, her fiancé, loved her deeply but had to be the most patient man alive, willing for every aspect of his life to be dictated by Dannie. Was it really love or just a relationship that fit together like pieces of a puzzle and once finished could be torn apart by honesty? I cheered when he decided he’d had enough. Aaron (Greg) Gregory was certainly easy on the eyes, and he truly loved Bella, but was cast in an impossible role void of any win-win situation.
The minor characters played their roles well – existing in the background – to add filler to the lives of the others. Interesting at the time of introduction but forgotten soon after they exited stage left. Bella’s parents gave new meaning to “in name only” with their cavalier approach to parenting and honestly, I don’t remember any details of Dannie’s childhood other than the loss of her brother at an early age.
What we might have talked about:
The novel features fate, love, and friendship exploring whether fate trumps free will – there’s a dialogue between choice and destiny – one of the most interesting questions in our human existence is how much is in our control and how much is going to happen no matter what we do.
The author’s other novel, The Dinner List, also was based on a “conversation starter” as she asks, if you could have dinner with any five people dead or alive, who would they be? Continuing the “five” themes in December 2004, Bookers’ late, great, actress, Bernie Crudden, reviewed a little book exploring heaven…is it a place, a concept, a dream, a hope…or is there such a thing at all? The book was The Five People you Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom. It had the same thought-provoking scenarios challenging the reader to dig deep to answer the questions.
The night that David proposed, and Dannie went to sleep waking up with a whole new scenario with a new man and a new ring and a fast forwarding of five years, why is she so shaken? She realized she was not in control…she couldn’t explain anything but, on some level, she knew she loved David but was not in love with him, but she would never admit it. Have you ever searched for a logical explanation to something that was unexplainable?
How can we rationalize a four-and-one-half year engagement between Dannie and David without any thoughts or plans to get married? To me they seemed like brother and sister or just good friends that loved each other, just not on a marriage commitment level. They were comfortable with their arrangement and their lives were mapped out precisely. When push came to shove David realized he deserved a partner that shared the same type of love for one another.
The storyline takes an about face when Bella is diagnosed with ovarian cancer. What changes do we see in the interaction between the characters with this new twist?
Chapters 3 and 41 mirror each other but were different. How? In 3 Dannie, although passionately embraced the interaction with Aaron (Greg) but is ashamed and confused by what happened. In 41, she is accepting of the situation…her best friend has died and she’s in love with Bella’s fiancé. Does she feel any guilt? She experiences the “dream” in real life and after she and Aaron sleep together, she remarks, “it is not love, this feeling, it is grief.” They had both lost a loved one. Neither one could save Bella’s life. Their bond was grief…Bella loved them both unconditionally as they did her.
What did you think of the ending? Why didn’t Aaron and Dannie end up together? I thought maybe it was the right way to pay tribute to Bella and the love she had for both, and it might have been too cliched – the happily ever after love triangle would have been complete with an exclamation mark.
What about Dannie running into Bella’s oncologist at the local deli where they seem to have a “bit of a moment?” I hope Dannie finds someone who makes her smile even if she must loosen her control strings to make that happen.
The key takeaway for me was the everlasting power of friendships and the acknowledgment that people who come into our lives and make an impact are never forgotten and have a permanent place in our hearts.
An Amazon three-star review began with “the eye-rolling moments started early…great literature this is not, but as a quick diversion, it’s a five-star read…just don’t ask too many questions.” Kirkus Reviews disagreed… “a heartwarming portrait of a broken heart finding a little healing magic.”
You know what they say about opinions…. they’re like belly buttons, everyone has one.”
COLOR CODING SYSTEM
WHITE: LIGHT READ
PINK: MODERATELY CHALLENGING
RED: CHALLENGING
February 8: Dear Edward, Ann Napolitano
What does it mean not just to survive, but to truly live? One summer morning, twelve-year-old Edward Adler, his beloved older brother, his parents, and 183 other passengers board a flight in Newark headed for Los Angeles. Halfway across the country, the plane crashes and Edward is the only survivor.
PINK
Discussion Leader: Jean Alexander
Home of Rebecca Brisendine
March 8: The Address, Fiona Davis
When a chance encounter with Theodore Camden, one of the architects of the grand New York apartment house, the Dakota, leads to a job offer for Sara Smythe, her world is suddenly awash in possibility – no mean feat for a servant in 1884.
PINK
Discussion Leader: TBD
Home of Jean McSpadden
April 12: Cher Ami & Major Whittlesey, Kathleen Rooney
From the green countryside of England and the gray canyons of Wall Street come two unlikely heroes – one pigeon and the other a soldier. Answering the call to serve in WWI neither the messenger bird nor Charles Whittlesey the army officer can anticipate how their lives will briefly intersect in a chaotic battle in the forests of France.
PINK
Discussion Leader: TBD
Home of Bonnie Magee
May 10: Be Frank With Me, Julia Cleburne Johnson Debut
A reclusive literary legend who wrote a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winning novel at nineteen has barely been seen or heard from since though, ironically, she still lives in a glass mansion in Bel Air even after having lost all her money in a Ponzi scheme. She needs to write another novel, so her publisher sends her a highly competent editorial assistant whose job is to be a companion to the author’s nine-year-old son – a boy with the intellect of Albert Einstein and the wardrobe of a 1930s movie star.
PINK
Discussion Leader: TBD
Home TBD, Bookers Evening Meeting
Summer Read: The Wives of Henry Oades, Johanna Moran
When Henry Oades accepts an accountancy post in New Zealand, his wife, Margaret, and their children follow him to exotic Wellington. But while Henry is an adventurer, Margaret is not. Their new home is rougher and more rustic than they expected—and a single night of tragedy shatters the family when the native Maori stage an uprising, kidnapping Margaret, and her children. The story is based on a real-life legal case.
PINK
Discussion Leader: Jane Shaw
So…Miss Omicron-Covid – there are no more reservations at the Inn!
JoDee
