This is for all of you who complain too many books are bummers.
You know David Nicholls. Probably through "One Day." It was a movie and now a series on Netflix. Not that I've seen either. I rarely watch a production of something I've read, it's too compressed, it's not the vision I have in my head, it's always inferior to the reading experience, The only movie that I've ever seen that is better than the book is "Wonder Boys," you know, the film with the last great Bob Dylan song, "Things Have Changed."
And there's a similarity here in that I read Michael Chabon's "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh" and then had to read its follow-up, the aforementioned "Wonder Boys." But unlike with David Nicholls, I haven't read all of Chabon's work, despite the hosannas, I too often found it was a bit difficult and didn't resonate, however I did enjoy "Telegraph Avenue."
I started with "One Day," Nicholls's 2009 book. I read a review and then purchased it on Amazon just after I got my Kindle. Nicholls's books are slight, but somewhat literary. You don't feel like you're slumming.
And the feeling of "Sweet Sorrow" really resonated with me, so I reserved the new one, "You Are Here."
Which I completely missed the hype on. I stumbled on it in some reading I did. How could David Nicholls have a new book and I not be aware of it? That's the modern era, blink and you miss it.
So on the surface, "You Are Here" seems simple. It's about a hike across England and you know there's going to be a romance. In other words, it's pretty predictable. But not completely. And although I am now inspired to walk across England, what impressed me most was the nailing of the inner dialogue of romance, how the individual feels and acts, the nature of connection.
You've got your eyes on someone...
Maybe someone set you up, and you end up wondering if they even know you.
That's the point. Marnie wants to exchange stories. She doesn't want to be bored by a pharmacist talking about Formula One.
There might be women who want the external, who are entranced by the penumbra, how someone looks, what they own, how much money they have, but the majority want someone they can connect with, that they can talk to, who will listen to them, who they can exchange stories with.
What does it take to open someone up? Is it even possible to open them up?
And to what degree are you haunted by your baggage, do you own it, do you reveal it?
Get to a certain age and we all have romantic failures. And no matter what happened, we don't feel completely good about them. I was listening to a podcast with Bill Maher and Penn Jillette and Maher said he is still haunted by the teenage girlfriend who dumped him. That's how deep it cuts, not that you can get many men to admit it.
Marnie is too isolated. She works at home and is not rolling in dough. And as the years have passed...she notices the change.
Michael is a teacher who is stuck. Covid led to his wife moving out... (Yes, we now have books where Covid is a feature, not a bug.) And on some level he's not living in the real world, he's on his own planet, he believes the solitary life works for him, but does it really?
So the whole book is about Marnie and Michael coming together. You can see it from page one. But the description of who everybody is, their inner thoughts, makes the book worth reading.
I mean to what degree are we trapped by our choices, how do we get out of our own ruts? Have we lost touch with what we used to want? Are we burdened by our losses?
But there's that spark.
And a lot of missed signals.
"You Are Here" is an easy read. Two days if you want. Maybe less. But even though I knew where it was going, a whole world was created, and not only did I end up knowing these people, I could see myself in some of these characters.
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