Bear with me here because I'm not good with book reviews. I like to savour the feelings of a book
rather than break it down into the pieces of why I enjoyed it (or didn't.)
I likely won't talk much about plot points or structure or anything you would have discussed in a high school literature class. I will tell you what I liked or didn't like because I think art is subjective, and writing is art so I'm not planning to critique so much as sharing my perspective.
So we embark on this new journey with a review of the novel I finished last night -- Eleanor & Park written by Rainbow Rowell.
I hadn't intended to read this one at all. I bought it on a whim, because I liked the simplicity of the cover, and thought, why not? I happened to be at Book Outlet, where they were having a half-off sale, which made the book a great deal. Which means I will start the review by saying that the novel was well worth the cost of the book.
It would, in fact, have been worth the full price of the book, had I known to be looking for it. But as I paid significantly less I'll just work with that. My book also happens to be a signed copy, which makes it a little bit more amusing. It's an easy read, but I was completely drawn in by it.
The story itself is possibly the sweetest, saddest, most awkward love story that I have ever read. It's written so that you get glimpses into both of the main characters Eleanor and Park, which is a great way to understand what's going on while also not giving away too much on either side. And when those two sides of the story line up it's absolutely adorable. The characters came to life for me in quirky and highly relatable ways, even though they're sixteen-year-olds in high school, and I am most definitely not. But I remember those days, and something about the story makes me a little nostalgic.
The story is really a simple teen love story, but shades in real-world complexities that bring it so easily to life. When I was finished, I didn't yearn for there to be more story so much as wish that there was a way to know more about the characters. Characters are always the most important part of the story for me. I often say that I can read the most awful plot so long as it's got a really good character driving it forward. This book did not have that problem. The plot was well developed, and though I was able to figure out where it was going, I was very happy to just go there along with the characters.
I gave this one 5 stars on Goodreads and I'll stick by that here (I may need to come up with my own kitschy system in the future.) I'd highly recommend this novel, and I will be making sure to read more work by Rowell in the future.
ADDENDUM - July 6, 2020
When I read this, I read it as a fluffy piece of fiction. Like I said in the beginning, I don't break things down too much. My goal isn't to analyze and critique; I just want to share how a book made me feel and whether or not anyone else might be interested in it for those reasons.
In this case, I might be a little too surface value. In total honesty, I'm white. I've had the luxury of not digging too deeply into racial stereotypes, and my opinion has usually been that they're stereotypes for a reason. Today though, I had the racist issues in this book brought to my attention and it's made me fairly unsettled. Why didn't I pay attention? Because I didn't have to. It's changed a lot about my perception of the story, because it's making me think differently about things that are described and said in the context of the story. Individually, the stereotypes and misperceptions in the book are problematic but might have been looked at as character flaws. In combination with each other, they are problematic and hard to ignore. I don't think I would have re-read it and felt the same anyway, but I know that I wouldn't now. And I don't think I want to. I'm changing my Goodreads rating, because as much as I enjoyed the lightness of it in the moment, I can't in good conscience rate it that highly anymore.
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