Contains spoilers
Opening: "Either everything matters, or everything is an outrageous waste of time. That’s what she would have said, if anyone had asked her. But no one asks crazy old ladies for their opinions."
This is a book about what matters and what doesn't, what's temporary and what's eternal, what it means to live, and how joy and sorrow juxtapose with purpose and expectation.
But more than anything, it's a book about the importance of the story itself.
What's impressive is how Dr. Horn explores all of that without the story ever feeling weighed down by the existential themes or the 2000 years of history. For the most part, the book feels light, fitting well into magical realism and/or fantasy genres.
This is an unapologetically Jewish book told from the perspective of a character whose Jewishness is so old and so engrained it doesn't seem to register for her unless there is an active persecution of Jews happening - she seems far more concerned with familial relationships, her relationship with her eternal partner, the impact of her gender on her experiences, and how all of these change and don't change over the millennia.
The book is filled with references to Jewish culture, scripture, writings, and history, none of which are made explicit in any way. All the important characters are Jewish, very well fleshed out, very obviously flawed, and they reflect certain elements of global and historical Jewish communities. The story itself follows a Jewish narrative pattern to the point thatthe ending itself is not an ending, as Rachel and Elazar so often say through the book - there are no endings, only more beginnings.
I found this all very refreshing, and I find myself wondering if it might be challenging to connect with the story, and even with Rachel herself, if the reader is unfamiliar with Jewish culture and history.
I rather enjoyed the re-imagining of Rabbi Yochanan's parentage and lifetime, and I absolutely loved the idea of the son of the High Priest becoming his own son's youngest student. It just felt so very poignant, fit so beautifully with the whole exploration of parenthood as sacrifice, and brought the story full circle in various ways.
Overall, this is a gorgeous, imperfect, and too short book about a gorgeous, imperfect, and too long life.
Contains spoilers
I feel compelled to write a review for this one because my response is complicated.
The Four Weddings and a Funeral structure was cute, but distracted from the relationship development, which is what I wanted to read about. It's a structure that works well for an initial romance, rather than the development of a complex relationship between two people who both have big huge issues.
I don't know whether it says more about me, Alexis Hall, or what, that I found the most engaging and satisfying section of the book to be the funeral, and I think that might just be because it was the only section of the book where Luc actually focused on Oliver. So much of the rest of the book was very angsty, which, unless they're working through it, as Luc did in the first book, is not something I enjoy in my MCs in first person narratives.
The humour, the banter, the irreverence were all there. The secondary characters were fabulous - I adore the quirky wisdom of Luc's mom, the ott and more mature best-friending, the co-workers...
The thing is that through each wedding, Luc's pov grated even more, as did his absolute certainty that the vast majority of the conflict was "Oliver problems, not me problems," which felt deliberately delusional. It felt like all the character development took place in the last bit of the book, and it took place far too quickly for me to be convinced, especially since there seemed to be so little in the two years between the last book and this one.
What saved the book for me was the actual ending - it brought together what I felt were the themes that kind of popped up throughout the book but I couldn't really see through all the angst. And they are themes I absolutely love: Self-differentiation, self-exploration, authenticity...
And SPOILER now:
I just really really wish there had been more exploration of alternatives to weddings/marriage than the brief conversations with Pryia and her partners, the mother, and the very last couple of pages. I also wish there was more room for Lucien to face that the "Oliver problems, not me problems" were actually his own damned problems all along. If it had, this book could have been a brilliant satire about heteronormativity and convention. The entire discussion over the rainbow arch could have become a truly enlightening exploration on the conventions of the performance of queerness.
I do however, love that they walked out on their own wedding. Like, really really love it.
I was overjoyed to read a book that ends with a clear hea that doesn't require a formal commitment ceremony - this is something that is very counter-genre, and unlike many readers who freaked out about it, I am so very much here for the subversion.
So yeah... complicated response to this one.
This story is listed as book 1.5 in many places. It actually takes place after book 3. There are no major spoilers, but the sub-plot of the story will not make sense without having read books 2 and 3.
I always enjoy seeing first-person MC's through another's eyes, and I appreciate the level of skill to change the voice so completely without losing the tone of the series.
One thing I always appreciate about Alexis Hall's writing is the fully fleshed out and often delightful secondary characters who encourage personal growth in the MC's.
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