Love
Ratings3
Average rating4.2
15
Ratings3
Average rating4.2
'A profound examination of friendship, romantic confusion and mortality' John Boyne One summer's evening, two men meet up in a Dublin restaurant. Old friends, now married and with grown-up children, their lives have taken seemingly similar paths. But Joe has a secret he has to tell Davy, and Davy a grief he wants to keep from Joe. Both are not the men they used to be. As two pints turns to three, then five, Davy and Joe set out to revisit the haunts of their youth. With the ghosts of Dublin entwining around them - the pubs, the parties, the broken hearts and bungled affairs - the men find themselves face-to-face with the realities of friendship.
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This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
—
—Well, that was how it felt, he said. —Like we'd never been apart.
—But—.
—I know, he said. —I know. We'd never been much together. But I'm talking about feelings here, not facts. Feelings. The feel of the thing.
It sounded like something he'd said before. More than once.
LOVE
The Four Loves
* It's beside the point, but I feel compelled to list them: Affection (
), Friendship (
), Romantic (
), Charity (
).
There is a reason why men don't talk about their feelings. It's not just that it's difficult, or embarrassing. It's almost impossible. The words aren't really there
—The drink is funny, though, isn't it? You see things clearly but then you can't get at the words to express them properly.
—Or somethin'.
—Or somethin', yeah.
LOVE
—It's a thing abou' gettin' older, he said. —At least, I suppose it is. So many memories, you know. It become, harder to separate wha' happened from wha' might'ye happened an' wha' didn't happen but kind o' seemed to.
He was looking at me.
—Is it? he asked.
—Is memory reliable? I said. —Is that wha' you mean?
—I think so, yeah. yeah.
* Yeah, I know, I know. Roll with it, will you?
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The book is slow to start. It is also hard comprehend initially—is a book length dialog with interspersed timelines and characters, and few names.
Yet, by the time the key characters start getting drink, so did I start getting hooked on the slow, bubbling conversation.
Three book is nothing special. It's just two nearly 60yos spending an evening if drinking and talking, jumping back and forth over 30 years.
If there wasn't a pandemic around, I'd inviting friends over for a catch-up in Dublin tomorrow.
