I just didn’t like this book. It started out so slowly and boring; way to absorbed in small details that failed to be relevant to me. Georgie McCool is a television show writer married to Neal, in a relationship that revolves around their children and not much else. I couldn’t care about her ambitions for writing her show. I couldn’t care about her husband. And thusly I really couldn’t care about the way her career was affecting her relationship with her husband. She kept blaming herself, but to me it was a conversation she should have had with him so many years before.
Enter the magic landline to the past, I guess. When Neal leaves for Omaha with the girls and Georgie is forced to stay behind working on her big break things are tense to say the least. Neal barely kisses her goodbye and Georgie unravels in about 5 seconds. She seeks refuge at her mom’s house where she uses the landline to call Neal’s mom’s house. But it is a Neal of the past that answers, from a time were Georgie and Neal almost broke up.
Cue Georgie wondering whether she has gone insane…seriously so many winded thoughts about the magic phone. I wish she’d just accepted the magic phone. What can I say. I’m a magic phone embracer. I’d never worry I was going crazy it that happened to me.
However, while many of the words felt like meaningless fill (several passages brought my mind back to the horrors of 50 shades of grey), the writing felt trite and stretched into page after page of unnecessary plot. Rowell does have an aptitude for tapping into the core emotions of human beings in love. She writes relationships so that it feels like she captured the beginning of yours. The flashbacks to the beginning of Neal and Georgies relationships were the strongest. Unfortunately she just didn’t do it enough; and I wasn’t affected by her portrayal of years of mediocre love and mistakes. This may change for someone older with children, but having children really shouldn’t be a prerequisite for reading a novel.
There was nothing to make the reader believe Georgie was better of with Neal. It felt like the real reason she couldn’t just unchoose him was because she loved her children. And it raises some interesting questions about what constitutes a soulemate. Her writing partner Seth would have been the life she wanted. He understood her and they traveled life together. Neither Neal nor Georgie made an effort to understand each other beyond their first love and Neal always remained someone in the periphery of her life. Even in the end, when she was kissing him, neither of them were truly there. And neither of them should have been.
As someone who’s still trying to work up the courage to write my three star review for Eleanor and Park, I very much appreciate this, ducking and all. :)
Me too. The 3 star review is terrifying to write (especially because I love her others).
Eleanor and Park was my first foray into Rowell’s work. I’ve long really wanted to read Fangirl, because it sounds like it was written for me, but it’s difficult to get a hold of here.
There are dozens of us. Dozens!
I’m crying in the shower wearing jeans cutoffs right now.
That’s ok, people. You are allowed to dislike Rainbow Rowell. Just know that you are dead to me. DEAD TO ME! (Not really, but it always makes me sad when people don’t love the books as much as I do). I actually understand why Landline doesn’t work great for some people.
From my grave I dare tentatively ask; why do you think landline works less well for some people?
Ooh, tricky question. I would say because of all of Rowell’s heroines, Georgie is the least likable. It’s great that she’s so into her career, but she knows and the reader knows that she’s clearly neglecting her husband and kids to foster it. She is possibly being overly selfish for wanting the career and family too – Neil is certainly making a lot more sacrifices. I’m not entirely sure what Rowell wants the readers to think – is it actually a happy ending that they end up back together? Maybe their relationship is doomed – it’s certainly not going to get better unless Georgie and Neal do a lot of talking. But as someone who’s been with the same man for fourteen years, in a relationship that a lot of outside observers may think is dysfunctional or a bit lop-sided in terms of who carries the bigger emotional and financial burden – I can’t really judge Georgie for wanting to have her job and her family – for wanting to make it work even though she knows she may be the one who’s causing the biggest share of difficulties.
I disagree with your take that she’d be better off with Seth. I think they would be disastrous as a romantic couple. They might be great for a little while, but then they’d end up hating each other and I suspect it would have ruined their working partnership if they actually hooked up.