First off, I am garbage at keeping up a blog. Total garbage. I will not make any grand declarations that I will now keep this book blog going, but Imma try.
I heard about the book We Are Not Ourselves from various sources that include it among their best books of the year, so I gave it a shot. It was worth it.
Admittedly, the book is exactly the kind of novel that I enjoy, multi generational, ethnic, and blue collar, but it was really well done. Page wise, it is an undertaking, 641 pages but it reads much faster.
The story starts with the main character, Eileen as a young girl living in Queens, NY in a rather dysfunctional home. As the reader you can see that her parent’s strained relationship will have an effect on her later relationships/marriage.
As a grown woman she thinks that she has found the perfect man, a man unlike her upbringing, a man that will be her partner in life, a man that will free her. She puts too much trust in what he will be and is ultimately let down by what he really is. She tries so hard to find man that is in stark contrast to her young life that she misses out on the positive aspects that were there, hidden within her parents.
As she navigates her adult life she is often lost and wondering how she got there. A child, Connell offers more confusion and loneliness when she expected the opposite. As age and illness take form in her life, she finds strength that we as the reader knew she had, but she was unsure of. The reader cheers her along and wonders how long it will go on, will she get where she wants to be?
The book ends with the next generation, with Connell, what will he make of his life now? We are hopeful. The same hope we had for Eileen all those years ago.
I often judge a book by the way it makes me feel and think when I am not reading it. Often in between reading sessions I would catch myself thinking, “man, what is Eileen going to do about Ed?”. Or missing the characters as if they were real people that I couldn’t wait to visit again. I am a sucker for multi-generational novels that focus on the family and this book does not disappoint.
Up next: The Marriage Plot -Jeffery Eugenides
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