No 14: A book set in the decade I was born
This is gonna end in tears / Liza Klaussmann
Ah, the ‘80s. The last analogue decade. The decade during which the Cold War ended, and the AIDS epidemic spread. It was also the decade of shoulder pads, big hair, MTV, and The A-Team. It’s also marked as the birth decade of a certain bookworm.
Not sure how I would find a book fit for this category, I was just randomly browsing the shelves at the library when a blurb caught my eye (I guess we hereby established another functionality of blurbs) which mentioned “pitch-perfect 80s detail” (Anna Hope). Challenge item sorted!
This book is not something I would have gravitated towards under normal circumstances, but, that’s what the reading challenge is all about: broadening your horizons. So, I checked out the book and dove in. And wow, does this book deliver on its period setting. From the descriptions of colours, appliances, cars, music, and fashion: it’s very ‘80s.
The story is set in a small Quaker town called Wonderland, situated on the American east coast, and mainly takes place over the summer of ’84. (There are some flashbacks to earlier in the ‘80s, and a few are set in the sixties.) Aside from a glorious ‘80s vibe there is the intensity of a hot and sticky summer as well.
Miller, Ash and Olly are forty-somethings. Back when they were kids they were best friends, but they’ve since lost that bond and are struggling to keep their lives on track.
Miller (it took me a couple of sentences to realize this is used as a girl’s name) and Ash are unhappily married, with Ash practically moved out of their marital home, and into a pied-a-terre in New York, where he has a girlfriend. They’ve lost touch with Olly, who lives in Hollywood. Olly works at a production company and lost his golden touch, so after careful consideration he decides to kill himself. Except he doesn’t get that far because there’s an earthquake and he instead is crushed by falling debris in his home. When he comes to in the hospital there is a new-found clarity and he remembers a family emergency back home. So, he checks himself out of the hospital and flies east, back to the place he once upon a time couldn’t wait to leave behind.
Ash has come home as well, to play happy families with Miller for the sake of their son Nate, who is celebrating his last summer at home before going off to college in California.
With everybody back together in the small town, tensions are rising with every sentence.
It quickly becomes clear that Miller and Olly first were together. The three of them left Wonderland to make it in Hollywood, where they set up a successful record label. Because Miller felt lost, she left Olly and settled for Ash. Love triangles are a recipe for disaster, and there are a lot of unresolved issues between the three. The title tells you all you need to know about the result.
History is also repeating itself because Ash and Miller’s son, Nate, has a crush on his friend Suki, but he doesn’t know that his best friend Cam is having feelings for her as well.
Then there’s a storyline about a movie company setting up a shoot in Wonderland, Olly’s Hollywood ex, Blue, a world-famous singer who travels to Wonderland as well, and one about Olly’s aunt Tassie. Then there’s stuff happening with Cam and his family, and Suki and her family.
That sounds like a lot, but actually it felt that not much happened in this book. It’s just all the threads slowly coming undone. It wasn’t until the last two chapters that I got really into it, because that’s when decisions and plans were made. The big event in the end came out of left field, which was appropriate for what happened, but it was weird to have the big bang ending be about a side-character and not one of the main characters. There also isn’t time to evaluate the impact of the event in the main characters because the book ends three pages later.
I’m giving this book an okay overall score because of its great setting and descriptions. The story itself is “meh” for me, as this was not up my alley at all.
Bookworm in the City 