Me Before You: Not your typical love story

I first heard about Me Before You by Jojo Moyes from a fellow book blogger (Book Addiction) a while back, so when I located it at my local book sale, I was thrilled and immediately placed it on top of my to-read pile. 

This story juxtaposes two characters.  On the one side we have Will Traynor, epitomizing the stereotypical male – makes a good living, but works to live a life of adventure and pure enjoyment.  He travels and explores the obscure parts of the world, all while at his side, of course, stands the gorgeous blond.  Only, wait.  This description depicts a Will before The Accident, before the day he became trapped in a wheelchair as a quadriplegic, the day before he lost his life, in a manner of speaking.  The latter Will breaks all connection to his former self and succumbs to his depression, closing out his beautiful girlfriend and family.  And this is where Louisa Clark enters the story.  She is everything Will is not (or was not).  Having never left their small town, she lives with her parents, sister and nephew.  And although she dates Patrick, we know early on that this long-term relationship is not built on mutual respect and love. Her quirky sense of style and quick wit add some sparkle to her otherwise plain and ordinary life.

Will’s mother hires Louisa to babysit Will.  The diametric personalities ensure a conflict between Will and Louisa, yet this conflict develops into a connection, the connection that draws me in.  Louisa resolves to show Will how to live, how to be happy again.  And so, these two juxtaposed characters start to make a switch.  Louisa learns how to explore new experiences and Will settles for the more ordinary.  Or something like that.

While this is a love story, it’s also so much more than a love story while not being a love story at all.  A bit confusing, I know, but I also the reason why you need to read this book.  Jojo Moyes uses this story as a backdrop for a broader commentary on both the life as a quadriplegic and how society reacts to the disabled as well as the idea of assisted suicide.  Both of these are “hot” topics that we have a tendency to push aside.  Moyes does a wonderful job of bringing these topics to our minds without overwhelming us by their enormity.

The writing styles does not compel me to read and the awkward chapters written from a different point of view only seem to draw the reader away from the story, but the ability of Moyes to make us think about life and love in a new way demands us to read this novel. 

I am left with the thought: how will you live your life? I choose to live by love, at all costs.

Fifty Shades Darker, Fifty Shades Freed: Love Endures

In E.L James’ second and third novel about Ana and Christian, the atypical sexual habits of Christian evolve into the building of a meaningful relationship.  The constant push and pull between Christian and Ana, their unconditional love for each other pivoted against their own insecurities draws the reader into their story.

At the end of the first novel, we are left wondering if Mr. Fifty Shades and Ms. Innocence-Unleashed will actually maintain their complicated relationship.  Of course, being a love story, it does not take long before they crawl back into each other’s arms . . . literally.   In the second novel, Fifty Shades Darker, the abstruse nature of Christian becomes more apparent.  With each revelation of his haunted childhood, both the reader and Ana fall more in love with this man. 

The love between Christian and Ana solidifies by the end of the second novel.  The small part of this second book where the life of Christian hangs in the balance becomes the focus of the third novel.  In Fifty Shades Freed, the plot no longer focuses on a love relationship, but intensifies into the mystery behind apparently random attempts at harming Christian and Ana and their families.  Of course, the threat of losing a lover and best friend beckons for actions beyond what you thought yourself capable.  These are the actions of true love.  Intermixed in this mystery, the reader gets glimpses into the merging of two lives into one family.  Like any marriage, it has its bumps.  But love conquers all, right?

The only thing that threw me off this third novel was the closing epilogue, where suddenly we are thrown into the perspective of young Christian.  Apparently this allows the reader to more fully understand Mr. Fifty Shades, but I found it distracting.  I would have been just as happy to leave it at “they lived happily ever after”.

Overall, I enjoyed this trilogy.  Perhaps they were not the most intellectually stimulating, but sometimes a nice easy, happy love story is what a girl needs.

Fifty Shades of Grey: Practicing Love

In the bookish community, E. L James’ Fifty Shades of Grey had women rushing to their local bookstores to buy and devour the three books in this series.  In the Christian community, this erotic series also struck a nerve, only this time women ran to the pulpit and warned fellow Christians that by reading these books you were essentially committing adultery against your husbands.  Now, I would almost never read romance novels, let alone those classified as erotica.  But as a Christian living in a secular world, I yearn to practice acceptance and unconditional love, to show the love of Jesus to the world.  Unfortunately, outright condemnation of books does not accomplish this goal.   And so I, along with my husband (he’s pretty amazing!), set out to discern the real meaning of Fifty Shades of Grey.

We were surprised.  Pleasantly surprised.

While the vivid intimate scenes were, um . . . .interesting and not for innocent virgin eyes, the book encompasses so much more than sex.  And so, to dwell on the sexual content of the book would be doing EL James a disservice.   In my perspective, the BDSM aspect of the novel adds a layer of complexity to an already intriguing story that ultimately captured me. 

Fifty Shades of Grey tells a love story.  And both participants are believable, unsuspecting and innocent in their own way.  On the one side we have the incredibly gorgeous and wealthy Christian Grey.  On the outside he appears to be an arrogant and entitled man.  Yet, on the inside, he is broken.  This brokenness fosters his apparent need for domineering relationships.  But this brokenness also draws in the young and innocent Ana.  Ana’s innocence is tangible.  Having never been involved in a serious relationship, she has a lot to learn from Christian.  But, like most women, she is indecisive.   Throughout the novel, she is confronted by her two inner voices: her subconscious counterpoised against her inner goddess.   Her subconscious will not allow herself to believe that plain, yet intelligent Ana, could be in love with the fifty shades of messed up Grey.  But her inner goddess rejoices in the way he makes her feel.  This push and pull is familiar and relatable.

This first novel of the trilogy centers on the need for “more”.  Both characters long for something: Christian for his contract relationship and Ana for a man to love her and treat her with respect.  Isn't life always about wanting more?

I’m a sucker for a good love story.  E. L. James tells a moving, albeit unrealistic, story of two people who cannot seem to imagine life without each other.  I might not recommend Fifty Shades of Grey to all my friends, but we, in the Christian community, should not condemn a novel merely because it involves sexual material.  Instead, let us practice love, not the romantic love we’re reading about, but the love God shares for all of humanity, broken and all.