You or Someone Like You

My favorite excerpt, particularly beginning about halfway through: "I have just transplanted..."
I finished "You or Someone Like You" by Chandler Burr a week or two ago, and it has encouraged me to continue grabbing random books from the library shelves. Usually my trips to the library are strategic and carefully plotted: I keep a list of books I'd like to read on my phone and add to it regularly. I know what I'm looking for, I get it, and I move on.

But in an effort to find other gems (and because there are just SO many books out there) I started just snagging anything that looked interesting. This has resulted in more than a few duds, including at least one that I didn't bother finishing (I've only done this twice before in my 20-some years of reading. "Anna Karenina" and "Return of the Native," if you're wondering.) I've also gotten some pretty decent ones, like "Under a Million Shadows," "Stones into Schools," and "Too Much Happiness," which I'm still a bit on the fence about. Anyway...

I'm still not altogether sure what so thoroughly captivated me about Burr's novel, set in present-day LA, about a British woman married to a Jewish movie exec, their son, and the book clubs she reluctantly begins hosting for her husband's colleagues in the movie industry. They both have their doctorates in English lit, so there are plenty of literary references, which I liked. I loved Burr's writing: clever, engaging, descriptive, and at times, just plain beautiful.

But it's the sort of slightly mundane, inwardly focused story that usually grates on me. I don't have much sympathy for marital discord, but somehow this book evoked that reaction. I don't usually have patience for someone doing a lot of thinking that's narrated in a book, but I liked eavesdropping on the main character's thought process.

--If you're planning on reading this book, you might not want to keep reading my review!--

I was a bit puzzled by the ending; I felt at first like it was a cop-out because it tied things off so neatly, quickly and happily. After considering further, though, I realized it was the perfect ending, because intelligent people (at least those in this story) make decisions for themselves, and there was nothing Anne could have done to force Howard's choice. It was simple, brilliant and happy. And while I realize that happy endings aren't always important, for this book, it was.

I'm still sad I'm finished with it. And that's the mark of a great book.