Me Before You - a lame-ass book review, due to the fact I couldn't finish it...

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes


I admittedly gave up on this book at the half-way point. Since I was reading this for pleasure, there is really no reason to continue, is there? Because that would be work - and I already read enough things for work that aren't pleasurable.

Am somewhat bewildered by the raving reviews. Did we get the same book? Is there another version? I read the Kindle version...can't imagine it being that different?

The reviewers state that it is beautifully written and eloquent. Which is puzzling. The writing style is basic English, rarely uses difficult words, and simplistic in style. I'd describe it as conversational. Poetic? Eloquent? It's not. Serviceable? Adequate? Pretty much. Nor is it precise. Rambles a bit. And there's a lot of repetition. You can skim whole pages and not miss a thing.

I'm also not certain that the chick-lit genre can handle the complexity of euthanasia. Or for that matter, being paralyzed. And this is definitely chick-lit. It's written in the same breezy conversational style as Sophie Kinselle's novels and Helen Fielding, although Helen Fielding is the better writer. It neither has the wit nor subtly of Fielding. Liane Moriarty, the writer of The Husband's Secret and What Alice Forgot - is a chick-lit writer who has somewhat successfully broken out into the contemporary women's literary genre. And her style fits this subject matter far more adeptly than Ms. Moyes. I can't help but wonder how she would have handled it? Far more eloquently, I'd imagine. So too, would John Green, the author of The Fault in Our Stars, who also handled a difficult topic but with compassion and poetry. All of which are lacking here.

The story? A wealthy 32 year old man, as the result of a motorcycle accident, is confined to a wheelchair. He was run over by a motorcycle while hailing a cab to work. Now, he is paralyzed from the waist down, with little to no movement in his arms. His parents have hired a full-time night-time nurse, named Nathan, who has the days off, except for lunch, and takes one or two nights off a week.
During the day - they've hired various care-givers who have not worked out. At one of these points, Will attempted to commit suicide. At wits end, his wealthy upper-class parents have agreed to let him do it after six months. He must give them six months to convince him to live. In order to accomplish this herculean task they hire Lou, an uneducated, immature, ditzy, unreliable, inexperienced and wet-behind-the-ears 26 year old, who acts as if she were 16. They do so, because, all evidence to the contrary, that Lou is a bright and cheery person. Granted they have no way of knowing that Lou can't even be bothered to help her mother care for her Granddad. Lou is only there because her job counselor told her it was either this job or pole dancing. (Which was mildly amusing. Because, seriously, pole dancing?)

( spoilers )