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

[shadowkat]

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?)



Keep in mind that Will's family is WEALTHY. We're not talking poor, working class, or middle class, but wealthy. Will's mother is a magistrate. Will was a wealthy and successful corporate attorney specializing in hostile takeovers (or at least that is what was implied...it's not quite clear.) He enjoyed adrenaline sports, and cavorting with his lovely girlfriend. Now that he's a quadparapelgic, he's not enjoying much of anything. Mainly because Will's sources of pleasure were bungee-jumping, being extremely busy, riding his motorcycle, and corporate take-overs. He really didn't have any meaningful relationships, including with his own family. The man was suffice it to say, rather shallow. And being confined to a wheelchair hasn't done a whole lot to change that. Plus, he appears to be surrounded by idiots.

Lou in direct contrast is your stereotypical working class gal. Almost no education to speak of. Hasn't read a book in years. Or been on a computer, which I found difficult to believe - considering there are homeless people and people in third world countries on Facebook. I half expect to see her smacking gum.

Why Will's wealthy family decided to hire Lou is a mystery. While I realize that many people who are disabled do in fact suffer from inept care. My grandmother was in an assisted care facility, and the management was so horrific, that my mother moved her to another one. And I know that there are inept caregivers out there, just as there are inept writers who somehow get published, and inept doctors, waitresses, actors, artists, janitors, teachers, and lawyers...it's a fact of life.
But, they are depicted as wealthy. Will attempted suicide. Why didn't they get an experienced caregiver, the best that money could provide, who had a background in psychology? Or at least someone who shared Will's interests and background? For a companion? Or gadgets to assist Will? Such as the gadgets that Christopher Reeves and Stephen Hawkings had. Couldn't they have enrolled him in a quad support group? Actually hospitals usually require individuals who attempt suicide to join a support group and be monitored. At least that's the case in the US. It's make more sense than hiring Lou.

This is not helped by the fact that Lou is written as rather dumb and unimaginative. And incompetent. Which poses a question - why do chick-lit writers feel compelled to write dumb heroines? Male writers don't appear to do this as often as female writers do, which I find fascinating. Is this an internalized sexism?

Add to this, sections that defy logic. For example? When Lou discovers Will is burning up, guessing that he must have a fever, she gives him a percocet, a pain pill - for pain. He has a fever. She's just given him a narcotic. Without knowing if he's taken any. Nathan arrives and asks why she didn't give him antiboitics, as stated in the manual. Lou states she had no clue. (Lou has neither street smarts nor book smarts. Or any common sense for that matter.) When she tells him that she gave Will a pain pain, he says that's the equivalent of giving him an M&M. Okay, it's a narcotic, not exactly the same thing.

Later, we learn that Lou has not been inside a library since she was 7, because she forgot to return a Judy Blume book? And..has no knowledge of computers - in 2008? I find this difficult to believe - homeless people and people in third world countries were posting online in 2008. Then, Lou decides to take Will to a racetrack, of course she hasn't researched it or even driving over to see if it would work out - because that would require intelligence. She parks, and Nathan and Will permit her to do so, on a muddy grassy parking lot - which they obviously can't get Will across without sinking into mud. The whole sequence that follows is cringe-inducing. To get Will back into the car and home, she has to get the help of a bunch of drunken army guys - who aid her because she's told them Will is an Iraq vet (I've seen an army vet, with no legs, confined to a wheelchair, begging in a subway, how he got down those steps, I don't know.) As a reward, she kisses all of them on the lips. The very next chapter, we get a lengthy and somewhat rambling tale of how she was molested by a gang of boys as teen, and how her sister found her alone, naked and shivering. (I'm not sure from the passage if she was raped or molested.) This is to explain why she no longer takes risks. Such as trying a new job. Except it doesn't explain that. Actually it seems to come out of nowhere and makes little sense. Why would someone who'd been molested in that manner, wear a mini-skirt to a race course, and kiss a bunch of drunken army guys on the lips? You'd think that would be traumatic, not dressing up to go to a violin concert.

I gave up after the violin concert - or rather the scene in which Lou decides to chew off Will's collar tag during the concert. They are sitting in the front row. He's in a wheel-chair. Everyone can see them. It has got to be the most cringe-inducing idiotic sequence that I've read in a novel. It makes no sense. And I'm guessing it's there as slapstick, except it does not work.

There is a chapter, wedged in between all of this, in Will's mother's point of view - most likely there to explain why she hired Lou (which was necessary) and why she's willing to let Will choose to die in six months (which wasn't necessary and sort of obvious). Camilla, his mother, isn't that interesting. The writer throws out a negative stereotype of a cold but accomplished female magistrate then drifts back to the story. Personally, I think there was potential there - and if the writer was serious about her subject matter, she'd have developed the mother and Will's family more than she did.

Outside of Lou, no one is really developed in this story and the writer relies a great deal on cliche and stereotype. The working class is depicted as loud and somewhat boorish, the rich as cold and removed. Will, amongst the few half-way likable characters, is rather shallow and boilerplate. The other male characters, Nathan, Will's care-giver, Patrick, Lou's boyfriend, her father and Will's father barely register, each fit yet another stereotype or cliche. There's no depth. And as a result, it's difficult to care.

Lou, herself, feels like a cliche. I've seen this character in one too many books. Of the one's I've read, Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones and Doctor Who's Rose Tyler (sorry TV show not book) are perhaps the best written and most well-rounded. All the others feel like weak photocopies. As if the author is copying, but failing to quite capture the original's charm. While Bridget Jones came across as funny and warm, as well as self-deprecating, Lou comes across as whiny and self-involved, and a bit silly.

Great characters make novels not plots, although a decent plot does help. If I don't believe in the characters (please note I don't necessarily have to like them) and don't care about them...then the book feels hollow and lacks substance. The characters become stick figures. The plot pointless. And the theme hollow.

Moving on to another novel, hopefully a better one.

Comments

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

I'm beginning to wonder about the rave reviews on Good Reads and Amazon. Bestselling bad books get a ton of them. While literary masterpieces don't.

Suspicious that.

I'm reading another Sherry Thomas to wash this book out of my brain (beguiling the Beauty - the Hero is a naturalist and scientist during the Victorian era), then possibly your rec - The Proposition. (Oh, Tempting the Bride by Thomas has a tall heroine - 5'11...Thomas likes tall heroines, which are rare in romantic fiction.)