
Blindsided by her mother's sudden death, and wrecked by a recent love affair, Casey Peabody has arrived in Massachusetts in the summer of 1997 without a plan. Her mail consists of wedding invitations and final notices from debt collectors. A former child golf prodigy, she now waits tables in Harvard Square and rents a tiny, moldy room at the side of a garage where she works on the novel she's been writing for six years. At thirty-one, Casey is still clutching onto something nearly all her old friends have let go of: the determination to live a creative life. When she falls for two very different men at the same time, her world fractures even more. Casey's fight to fulfill her creative ambitions and balance the conflicting demands of art and life is challenged in ways that push her to the brink. Writers & Lovers follows Casey--a smart and achingly vulnerable protagonist--in the last days of a long youth, a time when every element of her life comes to a crisis. Written with King's trademark humor, heart, and intelligence, Writers & Lovers is a transfixing novel that explores the terrifying and exhilarating leap between the end of one phase of life and the beginning of another.
I mentioned this book in the review I posted yesterday, specifically about the section of the book where Casey talks about teaching her students to write their emotions about the books they read in her class instead of focusing on other, more technical aspects of the book. I mentioned in my review last night that that affected me. Out of everything else that happened in the book, that one small scene overtook everything else in the book and it will affect the way that I write about the books that I have read rather than a more standard book review. That’s how much I was moved by that section.
Writers and Lovers reminded a great deal of another book I read and enjoyed this past year, Goodbye, Vitamin. I can’t really decide why the two books felt the same to me but it elevated the experience for me. I wasn’t even sure if I was going to be able to get into Writers and Lovers at first as the first chapter was a little confusing and I felt as though I was walking into a movie halfway through the most important scene…but then the second chapter stepped back and I was finally able to get my bearings.
Casey’s healing from the grief from losing her mother was something that drew me in. Anytime there is a sudden change in a relationship like this fasinates me as it’s the ultimate type of change anyone can go through and anytime I come across a character like Casey who’s on the verge between completely dropping out of her life and finding a new normal.
The novel overall wasn’t a hugely great book. In a lot of ways, I felt fairly underwhelmed but there were enough little moments throughout this book that stuck with me and sometimes those are the best books to read as those little moments stay with you for much longer than a book that was fantastic throughout the book. In those cases there are too many good parts that they all blend together into one thought.