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#19: Rainbow Rowell, Attachments
Apr. 28th, 2013 11:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kareilaWhen I saw that the author of Eleanor & Park had written one other novel, and that one of the protagonists was an IT worker, I decided to take a chance on it, even though I'm almost always disappointed by novels about contemporary adult life. I thought the differences between the two novels might give me a better sense of why that might be the case, since on the surface the only thing to separate YA from non-YA is the ages of the characters.
As near as I can figure, my reaction likely has more to do with the different situations and attitudes toward life. When you're young, everything interesting is ahead of you. You don't have the baggage of failure and responsibility and lowered expectations dragging you down and making you dull.
Beth is in love with her narcissistic boyfriend, so she stays with him, even though he isn't fulfilling her emotional needs. Jennifer is in love with her husband, so she stays with him, even though he wants to have children and she doesn't. Lincoln is a bored IT worker being paid to read the office email and warn anyone who uses it inappropriately. Beth and Jennifer's gossipy exchanges are completely inappropriate, but also entertaining, so Lincoln quietly keeps reading, distracting himself from his lonely and unfulfilling life, even though he knows he should either stop looking or tell them to cut it out. The growing tension is interspersed with flashbacks that explain why Lincoln is still living with his mother in his late twenties and working at a job he hates.
It's a credit to the author that she manages to keep all three characters entertaining and interesting, even if it is a bit hard to tell Beth and Jennifer apart at first, since we only see them through the lens of their email messages. And toward the end, Lincoln and Beth act more like teenagers than adults, so maybe this is actually a YA book in disguise, and that's why I liked it?
As near as I can figure, my reaction likely has more to do with the different situations and attitudes toward life. When you're young, everything interesting is ahead of you. You don't have the baggage of failure and responsibility and lowered expectations dragging you down and making you dull.
Beth is in love with her narcissistic boyfriend, so she stays with him, even though he isn't fulfilling her emotional needs. Jennifer is in love with her husband, so she stays with him, even though he wants to have children and she doesn't. Lincoln is a bored IT worker being paid to read the office email and warn anyone who uses it inappropriately. Beth and Jennifer's gossipy exchanges are completely inappropriate, but also entertaining, so Lincoln quietly keeps reading, distracting himself from his lonely and unfulfilling life, even though he knows he should either stop looking or tell them to cut it out. The growing tension is interspersed with flashbacks that explain why Lincoln is still living with his mother in his late twenties and working at a job he hates.
It's a credit to the author that she manages to keep all three characters entertaining and interesting, even if it is a bit hard to tell Beth and Jennifer apart at first, since we only see them through the lens of their email messages. And toward the end, Lincoln and Beth act more like teenagers than adults, so maybe this is actually a YA book in disguise, and that's why I liked it?
