infatuation

remember that rod stewart song from the 80s? i bet you're rockin' out just thinkin' about it. but that's not what this blog is about. it's about a book that i'm totally infatuated with, but it's turning to love - right now - i feel it. this book was absolutely enchanting. now that's not a word i use everyday, kind of like petticoat, but enchanting seems quite the appropriate adjective for how i felt about this book. the genre - women's fiction, which to me is the same as a romance, just sans happy ending - is a genre i read as much as romance and love as much as romance, but for different reasons. there are totally different emotions evoked from women's fiction than are from romance. and the journey is sometimes a little more ... whoa, holy crap, that's like real life! and man, women's fiction can totally get away with more telling and less dialogue. but it worked for this book. after all, it is storyTELLING. not storySHOWING.

ah, but this book ... it was one that i finished sunday afternoon yet i'm still thinking about it. that's how you know when a book is really, really good. because you continue analyzing it, wondering more about the characters' motives. it was like most of the stories i remember from college - the ones that make you think - hard. and i don't mean think, hmm, that was so interesting. no, it makes you think about these characters who aren't real, but came alive during the story - so much that you wanted to hang out with them and ask them a million questions. and makes you think because you end up questioning yourself, like what would i have done if i'd been in her situation. gosh, it actually gives me the chills. and being the critic i am, that doesn't happen with every book i read. in fact, my forehead did not crease one time, but i did flag one page when one of the characters used the 'f' word because i thought it was brilliantly placed and character-appropriate. and there were no questionable fashion choices or bizarre jargon. it was superior work. needless to say, it was a bestseller, which i normally don't even read. i guess as a struggling artist, i tend to support other struggling artists, but i was intrigued, infatuated, then fell in love.

ah, the book! one of the characters was so dimensional. and gosh, i haven't even made up my mind on the ending yet. i'm still trying to decide what i think about it. that is a damn good book to make me think this much and this deeply and wonder which way the author wants me to take it. but i learned that a reader will never know how the author intended a person to read it - that's the beauty of it. the art of it. that's exactly what a story should do: give each individual reader the opportunity to get something unique out of it. something that speaks to them.

so, i have added a new book to my favorites. and i know it's one of my favorites because i could pick it up and read it again, which i will probably likely do again soon. dang, it was good. i feel like the critic has been validated. amen.