The Post-Birthday World

My bag was a lot lighter today.

That's because I stopped lugging around The Post-Birthday World - the 515-page book I've been reading for the past month.

I finished it last night. And of course I cried hysterically (like I do at the end of every book, it seems).

This book was chosen as the first book of the book club I joined last month. I have to admit, I was a bit resentful at first, with it being the shortest month of the year and the book being so freakin' long.

And it took me a little while to get into it. It wasn't a light read at first. It's set in London so the Brit-speak slowed me down. So did the slow start in general.

It gradually picked up though, and thankfully my book club decided to postpone our meeting a week, so by last night I was flying through the last chapters and loving it.

As a general rule, I do not read the backs of books I'm reading. I don't read summaries online. They usually give away too much in the interest of hooking you.

This book was more intriguing because I didn't read the summary on the inside of the cover. It confused me for a chapter or two before I picked up on the fact that this book simultaneously explores two possible ways the protagonist's life could have turned based on a decision she makes at one moment in time: to kiss or not to kiss.

I hate infidelity as a rule. I hate break-ups and divorce too. And those biases made me hate parts of the first half of the book.

But the characters are so complex and so well-developed that it's hard to take sides as the plot progresses. You see each character's strengths and weaknesses. They were real people - it was impossible to entirely love one and hate another because people are not black and white like that.

I found the theme throughout quite agreeable - that there is no such thing as the perfect life, that one decision may change the course of your life but things generally even out in the end. There are good times and bad, and if you're smart you'll cherish them and learn from the ones you don't.

The ending was satisfyingly ambiguous. And all throughout I was marveling at the clever storytelling techniques and details used by the author, Lionel Shriver.

And of course, the telltale sign of a book well-enjoyed by me: the tears marring the last 20 pages.

I will probably write more after my book club discusses it. But if you can survive the first quarter to third of the book then I think you'd enjoy it. (You, being the ambiguous you of the Internet.)