Notes on a Heartbreak
Author: Annie Lord
Published by: Orion Books
Pages: 384
Format: Hardback
My Rating: ★★★★
Published by: Orion Books
Pages: 384
Format: Hardback
My Rating: ★★★★
This is a love story told in reverse. It’s about the best and worst of love: the euphoric and the painful, the beautiful and the messy.
Reeling from a broken heart, Annie Lord revisits the past – from the moment she fell in love, the shared in-jokes and intertwining of a long-term relationship, to the months that saw the slow erosion of a bond five years in the making.
Notes on Heartbreak is an unflinchingly honest reminder of the simultaneous joy and pain of being in love that will resonate with anyone that has ever nursed a broken heart.
Reeling from a broken heart, Annie Lord revisits the past – from the moment she fell in love, the shared in-jokes and intertwining of a long-term relationship, to the months that saw the slow erosion of a bond five years in the making.
Notes on Heartbreak is an unflinchingly honest reminder of the simultaneous joy and pain of being in love that will resonate with anyone that has ever nursed a broken heart.
My thoughts:
In her new book, Notes on Heartbreak, Annie Lord recalls the aftermath of a break-up she just didn’t see coming. The memoir is a funny, dark, candid, and unflinchingly honest exploration of heartbreak, with Lord digging into the five years she spent with her first love and the freefall that occurred once it ended. This is not just a breakup memoir; this is a love letter to all the broken and the broken hearted.
I felt the main strength of Lord’s writing was the accountability and ownership of the reality of her experiences, the way she drew in from poems, theories on love, other texts to better illuminate the universal experience of love, the ordinariness, the examining of the experience in real time as the author processes it.
Notes on Heartbreak is also in a strange way, comforting, because it’s nice to know you’re not the only person who has acted like a moron over another person. Many of these feelings are universal and relatable. This book is so relatable even if you’re not experiencing the heartbreak Annie describes - it touches on so much more than romantic love and breakups.
The thing I most admire about Annie Lord’s writing is that she is unapologetically her, self-aware and very funny. There is no pretence in her voice. This memoir really takes us through every pain-staking stage of a breakup.
Reading this felt like talking to a friend, like complaining together about the pain of heartbreak, sobbing over a glass wine in self-pity about how unfair it all is, but also shaking each other out of it, knowing that even if romantic love ends, there will always be people that love you outside of that. The prose is beautiful, and I know this book will linger with me for a while.
Overall reaction:
In her new book, Notes on Heartbreak, Annie Lord recalls the aftermath of a break-up she just didn’t see coming. The memoir is a funny, dark, candid, and unflinchingly honest exploration of heartbreak, with Lord digging into the five years she spent with her first love and the freefall that occurred once it ended. This is not just a breakup memoir; this is a love letter to all the broken and the broken hearted.
I felt the main strength of Lord’s writing was the accountability and ownership of the reality of her experiences, the way she drew in from poems, theories on love, other texts to better illuminate the universal experience of love, the ordinariness, the examining of the experience in real time as the author processes it.
Notes on Heartbreak is also in a strange way, comforting, because it’s nice to know you’re not the only person who has acted like a moron over another person. Many of these feelings are universal and relatable. This book is so relatable even if you’re not experiencing the heartbreak Annie describes - it touches on so much more than romantic love and breakups.
The thing I most admire about Annie Lord’s writing is that she is unapologetically her, self-aware and very funny. There is no pretence in her voice. This memoir really takes us through every pain-staking stage of a breakup.
Reading this felt like talking to a friend, like complaining together about the pain of heartbreak, sobbing over a glass wine in self-pity about how unfair it all is, but also shaking each other out of it, knowing that even if romantic love ends, there will always be people that love you outside of that. The prose is beautiful, and I know this book will linger with me for a while.
Overall reaction:
