Writers & Lovers
Author: Lily King
Published by: Picador
Pages: 324
Format: Hardback
My Rating ★★★★
Published by: Picador
Pages: 324
Format: Hardback
My Rating ★★★★
Casey has ended up back in Massachusetts after a devastating love affair. Her mother has just died, and she is knocked sideways by grief and loneliness, moving between the restaurant where she waitresses for the Harvard elite and the rented shed she calls home. Her one constant is the novel she has been writing for six years, but at thirty-one she is in debt and directionless, and feels too old to be that way – it’s strange, not being the youngest kind of adult anymore.
And then, one evening, she meets Silas. He is kind, handsome, interested. But only a few weeks later, Oscar walks into her restaurant, his two boys in tow. He is older, grieving the loss of his wife, and wrapped up in his own creativity. Suddenly Casey finds herself at the point of a love triangle, torn between two very different relationships that promise two very different futures.
My thoughts:
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 post 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. Casey is a quiet and elusive figure, getting soaked by the rain as she cycles home through lonely streets or shrinking from a bully at work.
The author makes her struggles feel monumental, immensely bleak. Yet somehow, you can’t help but feel hopeful for Casey. It’s funny, too. King seamlessly lightens Casey’s misery with a wry and fearless humour throughout.
Writers & Lovers follows Casey in the last days of a long youth, a time when everything – her family, her work, her relationships – comes to a crisis. 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. The prose, the voice, the characterisation makes this book the kind that becomes a comfortable old friend that’ll stay with you forever. Hugely moving and very funny, it is a transfixing novel that explores the terrifying and exhilarating leap between the end of one phase of life and the beginning of another.
Writers & Lovers is a puzzling and beautiful novel about writing and love. From romance to debt, the struggles of an aspiring writer are observed with humour and emotion. I was also pleased to see how all the conflicts come together at the end in a very satisfying conclusion. Casey is undoubtedly a heroine you’ll cherish.
It is a novel about love and creativity, and ultimately it captures the moment when a woman truly becomes an artist. I loved this introspective, intimate story and highly recommend giving it a go yourself.
Overall reaction:
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 post 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. Casey is a quiet and elusive figure, getting soaked by the rain as she cycles home through lonely streets or shrinking from a bully at work.
The author makes her struggles feel monumental, immensely bleak. Yet somehow, you can’t help but feel hopeful for Casey. It’s funny, too. King seamlessly lightens Casey’s misery with a wry and fearless humour throughout.
Writers & Lovers follows Casey in the last days of a long youth, a time when everything – her family, her work, her relationships – comes to a crisis. 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. The prose, the voice, the characterisation makes this book the kind that becomes a comfortable old friend that’ll stay with you forever. Hugely moving and very funny, it is a transfixing novel that explores the terrifying and exhilarating leap between the end of one phase of life and the beginning of another.
Writers & Lovers is a puzzling and beautiful novel about writing and love. From romance to debt, the struggles of an aspiring writer are observed with humour and emotion. I was also pleased to see how all the conflicts come together at the end in a very satisfying conclusion. Casey is undoubtedly a heroine you’ll cherish.
It is a novel about love and creativity, and ultimately it captures the moment when a woman truly becomes an artist. I loved this introspective, intimate story and highly recommend giving it a go yourself.
Overall reaction:
