Published: 2005
Pages: 431
"Mistakes are the Portals of Discovery."
James Joyce
It's About: The central theme in this book is Irish author James Joyce's idea that mistakes are the portal of discovery. It literally smacks the reader in the face as it is tattooed on one of the tall character's chests and Rosie can't help but be reminded of this when she sees him. Rosie Dunne thinks that if not for the mistake of sleeping with her very irritating debs (senior prom) date and having her baby, Katie, just after graduation, she would have lived a very different life. She stops just short of calling her child a mistake in this book. But I digress. The story is essentially the life of Rosie from childhood to a time when she turns 50. Her best friend, Alex, is a boy. They manage to maintain this friendship through the ups and downs of life for their entire life. The ups and downs include bad marriages and children with different partners. Essentially, if not for this one mistake, Rosie believes that she would would have married Alex and lived happily ever after.
"I know. I know. I'm alone by my own choosing. When I was 18 everyone my age wanted to talk about boys not babies, at 22 they wanted to talk about college not teething, at 30 they wanted to talk about marriage not divorce, and now when I'm 36 and finally willing to talk about men and college, all people want to do is talk about babies."
What I Thought: I was a little disappointed that Rosie thinks that some of the events in her life have been mistakes. She honestly did get a little whiney towards the end of the book. The book is an epistolary (told in letters and e-mails). Maybe it's the internet age that does this to me, but I find this format works well when the letters are short and to the point. Towards the end of the story, the letters become much longer and, as I said, a little on the whiney side. Although she professes her love of her daughter throughout the book, I was slightly embarrassed for her nagging thoughts about how great life would have been had she married her best friend instead of having a child as a single mother.
The author is the young Cecelia Ahern and her character begins as a young woman and essentially never really matures. I think there is a certain level of immaturity in the book that I had a hard time dealing with. It is such a different book than Ahern's previous
P.S. I LOVE YOU where I felt that Ahern was writing beyond her years. Having said this, Ahern's development of characters and relationships is phenomenal.
So, I think where I differ from Ahern is that I don't really believe anything that happens is a mistake. This difference in philosophy made the book difficult for me to read.
Should You Read It: I think many people would love this book. I think that I just couldn't buy the central theme and it then created a personal problem between the book and I (or is it me?).
