“The world is full of miracles, but none greater than how far a young person can be carried by someone else’s belief in them.”
Four teenagers create a bond so powerful that it transcends years and manages to affect lives beyond their own. This book begins with a famous painting by a famous artist on sale. Most people think it’s just a depiction of the sea but Louisa, an aspiring artist herself, knows otherwise, she sees three tiny figures sitting at the end of a long pier in the corner. After the painting unexpectedly falls into her care, her curiosity sends her on a surprise-filled cross-country journey to learn how the painting came to be and what to do with it.
“Adults often think that self-confidence is something a child learns, but little kids are by their nature always invincible, it’s self-doubt that needs to be taught.”
This book is a coming-of-age story of 4 teenagers. While there are some humorous moments between the friends, most of the book focuses on the difficulties each of them is facing at home. Joar, whose father beats him and his mother. Ted, whose father is dying and whose mother is struggling to stay above the water and Ali – whose father moves around all the time to escape gambling debts and The Artist – the one who paints his friends on the beach one random summer and goes on to become a famous artist.
“You can’t love someone out of addiction. All the oceans are the tears of those who have tried”
I thought this book was extremely overwritten and bordering on cringy. Every line had a simile or metaphor or a turn of phrase that just made the story sound unreal. It was verbose and meandering. I usually like Backman’s writing, but it seems like he didn’t have that much story here and decided to fill the pages with over-the-top flowery language that did not move the story forward.
It took me a long time to finish this book because I was always dreading picking it up. This book is 450 pages and for a book where nothing happens it did not need to be that long. I understand Backman’s style of writing, and I’ve enjoyed his life-affirming heartwarming style in the past, but they usually come with a dose of reality when he writes his dialogue and his descriptions, and that did not happen here.
“Death is public but dying is private, the very last private thing we have”
Backman is still an amazing writer, and I’ll definitely pick up his next book, but this one did not work for me at all. Have y’all read this? What did you think of it?
Leggy
TwoNightStands 