Everything Beautiful Began Again
Aug 4, 2011
Author: Simon van Booy
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Publication Date: July 5, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-06-166148-8
How to best describe this book…I’ll go with a love story that isn’t.
The characters attempt to make it a love story but real life doesn’t always go the way you would like. There are great disappointments and sad events that mar your happiness. Sometimes for a bit, sometimes for life. The three characters in this book have all experienced life in ways that have molded them into who they are at the moment they meet – and those experiences have not made them happy people. Not necessarily unhappy either…guarded toward life is a good way to word it.
George, Henry and Rebecca all arrive in Athens, Greece from other parts of the world to escape something else in their lives. They find each other and form a connection. They literally somewhat all fall in love with each other. A close bond is formed and life begins anew with hope and plans. Of course, life doesn’t always cooperate with your plans.
I will say that this is a book that tells a story of surviving life and muddling through, regardless of whether that life is happy, sad, maudlin or just……..is. A crisis occurs halfway through that changes everything – but to tell you would give away most of the book.
This is written in what I like to call a “hazy, dreamy” style. I always felt like I was floating above the scene looking in. Never felt “in the moment” of the story. Not a bad thing, just a style of writing.
