Time travel, love story, New York. Definitely recommend this one, though don’t necessarily read it if you just want an epic love story in the vein of The Time Traveler’s Wife. While the love story frames the novel, there is also a certain amount of satire and humor. Also, Freud and eel testicles.
“Would you give up the love of your life on the advice of a stranger? A picturesque love story begins at the cinema when our hero – an unacclaimed writer, unorthodox professor and unmistakeable New Yorker – first meets Q, his one everlasting love. Over the following weeks, in the rowboats of Central Park, on the miniature golf courses of Lower Manhattan, under a pear tree in Q’s own inner-city Eden, their miraculous romance accelerates and blossoms. Nothing, it seems – not even the hostilities of Q’s father or the impending destruction of Q’s garden – can disturb the lovers, or obstruct their advancing wedding. They are destined to be together. Until one day a man claiming to be our hero’s future self tells him he must leave Q.”
Q was almost exactly as I had hoped it would be. I wanted a quirky romance without cheesiness and that is largely what I got. Whilst there is plenty of whimsy from the characters, Q in particular, we also get a level of quirk from the time travel element. Our hero is visited at points by himself from the future which tries to answer the oft-asked question of whether we would go back and tell our younger selves to avoid mistakes we made. I say it was almost what I hoped it would be though, as I did feel a little let down by the fact that the quote on the front cover from The New York Times, which warns the tear-prone not to read it in public. I was hoping for an epic, heartfelt ending where as in fact it was gentle and sweet, which has its charms but I was hoping for something a little more emotionally charged. To be honest, the book is worth buying just to have on your bookcase because it is lovely, the picture doesn’t do it justice. I found the experience of reading this thoroughly enjoyable and really ticked my boxes in terms of balance of romance and whimsy which can sometimes be rather overegged. I found it to be just the sort of book I love to read so despite it’s flaws, I really liked it.
The full review is on my blog.
First Line: “Q, Quentina Elizabeth Deveril, is the love of my life.”
Why I read it: The beautiful cover caught my eye in Waterstones and I bought it for a train journey to London.
Who I would recommend it to: Fans of gentle philosophical meanderings, whimsical romance and The Time Traveler’s Wife.
Cannonball Read IV 