My first favorite book, I read it when I was less than 10 years old
I still
Remember: love means never having to say you’re sorry ( )

Love makes the universe go around, makes life worth living, and provides the strength to handle the tragedies that all of us have to endure sooner or later. The novel portrayed a beautiful relationship between a man and a woman. These two individuals formed their universe and were happy in it until death tears them apart. Should we consider it a tragedy or just a norm of life? Because death has to separate us sooner or later.

I particularly enjoyed the short dialogue that conveyed so much in few words.

Eric Segal presented himself as a master storyteller in this tale of two people. ( )

I reread this classic love story that begins, "What can you say about a twenty-five-year-old-girl who died?" for the first time since I was a kid when when I wore out the paperback by reading it repeatedly. It's a short novel; a fast but powerful read. Oliver Barrett IV, a star hockey player/law student, descends from a line of high achieving, old money Harvard alumni, and is struggling to define himself away from the constraints of his judgmental, micromanaging father. Jennifer Cavilleri, who attends Radcliffe on a music scholarship, is the only child of a loving father, a widower who owns a small bakery in Rhode Island. She calls her father Phil. These two, Jennifer and Oliver, (nicknamed Preppie by Jenny), couldn't be more different. The book is in part heavy on dialogue and sparse on descriptive text. Erich Segal makes brilliant use of the verbal volleyball between the two main characters. I like the wit in their flirting. It's that age old tale of boy meets girl, they experience conflict, and then they fall in love. This story turns tragic when Jennifer is diagnosed with leukemia. That part of the story seems to have some logical problems with the doctor not telling her of her diagnosis at first, and then very quickly it seems she's dying. Segal does his best work showing how this couple from such disparate social and emotional backgrounds come together in love. He also shows what a profound impact these two had on each other and their respective families in the limited years they were together. This book struck a chord with me as a kid because my father died young. Also, the relationships feel absolutely authentic to me. Love Story is a masterpiece. ( )

Please find the review here:

https://bookreviewscafe.wordpress.com/2022/08/10/लव-स्टोरी/ ( )

I inherited a bunch of Segal books from my grandmother when I was a teen and quickly fell in love with a few of them. I wanted to give this a re-read in adulthood to see if it'd be worth keeping and actually decided to listen to the audiobook which is read by Segal and has backing music from the film. It was so short and incredibly enjoyable. I've read the book, I've watched the film, Segal tells us she's gonna die with the first line, yet I still got all teary and weepy when it happened.

When I was a teen, I used to think the line that quickly became a tagline for this book "love means never having to say your sorry" was an extremely silly, misguided line. But as an adult, I realize that I've never really exchanged serious apologies with the people I love most in the world. We simply don't do things to each other that require apologies. We also know each other's intentions and hearts so well that the forgiveness is already assumed. At the moment Jenny utters this line, neither her or Oliver are owed an apology because their words and actions were completely consistent with who they were when they first met. They are who they are and an apology for their actions would mean they'd have to apologize for their identities, which one shouldn't have to do in a loving relationship.

When Oliver utters this line at the very end, it initially didn't sit as well with me because I felt Oliver owed his father an apology for the entire length of the book, something Jenny and I agreed on. But that actually reinforces the truth in Segal's line. Oliver's father feels he owes his son an apology because he knows his son doesn't love him nor accept the type of father he's been. And as a reader I think Oliver owes his father an apology because I don't understand how a parent can completely love and accept someone who's been so ungrateful. The relationship is so strained that they're practically strangers to each other, so apologies feel very necessary.

None of this is important though, because I actually hate that this line became what everyone remembered from Love Story. The most important line to me was from Jenny alone: "Screw Paris. Screw Paris and music and all the crap you think you stole from me." At its core, Love Story is really a story about holding on to the good things in life because you have no idea how long your life will be. Going out with no regrets is the major aim of living. If you have to let go of money and stability and success to hold onto something that really lights you up and makes you happy, then that's something you should probably do. Be happy and hope you live long enough for all that other stuff to come back around to you. ( )