Margarettown

An unconventional tale of love, life and death. But specially of love.
You could say this is another story of an ordinary couple who fall in and out of love, as we all do sometime in life.
Or you could say this is a unique tale of an extraordinary woman, who is five different women at the same time, and who dies because she is eighty-seven or thirty-five.
A cursed woman or a blessed one, because she is loved, deeply and intensely loved by her husband, the narrator of the story.
His voice is steady and simple and you find yourself moved every now and then, without even realising it, by the truths about life he so humbly exposes, always from his original point of view.
You can die of cancer or of an intoxication caused by eating too many show more lemons, which were your only sustenance during a shipwreck in Thailand.
Or you can love a manic depressed woman or meet her at seven, seventeen, thirty or seventy-seven, all at the same time. And learn to love them all.
Aren't we all different women at once?

You can say this is an easy reading, I'd say it's a complicated one. There's a lot hidden in these simple lines, sometimes I felt like writing a whole paragraph down, as I found the message and the way it was told impossible to improve. No mushy topics. Only a touch of magic, so different from other stories.

Do not be misled by the cover or the summary plot. This is a love story, yes. But not a common one, or maybe a common one, but one told in an original and true voice, a voice that won't be easily forgotten.
Because life can be seen in shadows of greys.
Or it can be a kaleidoscope of bright colours.
It all depends on the kind of glass you choose to look through.

Some quotations:

"It has bee said that the lover is usually a thief, and indeed, it is difficult to love someone without robbing them of something."

"Some parts I have forgotten; some parts I have chosen to forget. The man who has no memory makes one out of paper."

"Why does anyone ever fall in love with anyone? Is it the dimple in a plump elbow? Is it a glint in the eye? When you fall in love with one woman, are you actually falling in love with a different woman entirely? "

"Children are generally miserable and cruel people. And for good reason. For one, they are very short, and for two, childhood is generally miserable time, but older people are always insisting children should be happier than they are."

"At the end of the road, when you're least expecting it, he (or possible she) will be there."

"I die, Jane. The world grows more gorgeous every day. I am only forty-six - that may seem old to you now, but a day will come (and sooner than you think) when forty-six seems very young indeed.
I am only forty-six and it would seem tragic, but for one thing.
In you, I found infinity; in you, I was reborn."

" In life, Jane reflected, the most interesting things tend to happen when you are on your way to do something else." show less

Having read and loved Zevin's YA novel Elsewhere I ordered this for the school library. It's not a YA novel. Definitely more adult but an enjoyable read.

Margaret M Towne takes her fiance to meet her family in Margarettown. Margaret, Maggie, Marge, Mia and May all live together in a house quite unlike any other. At its most basic this is the story of a romance. At a deeper level it leaves the reader thinking about our own human nature, how we change over time, how we become different versions of ourselves and whether loved ones can ever really know every aspect of each other.

I'm not entirely sure what to think of this book. I'm not really sure if you can read this book without thinking of it as fantasy as such. What does it take to love a person for a whole lifetime? Apparently a lot. Maggie is pretty annoying, so are the different incarnations of her, she's kind of a bitch to N. really.

This book was alright but it wasn't great, disappointing since Zevin's other books were excellent.

Hmmmm. There were some things that I really loved about this book. And there were some other things that drove me crazy. Unborn babies narrating from the womb? Never going to work for me. Still think Gabrielle Zevin is amazing, though.

Especially appreciated the two-page list of derivatives of Margaret, which I will save for Maggie when she's older. Perhaps she'll choose different names for herself as she grows. I know I wish I had that luxury, since I never thought of Carrie as a grown-up's name.

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