reading wrap-up: What You Are Looking For Is in the Library

(03) april 2024 books: Lie with Me, What You Are Looking For Is in the Library, and The Silent Patient

May 03, 2024

My love for sharing books has evolved from the intimate setting of my home (and my mum reading to me) to the vast online. Still, sharing what books we read and like is, and will remain, a special and personal act to me. These newsletters outline the books I’ve read for the month and I would love it if you shared yours in the comments. Let’s have a conversation.

After having finished On the Savage Side in March and it having devastated me to my core, I thought I’d pick up a few lighter books - both in theme and size.

Lie with Me by Philippe Besson | Contemporary Novella/LGBTQ+ | Liked it

Set in 1984, Lie with Me is a delicate story about a two teenage boys and their unfolding love for one another. What starts from a reciprocated crush, turns into an exploration of sexual orientation and a bittersweet longing for what can’t be in a society that berates it.

Although this has the marks of becoming something grand, it somehow left me a little indifferent. Perhaps a lack of detail and character development made me less enticed. It is, however, clearly to each their own because I know people who adore this novella. There is no doubt that Besson is a great writer who can craft a story with subtlety and a slow-burning sadness. I did enjoy it a lot, but I think it was hyped up a tad too much.

quotes:

“I think I love him for this loneliness, that it’s what pushed me toward him. I love his aloofness, his disengagement with the outside world. Such singularity moves me.”

“Nothing touches me more than the cracks in the armor and the person who reveals them.”

“In the end, love was only possible because he saw me not as who I was, but as the person I would become.”

What You Are Looking For Is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama (transl. Allison Watts) | Contemporary Fiction/Japanese | Loved it

If a book could be a smile, it’d be this one.

What You Are Looking For Is in the Library is a heartwearming and charming novel about five people who, lost in their purpose, find themselves in front of Ms. Komachi, an enigmatic librarian in a small community center library. She recommends each of them a seemingly random but life-changing book.

Although each person has their own chapter, their stories overlap through simple threads such as the Honeycomb cookie box Ms. Komachi has on her desk, which they all remember from their childhoods. Nostalgia is an overarching theme, one that comes back not only in the cookie box but in the books recommended, from a children’s book bringing back a love for cooking to a book about natural selection stimulating a renewed passion for drawing.

Above anything else, this is one of those rare beauties that actually shows the impact books can have on us, to make us feel rejuvinated, inspired, and worthy; and like it’s never too late to make dreams reality.

The writing is simple, yet elegant, and there’s no doubt a story here for everyone. I already want to gift it to everyone I know.

quotes:

“In a world where you don’t know what will happen next, I just do what I can right now”

“Patience. If only I could buy it, I’d place a bulk order.”

“The Earth goes around.
We gaze at the moon, illuminated by the sun.
Feet on the ground and facing the sky, we go forward, changing as we do.”

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides | Thriller | I’m disappointed

I fear that I’ll offend a lot of people by saying this, but this was a solid… meh.

Set mostly in a mental institution, we follow Theo Faber, a psychotherapist obessed with the case of Alicia Berenson, as he tries and understand why she killed her husband one fateful night. As their therapy sessions transpire, Theo slowly starts seeing himself reflected in his patient.

The Silent Patient starts off with a great premise, but falls short somewhere along the lines. An awfully big part is Theo’s determination to understand Alicia, when it’s obvious from the start who the real disturbed one is.

The portrayal of mental illness was unbelievable, either too textbook simplified in its explanations as to why people do what they do, or quite honestly, nonsensical. How is it possible that doctors can just decide on a whim if a patient’s medication gets upped or downed?

The writing of women was poor too, very unreal and cliché, leaning into misogyny. Female characters are described as unattractive, insecure, bitchy, unfaithful or vengeful.

It’s a shame, because the plot twist really had potential.

quote:

“I felt desperately sorry for her, and those like her - for all of us, all the wounded and the lost”

This was our Fable bookclub pick for the month of April. Anyone is welcome to join! We read literary fiction, classics, and truthfully, some emotionally evocative books. Join our conversation here.