Thursday, November 13, 2014

Landline by Rainbow Rowell

Landline


Overview from Barnes and Noble:

New York Times Best Seller! An Indie Next Pick!
From New York Times bestselling author of Eleanor & Park and Fangirl, Rainbow Rowell, comes a hilarious, heart-wrenching take on love, marriage, and magic phones.
Georgie McCool knows her marriage is in trouble. That it’s been in trouble for a long time. She still loves her husband, Neal, and Neal still loves her, deeply—but that almost seems beside the point now.
Maybe that was always beside the point.
Two days before they’re supposed to visit Neal’s family in Omaha for Christmas, Georgie tells Neal that she can’t go. She’s a TV writer, and something’s come up on her show; she has to stay in Los Angeles. She knows that Neal will be upset with her—Neal is always a little upset with Georgie—but she doesn’t expect to him to pack up the kids and go without her.
When her husband and the kids leave for the airport, Georgie wonders if she’s finally done it. If she’s ruined everything.
That night, Georgie discovers a way to communicate with Neal in the past. It’s not time travel, not exactly, but she feels like she’s been given an opportunity to fix her marriage before it starts. . . .
Is that what she’s supposed to do?
Or would Georgie and Neal be better off if their marriage never happened?
My thoughts:
Life is always a balancing act and in a marriage things are not always equal.  When Neal and Georgie had their children it was Neal who decided to stay home with them because Georgie was following her screen writing dream and he couldn't seem to find his dream path or job.  This worked for them, but somehow Georgie started to feel on the outside of her family because her girls went to Neal whenever they needed something because he was there.  Her writing career was plugging along, and right before Christmas a great opportunity came up, but it meant working through Christmas and she just couldn't go to Omaha and write with her team.  Being alone throws Georgie for a loop.
I loved the landline phone from the past that lets her talk to Neal, but it the past, because this separation is so much like the one they had right before the Christmas that Neal proposed to her, but she never knew why he came back and what changed his mind about their problems and issues.  Why he didn't go back to his high school girlfriend next door but chose to deal with all their issues instead.  She can't reach her current Neal on his cell phone, her battery keeps dying and every time she calls the girls or his mother answer and he is no where to be found, but on the landline she gets him almost every time, but not now him but then him.
What would you say to someone from your past?  Would you admit that things were going to be hard?  That at times you wanted to quit and he wanted to quit and you wonder if things would be better if you just did quit.  Would you risk not having the you your are now and the kids you have now if you could take away some of the stress and fights and problems.  Would you still want to have it all knowing what you know now?  Is there a different way to have a life or was this the best one, even with the bad parts, because there were so many good? 
 I loved being inside Georgie's head as she wrestled with all the issues and emotions from the show, from the separation that might be just for Christmas or might be for good, and with what she should be telling past Neal about the future.

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9781250049377
  • Publisher: St. Martin's Press
  • Publication date: 7/8/2014
  • Pages: 320

Meet the Author

Rainbow Rowell
RAINBOW ROWELL lives in Omaha, Nebraska, with her husband and two sons. She's also the author of FangirlEleanor & Park, and Attachments.

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