Memorable Monday: Eleanor & Park

Memorable Monday is a meme hosted by Escape in a Good Book. I'm excited to join in on this one because I love quotes, which was the driving force behind the creation of Memorable Mondays. I thank the ladies at Escape in a Good Book.

So... how do you participate? It's simple ~

1) Share a quote that has captured your interest lately in a Memorable Monday post on your blog.

2) Come back here and leave the link to your post in the comment box below. If you don't have a blog, I'd still love to hear read your quote. Leave it in the comment box instead of a link to a non-existent blog. :)

3) Visit other participants if you have time. It's always nice to have visitors. There's no overstaying your welcome this way, and they don't have to offer the obligatory drinks. Or clean.

4) If you tweet your posts, feel free to use the hashtag #MemorableMonday.

This week's choice:

 
"What were the chances you'd ever meet someone like that? he wondered. Someone you could love forever, someone who would forever love you back? And what did you do when that person was born half a world away? The math seemed impossible. How did his parents get so lucky?"

~ Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
 
 

What's struck you lately?

Smiles,
B 

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell: A Review

"Bono met his wife in high school," Park says.
"So did Jerry Lee Lewis," Eleanor answers.
"I’m not kidding," he says.
"You should be," she says, "we’re sixteen."
"What about Romeo and Juliet?"
"Shallow, confused, then dead."
''I love you," Park says.
"Wherefore art thou," Eleanor answers.
"I’m not kidding," he says.
"You should be."

Set over the course of one school year in 1986, ELEANOR AND PARK is the story of two star-crossed misfits – smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try. When Eleanor meets Park, you’ll remember your own first love – and just how hard it pulled you under.

 

I. Loved. This. Book. Seriously. I feel like I may say that too often. I need to work on that. But really. This story, with its broken characters and saving graces kept me awake at night and thinking about it well after I had finished it. It broke my heart into a thousand pieces. I laughed out loud numerous times. I cried, numerous times.

So the characters. I hated Eleanor's mom and for a time disliked Park's mom. But, they were there, in the story, ever present and existing. It's always a plus for me, especially in the contemporary genre, to see parents actually present and existing within their kid's life. I loved how real Eleanor & Park seemed to me. I felt like I was right there on the bus with them, feeling their awkwardness and nervousness as their friendship grew. The inner dialogue was just as great as the actual dialogue and I was very impressed with the honesty that Park had with himself. 

The story itself...should touch anyone who reads it. Adult, teen, it doesn't matter. Even if you've never experienced the actual events that transpire within the story there's something to relate to. The time period, being bullied, being *a* bully... it's all there. In all it's shocking glory. The writing was near perfection for me. I wanted to live in it.

Read it... and if you regret it I would be surprised. I don't really have the words to describe how touched I was by this book. 

Smiles,
B