I read The Rewind by Allison Winn Scotch to fulfill the book about a holiday that's not Christmas. This book takes place on New Year's Eve, just as the calendar was changing to the year 2000. Do you remember the worry about Y2K and a lot of Prince songs?
Look. You get so blackout drunk that you forget everything that happened? This is the basis for a book?
Hm.
Okay. Fine. But I reserve the right to say that if you are ten years out of undergrad, you are making poor life choices.
Interesting characters: No. They're both terrible. Frankie is a self-absorbed monster and Ezra is not much better.
Believable conflict: Sure, they hate each other because they were immature ten years ago and never had a conversation about goals and priorities.
Emotional tension: Who cares? If these two terrible people want to be together, at least then they won't be with non-terrible people.
Happily ever after: They still haven't had a discussion. STILL. They both need individual therapy.
Save yourself the time with these irresponsible jerks. 2/5 stars
Line of note:
Frankie had always loved this notion: that you could cast aside whoever you were before and reinvent yourself into someone entirely new. (location 3075)
I feel like this is sort of what people think when they think they can sort of run away from their problems. Big breakup? Change cities. Issues with your job? Move. Family turmoil? Travel around the country in a van. But you're still YOU no matter where you go. There are things you fundamentally cannot change. Do you think it's possible to reinvent yourself?
Hat mentions (why hats?):
A decade ago, Ezra had never had any sort of edge to him: he was a baseball hat–wearing, khaki pants, Boy Scout kind of guy. (location 836)
He tugged his wool hat over his ears. (location 1560)
"I set the record for hat tricks." (location 2576)
He was looking dapper in a bow tie and a suit and a bowler hat, though he had slung his red parka on top. (location 3120)
A waiter stood by the door in a wool hat and scarf, offering the arrivals champagne. (location 3190)
Ha ha, this sounds terrible. I'll skip it for sure!
ReplyDeleteI have regrets about this book. Deep regrets.
DeleteI wanted so hard to like it for the Prince songs... (Wait: was that you or were the songs in the book?)
ReplyDeleteThat was all me. It was what I remembered from that year. LOL. There was a brief mention of both Y2K and partying like it was 1999, but that was certainly not central to the book!
DeleteIn that case, I'll happily give this a miss!
DeleteI've never heard of this book and will never read this book but oh man I love it because it gave us this review!!!!! Ah Y2K...good times.
ReplyDeleteI was so mad that I wasted my time with this book. LOL. I guess that came out in the review.
DeleteThis is a hilarious book review for a book I will never read, so thank you. I died laughing when you said 10 years after undergrad and they were so drunk they remember nothing, poor life decisions, etc. Totally agree with that. I do remember Y2K. I just saw on the news that there's a documentary about Y2K.
ReplyDeleteI'm so far behind in all things. I keep reminding myself that I came down with covid 9 days before hosting 36 people for Christmas, so this is a cake walk. But - I still haven't really shopped very much and pretty soon that won't ever be an option because delivery dates will not work. Eek.
Buy hey, I so enjoyed the package I got in the mail from you yesterday. Thanks so much. All my previous fuzzy socks bit the dust last year and I enjoyed all the personal touches. Much appreciated. Now I want to know what NGS stands for. I assumed it was your initials. ;)
I'm glad you got your package! It had been stuck in Oak Park for a long time, so I was starting to get concerned.
DeleteNGS = Neurotic Grad Student, which was my nickname when I started this blog. I am obviously no longer in grad school, so I stopped using the name, but kept the initials.