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Emily May's Reviews > Love May Fail
Love May Fail
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When you catch your husband screwing a girl half your age, you are permitted to be bitchy, even when talking to adorable nuns on airplanes - nuns who buy you vodka, even.
If a mid-life crisis took book form, I believe it would look something like this. Not surprisingly, it's boring, and it's also about people who hate their lives, get drunk and - eventually - find themselves.
Love May Fail is my least favourite Quick book to date. Usually, I love the whimsical (but surprisingly dark) nature of his novels - the totally weird, sad, but lovable characters and the strange situations they find themselves in. Not one of the characters in this book was worth caring about, in my opinion, and the strangeness of the story was irritating, rather than cute.
The book opens with Portia Kane - a trophy wife to her misogynistic pornographer husband - drunk, whilst watching her husband cheating on her with a young woman and planning to burst in and shoot them both. Realizing that this is perhaps not the best idea, she insults his manhood and storms out, leaving him for good. Due to a pre-nup, she is now almost penniless as well as being drunk off her face and in need of a place to go. So she returns home.
Let me take a moment here to talk about how insufferable Portia Kane is. She's a spoiled brat who, though technically poor now, has rich white person syndrome bleeding from her pores. She actually thinks this:
“She’s lucky.” I hate myself for envying this women in Nigeria whose husband drives a cab halfway around the world, saving money to rescue her from whatever hell Nigeria currently offers. It sounds like a fairy tale. She might as well be in an ivory tower. So romantic - beautiful even. Their struggle.
I feel like Portia's unlikable aspects are supposed to be balanced out by our sympathy for her situation. If that was the case, it didn't work for me.
While home, Portia attempts to restore her faith in humanity and goodness by helping out a depressed ex-high school teacher. Enter Nate Vernon and his perspective. Vernon has been ruminating on the subject of suicide ever since an unfortunate incident forced him into early retirement (and more than a touch of alcoholism). He spends his days talking to his dog - Albert Camus. The events of this novel are so subtle and boring that anything could be a spoiler so I'll tag this bit just in case... (view spoiler)
After Vernon's perspective, we get two more. One from Sister Maeve Smith - a nun and Vernon's mother - who writes letters to her son from beyond the grave (that's right, she's dead). And another from Chuck Bass, a guy who has had a crush on Portia for twenty years and sadly isn't the hot guy from Gossip Girl.
In terms of plot, it's simply this: people get very drunk and then "save themselves". Kind of. But really it's just a mishmash of weirdness, quirks, ideas and perspectives. I can't say I enjoyed any of it or really cared about the fate of the characters. It was too bloated and messy, full of many different components that never came together and made a satisfying whole.
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If a mid-life crisis took book form, I believe it would look something like this. Not surprisingly, it's boring, and it's also about people who hate their lives, get drunk and - eventually - find themselves.
Love May Fail is my least favourite Quick book to date. Usually, I love the whimsical (but surprisingly dark) nature of his novels - the totally weird, sad, but lovable characters and the strange situations they find themselves in. Not one of the characters in this book was worth caring about, in my opinion, and the strangeness of the story was irritating, rather than cute.
The book opens with Portia Kane - a trophy wife to her misogynistic pornographer husband - drunk, whilst watching her husband cheating on her with a young woman and planning to burst in and shoot them both. Realizing that this is perhaps not the best idea, she insults his manhood and storms out, leaving him for good. Due to a pre-nup, she is now almost penniless as well as being drunk off her face and in need of a place to go. So she returns home.
Let me take a moment here to talk about how insufferable Portia Kane is. She's a spoiled brat who, though technically poor now, has rich white person syndrome bleeding from her pores. She actually thinks this:
“She’s lucky.” I hate myself for envying this women in Nigeria whose husband drives a cab halfway around the world, saving money to rescue her from whatever hell Nigeria currently offers. It sounds like a fairy tale. She might as well be in an ivory tower. So romantic - beautiful even. Their struggle.
I feel like Portia's unlikable aspects are supposed to be balanced out by our sympathy for her situation. If that was the case, it didn't work for me.
While home, Portia attempts to restore her faith in humanity and goodness by helping out a depressed ex-high school teacher. Enter Nate Vernon and his perspective. Vernon has been ruminating on the subject of suicide ever since an unfortunate incident forced him into early retirement (and more than a touch of alcoholism). He spends his days talking to his dog - Albert Camus. The events of this novel are so subtle and boring that anything could be a spoiler so I'll tag this bit just in case... (view spoiler)
After Vernon's perspective, we get two more. One from Sister Maeve Smith - a nun and Vernon's mother - who writes letters to her son from beyond the grave (that's right, she's dead). And another from Chuck Bass, a guy who has had a crush on Portia for twenty years and sadly isn't the hot guy from Gossip Girl.
In terms of plot, it's simply this: people get very drunk and then "save themselves". Kind of. But really it's just a mishmash of weirdness, quirks, ideas and perspectives. I can't say I enjoyed any of it or really cared about the fate of the characters. It was too bloated and messy, full of many different components that never came together and made a satisfying whole.
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Reading Progress
October 25, 2014
– Shelved
June 7, 2015
–
Started Reading
June 9, 2015
–
Finished Reading
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Tatiana
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Jun 09, 2015 11:24AM
THAT bad?
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I thought so. I was actually just writing a review.
So it's not a feminist as the blurb says? Oh well, too bad this didn't work for you - it sounded promising.
Ugh! This sounds awful. And that spoiler...just no!
this book seems like these black and white no sound movies, where the scenes are fast and we try to follow the story but every character and the story itself look so crazy that you feel lost.
Is it bad that I want to read this just because your review of it is so awesome?
Your reviews for Sorta Like a Rock Star and Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock introduced me to Matthew Quick, whom I regard as one of my favorite authors. I haven't read the book yet. But I'm sad reading this review that this is not up to your expextation, Emily. This gives me a dillemma. Thanks for the review, Em!
Vane wrote: "So it's not a feminist as the blurb says? Oh well, too bad this didn't work for you - it sounded promising."Portia is an "aspiring feminist" - which here means that she occasionally quotes Gloria Steinem. It's not really a feminist book.
Laura wrote: "Is it bad that I want to read this just because your review of it is so awesome?"Haha, thank you!
Eryn wrote: "Your reviews for Sorta Like a Rock Star and Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock introduced me to Matthew Quick, whom I regard as one of my favorite authors. I haven't read the book yet. But I'm sad reading..."Thank you, Eryn. I loved both those books so much - such a shame that this one was so dull in comparison.
Thanks for sparing me the trouble! I was seriously considering this as a summer must-read, but now I won't bother :-)
I was so close to buying this book but read your review first! Thank goodness & thank you so much for the great review :)
Kiara Marcelino wrote: "I was so close to buying this book but read your review first! Thank goodness & thank you so much for the great review :)"Thank you, Kiara. Glad I could help!
Thank You!!! Honestly, your reviews are the only reason im not absolutely bankrupt. Just slightly broke....but that's inevitable for someone that needs to buy the books they wanna read instead of go to the library like a sane person.
Anjali wrote: "Thank You!!! Honestly, your reviews are the only reason im not absolutely bankrupt. Just slightly broke....but that's inevitable for someone that needs to buy the books they wanna read instead of g..."Haha, I know exactly what you mean :) And glad I can help!
This is really disappointing since Quick is one of my favorite authors. The Silver Linings Playbook (both the book and the movie) and Forgive Me Leonard Peacock are two of my all time favorites. I will still try this book out though and who knows, I might like it.
Emily, is it too late to submit reviews to you? The link has disappeared.
eh - it started out promising but didn't end that way. The characters didn't develop. Their lives got better, but not for any reason. The author flirts with magical realism but then pulls back from it, and it's not something you can do halfway. The set up is compelling (our main characters are nostalgic 1980's suburban hair metal New Jersey - that's a good setting), but it doesn't go anywhere.
