Marilyn's Reviews > Addition

Addition is a funny, charming book about a woman who counts compulsively, and counts everything. It's the way she feels safe in the world. Every day she goes to the same cafe to have a hot chocolate with two marshmallows and a slice of orange cake. The cake's frosting is dusted with poppy seeds, and she counts the number of seeds each day, which tells her how many bites she has to take to eat the cake. She counts the bristles on her toothbrush. She counts her steps. She buys bananas in multiples of 10. And then, one day at the grocers, she meets a man. They fall in love. Her ordered world is disrupted. How they both cope, come together, fall apart, and how learns to live her life, add up to not just a sweet love story, but an exploration of personality, conformity and honesty.