“When there was nothing but space between you, everything felt like a leap.”
Lucy and Owen meet somewhere between the tenth and eleventh floors of a New York City apartment building, on an elevator rendered useless by a citywide blackout. After they’re rescued, they spend a single night together, wandering the darkened streets and marveling at the rare appearance of stars above Manhattan. But once the power is restored, so is reality. Lucy soon moves to Edinburgh with her parents, while Owen heads out west with his father.
Lucy and Owen’s relationship plays out across the globe as they stay in touch through postcards, occasional e-mails, and — finally — a reunion in the city where they first met.
A carefully charted map of a long-distance relationship, Jennifer E. Smith’s new novel shows that the center of the world isn’t necessarily a place. It can be a person, too.
Personal Thoughts:
If you’ve been following this blog for quite some time, you know very well how much I love contemporary novels with travel story on it. Most of contemporary novels that end-up in my favorite list are those stories that take me to different continents or places. I love exploring different countries and cultures both in reading and real life. So it’s no surprise that Jennifer E. Smith latest book is a must read for me. Just by knowing the title, I automatically added the book to my list of most anticipated books.
As I expected, The Geography of You and Me is a enjoyable read, not only because of the different places it explores but also because of the sweet and lovely story it tells.
Lucy and Owen meets by chance when they accidentally get stuck in the elevator. Few hours together resulted to friendship and something more. But after the black out that bring them together they both find themselves travelling to opposite directions. At first they tried to communicate via postcards but life apart is a totally different story.
“How long could a single night really be expected to last? How far could you stretch such a small collection of minutes? He was just a boy on a roof. She was just a girl in an elevator.”
Lucy and Owen are both shy characters but somehow managed to tell a story of love that will surely make readers feel.
Their love story is sweet and adorable. But more than their romantic story what really resonate to me is their individual journey. Not only because I enjoyed reading about the places they visited but mostly because the individual growth it brought them.
Lucy and Owen both have individual family issues that they have to face in their own. The gradual growth of their family relationship is well handled. It’s so easy to put dramas around these characters but Im glad that the author didn’t go for that route.
“But there’s no such thing as a completely fresh start. Everything new arrives on the heels of something old, and every beginning comes at the cost of an ending.”
Another thing that I like in the story is how the characters take actions about their feelings. That even fate brought them together, they still make their own choices in the end. It reminds me of the line from the korean movie, My Sassy Girl which says, “Fate is building a bridge of chance for someone you love.” I love that line because as much as I believe in fate, I also believe that we are the one who make them.
Overall, The Geography of You and Me is a sweet and feel good read. Jennifer E. Smith successfully weaved another magical but realistic story of chance encounters with travel adventures like her first book.
blackplume 