An Addictive Love Story About Addiction
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I found this book to be very compelling and I could not put it down. I was completely under the spell of the love story even though I knew it was not a healthy relationship at all.
Leah and Charlie met in the grocery store as they were checking out. He complimented her cereal choice – Raisin Bran – as he showed her his – Raisin Bran Crunch. They made a date to meet the next night at a pub. He showed up late, but his was the most beautiful face she had ever seen, so it was worth the wait. And then right there on the first date – for the reader, it’s on page three – we find the key that’s going to lock these two cereal-eaters together. Charlie tells her that his father left before he was born, and Leah tells Charlie that she hadn’t seen her mom since she was thirteen. Both have big voids to fill in their hearts.
As we will come to see, no matter how unhealthy the relationship, as long as Charlie sticks around, Leah will feel loved and will love him in return and vice versa.
But I’m jumping ahead. Let’s get back to the blooming relationship. On their second date, Charlie asks in advance if it is ok for them just to go to his house. “[He’s] a little tight on money at the moment and [he doesn’t] love spending ten dollars on a beer at a bar when it’s pretty much the same amount to have a six-pack at home.” Ultimately, he is more than an hour late in picking her up, and when they get to “his house,” we learn that he is actually living with his mom and stepfather. Add to the mix that he is thirty-one (she is six years younger) and I’m seeing a lot of red flags here.
But then again, he’s such a charmer. As he piles on the compliments, Leah says, “[She doesn’t] know what to do with his words except commit them to memory. Even if he was lying, it was the best lie someone had told [her].” And then there is her perception of him as “by far the most beautiful human being [she] had ever laid eyes on.”
It takes until page forty-six for the biggest red flag to wave. There is some erratic behavior on his part. He stops by a lot but he always has to leave at some point saying he has to meet up with his colleague. Sometimes he says it’s his boss he’s meeting. He uses the words interchangeably, though “colleague” is an odd word choice since Charlie works in construction. Additionally, on one occasion, he was high. At this point Leah asks if he is a drug dealer. He is not, but he confesses that he is a recovering heroin addict. Supposedly he has been in recovery for three years, but we know he’s been high in her presence, so what’s that all about?
Run, Leah, run! That’s what I’m thinking.
But Leah is thinking about lots of other things. There is another plot line in the book. Leah is in a two-year MFA program for fiction. Originally from Boston, her program is in Madison, Wisconsin. It is a very selective program. Only six people are in the program at a time. When she and Charlie meet, she is in the fall of her second year. The novel spends a lot of time with her writing cohort and with their stories and the workshopping of their stories.
She tells us she always liked to write. “[Her] stories were often about motherless daughters or childless mothers…[She] fantasized that [her] mother would somehow come across [her] short stories and realize she should come home. In college [her] intended audience changed. [She] gave up on [her] mother and started imagining that men might read [her] writing and come and save [her].”
Clearly, she is filling the void her mother left with her writing – and then with Charlie. Meanwhile, he is filling his void with heroin – and then with her.
Where can a story like this go? Perhaps it is fortunate that her MFA program is drawing to a close. Will she return to Boston? Is that possibly a good excuse to cut things off with Charlie after she has endured shenanigan after shenanigan on his part? Or will she NOT take advantage of this excellent excuse to leave the unhealthy relationship?
I won’t tell. No spoilers from me. You’ll need to read the book to see. But if you like the book as much as I did, you will gobble it up in no time, and know how this addictive love story ends.
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