Story Lover

by Emily Giffin

I picked the book up because I’m looking forward to the movie (which won’t be out for another few months). And all I can really do is hope that the movie is better than the book. It looks like it will be. It has a good cast and seems to be funny in all the right places (trailer style), but more I just hope it brings a little bit more to the story, makes the characters a bit more likable and people I can empathize with.

Because honestly, in the end I didn’t like any of the characters. I don’t think any of them were victims, I don’t think any of them were heroes. In the end, I thought they were all a little ugly. I got really tired of Rachel’s self-pity and how she’s the constant victim of Darcy’s selfishness. Yes, Darcy is selfish and self-centered, but Rachel never stood up for herself, she never had the courage to do anything. She really led a life of a coward and just used Darcy as a scapegoat for all her past wrongs. Darcy was bitchy and used people and so I never really felt that sorry for her, especially when you find out that she cheated as well and is going to have a baby with another guy. And Dex, he was such a coward as well. Just kind of went with the flow, but never really put himself out there till the end. I guess I’m glad they all kind of made it right in the end.

Yet, somehow I’m intrigued enough to want to read the follow up, Something Blue. I guess there are always two sides to every story and I’d like to hear Darcy’s. Because has evil as she seems in Something Borrowed, I don’t really believe that she is the ultimate bitch.

I liked this movie a lot. I think the part I liked the most was when Matt Damon’s character, David, asks Harry, “Are you the chairman?” Like it would be that easy. Like Oz would be unveiled in that way. And I loved the 1950’s feel of the men in suits with fedoras. Classy world controllers.

It was a really interesting theory on how the world works. I wonder if the book is better or worse. And to think, even a God or Chairman can’t get it perfect all the time. Even they make mistakes or even sometimes things are outside their ultimate power. I wonder if that’s why things on earth can’t always be completely rationalized or explained. Sometimes shitty things just happen and there’s nothing we can do about them. Like in the movie, David’s mom, they didn’t adjust her, that was chance.

Can chance and plans exist at the same time? Can the chaos of chance fuck with the tidiness of plan? Does what people believe make them so? Do they both exist because people believe in both? And could human kind ever really govern ourselves, live a balanced life, without the presence or the belief in something greater than ourselves? Do we need to believe in something bigger than ourselves to imagine we have free will? That there’s something to rebel against? Hmm, maybe the book would be a really great read.