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A review by geenybell
Everything I Know About Love: A Memoir by Dolly Alderton
3.0
Excited to discuss with my book club!
This was a roller coaster of a read- at times boring and laborious - dragging and repetitive. At other times moving and striking in truth around friendship and life through your twenties. I’ve calculated my own journey through my 20s to be about 4 years behind that of the author- making most of her generation specific references very much relatable.
The pages sitting in the 50-70% middleish of the book were by far my favourites - where the protagonist is going through all of her “growing up” learning about life and self development etc.
I didn’t realise this was an autobiography until over half way, and that made it a lot of enjoyable.
I know this is the perspective of the author, but the heteronormativity of the book was extremely jarring, and her insistence on giving advice (even when it was tongue in cheek or purposefully immature ) was annoying. Her self deprecating tone also made it feel unbelievable - is it actually a reality for teenage girls to have that much of an obsession with boys ??? Maybe it is ..?
I found very few of the charterers developed enough for me to have any idea who they were. And I also found the “learnings” Dolly was making through the story kept happening very suddenly and dramatically without really much impact on her life.. her complete turnaround on her 30th birthday from existential doom and dread, to absolute peace and bliss was jarring. Perhaps that’s somewhat reflective of all of us and the twists and turns we make through life and self discovery but it seemed to lack self awareness.
I think it would have worked a lot better as a series of essays with better narrative fleshed out in each, or a more consistent theme. It jumped in and out of antidotes - some of which felt completely unbelievable, others were hilarious and great.
Overall a fun read, and I’m now keen to rewatch the tv show!
This was a roller coaster of a read- at times boring and laborious - dragging and repetitive. At other times moving and striking in truth around friendship and life through your twenties. I’ve calculated my own journey through my 20s to be about 4 years behind that of the author- making most of her generation specific references very much relatable.
The pages sitting in the 50-70% middleish of the book were by far my favourites - where the protagonist is going through all of her “growing up” learning about life and self development etc.
I didn’t realise this was an autobiography until over half way, and that made it a lot of enjoyable.
I know this is the perspective of the author, but the heteronormativity of the book was extremely jarring, and her insistence on giving advice (even when it was tongue in cheek or purposefully immature ) was annoying. Her self deprecating tone also made it feel unbelievable - is it actually a reality for teenage girls to have that much of an obsession with boys ??? Maybe it is ..?
I found very few of the charterers developed enough for me to have any idea who they were. And I also found the “learnings” Dolly was making through the story kept happening very suddenly and dramatically without really much impact on her life.. her complete turnaround on her 30th birthday from existential doom and dread, to absolute peace and bliss was jarring. Perhaps that’s somewhat reflective of all of us and the twists and turns we make through life and self discovery but it seemed to lack self awareness.
I think it would have worked a lot better as a series of essays with better narrative fleshed out in each, or a more consistent theme. It jumped in and out of antidotes - some of which felt completely unbelievable, others were hilarious and great.
Overall a fun read, and I’m now keen to rewatch the tv show!