Take a photo of a barcode or cover
notesbynnenna 's review for:
The Course of Love
by Alain de Botton
After a couple meets and falls in love, what exactly happens during the “happily ever after?” This is the main question that de Botton seeks to answer in this novel. In the first few pages, Rabih and Kirsten meet, fall in love, and become a couple, but that’s only the beginning of their love story. Throughout this book, the author charts the course of their relationship and all the messy, complicated bits that happen in-between.
I’m a horrible romantic and at times it felt like this book was speaking directly to me and my lofty, idealistic notions of love. The book is structured so that the story is broken up by analytical asides from the narrator. There are a lot of interesting thoughts and ruminations on love in these passages, but by the end, I felt that they were too frequent and interrupted the story too often. It started to feel quite didactic, which I believe was the intention, but it was not what I wanted to experience while reading. Sometimes it felt difficult to form your own conclusions as a reader because you knew that the narrator would explain it all to you shortly.
That said, the writing is beautiful. I did enjoy the way the author broke down popular views on love. Rabih and Kirsten were also very strong characters and I could see bits of myself in each of them and they way they approached their relationship. The book does focus mostly on Rabih’s perspective, but I would have loved to learn more about what Kirsten was thinking or feeling in certain situations.
I’d be curious to know how someone who has been or is currently married feels while reading this book. Do the lessons ring true? Regardless, I enjoyed this thoughtful novel/essay on love and I’m looking forward to picking up another de Botton book in the future.
I’m a horrible romantic and at times it felt like this book was speaking directly to me and my lofty, idealistic notions of love. The book is structured so that the story is broken up by analytical asides from the narrator. There are a lot of interesting thoughts and ruminations on love in these passages, but by the end, I felt that they were too frequent and interrupted the story too often. It started to feel quite didactic, which I believe was the intention, but it was not what I wanted to experience while reading. Sometimes it felt difficult to form your own conclusions as a reader because you knew that the narrator would explain it all to you shortly.
That said, the writing is beautiful. I did enjoy the way the author broke down popular views on love. Rabih and Kirsten were also very strong characters and I could see bits of myself in each of them and they way they approached their relationship. The book does focus mostly on Rabih’s perspective, but I would have loved to learn more about what Kirsten was thinking or feeling in certain situations.
I’d be curious to know how someone who has been or is currently married feels while reading this book. Do the lessons ring true? Regardless, I enjoyed this thoughtful novel/essay on love and I’m looking forward to picking up another de Botton book in the future.