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A review by cheekylaydee
The Course of Love by Alain de Botton
5.0
An exquisitely beautiful portrayal of love in it's truest form......
Now I'm not usually one for "romantic" novels. Boy meets girl- will they /won't they -overcoming the odds -happily ever after.
However, in this case, I am a convert. The Course of Love is different. Normally marriage is the end of the story but in the case of Rabih and Kirsten we follow them from the giddy infatuation of early love, and we end fourteen years and two kids later. Alain de Botton's prose makes the seemingly mundane utterly compelling. He seems to be able to get right to the core of his character's beings, and subsequently you as a reader. The snippets of insight into relationships in general are innovative. sometimes frightening but they always strike true.
It's a novel that explores the reasons why two people choose to spend their life together. Not only does it deal with the mundane everyday existence of being in the same person's company, but it gives an insight into how each partner interacts with the other, and the reasons why they act the way they do.
I feel like I can't really put into coherent words just how touched and moved I was by this very simple yet highly complex novel of two people that are building a life together. It's like most things. On the surface, it seems very basic and straightforward, yet what de Botton does is delve into those complexities of what makes his characters who they are, indeed, what makes them human.
A paradox of simple complexity. A life-affirming, reassuring insight into love and what it truly means to choose one person out of 1.5 billion possibilities. From a personal point of view, it has reaffirmed something I already knew. That my partner IS the one I am meant to be with. For a novel to do that it has to be something special. This book will leave those of us in long-term relationships or indeed marriages feeling that in this ultimately lonely existence there is going to be at least one person willing to travel through life with us. For the singletons, it may well give you something to aim for. A rare 5 stars. I couldn't justify giving it any less.
Now I'm not usually one for "romantic" novels. Boy meets girl- will they /won't they -overcoming the odds -happily ever after.
However, in this case, I am a convert. The Course of Love is different. Normally marriage is the end of the story but in the case of Rabih and Kirsten we follow them from the giddy infatuation of early love, and we end fourteen years and two kids later. Alain de Botton's prose makes the seemingly mundane utterly compelling. He seems to be able to get right to the core of his character's beings, and subsequently you as a reader. The snippets of insight into relationships in general are innovative. sometimes frightening but they always strike true.
It's a novel that explores the reasons why two people choose to spend their life together. Not only does it deal with the mundane everyday existence of being in the same person's company, but it gives an insight into how each partner interacts with the other, and the reasons why they act the way they do.
I feel like I can't really put into coherent words just how touched and moved I was by this very simple yet highly complex novel of two people that are building a life together. It's like most things. On the surface, it seems very basic and straightforward, yet what de Botton does is delve into those complexities of what makes his characters who they are, indeed, what makes them human.
A paradox of simple complexity. A life-affirming, reassuring insight into love and what it truly means to choose one person out of 1.5 billion possibilities. From a personal point of view, it has reaffirmed something I already knew. That my partner IS the one I am meant to be with. For a novel to do that it has to be something special. This book will leave those of us in long-term relationships or indeed marriages feeling that in this ultimately lonely existence there is going to be at least one person willing to travel through life with us. For the singletons, it may well give you something to aim for. A rare 5 stars. I couldn't justify giving it any less.