There are 158 footsteps between the bus stop and home, but it can stretch to 180 if you aren’t in a hurry, like maybe if you’re wearing platform shoes. Or shoes you bought from a charity shop that have butterflies on the toes but never quite grip the heel at the back, thereby explaining why they were a knock-down £1.99. I turned the corner into our street (68 steps), and could just see the house – a four-bedroomed semi in a row of other three- and four-bedroomed semis. Dad’s car was outside, which meant he had not yet left for work. Behind me, the sun was setting behind Stortfold Castle, its dark shadow sliding down the hill like melting wax to overtake me. When I was a child we used to make our elongated shadows have gun battles, our street the O. K. Corral. On a different sort of day, I could have told you all the things that had happened to me on this route: where Dad taught me to ride a bike without stabilizers; where Mrs Doherty with the lopsided wig used to make us Welsh cakes; where Treena stuck her hand into a hedge when she was eleven and disturbed wasp’s nest and we ran screaming all the way back to the castle.
The above is my favourite part of Jojo Moye's Me Before You. That part is the beginning of chapter one, actually. The prose is a bit slow and steady to me and I love it. It’s detailed, a kind of novel that will teach you how to express the character’s feelings more when writing a story.
Here, Louisa, after losing a job she had held for six years was able to find another one. Only this time, it wasn’t exactly the kind of job she would want on a normal day. But her family depended on her income and she had little choice. She accepted to take care of Will, a quadriplegic who had a bike accident two years before and lost his mobility. The job wasn’t an easy one especially after she learned that Will tried to commit suicide when his family refused to him to a place where people like him who wished to stop living can come and end it all.
Another thing I love about this book is how Jojo showed the characters and their relationships, especially one between Louisa and her younger sister, Katrina. You know how a younger sibling just happens to have all the brains and everyone compares you to them? There! It can be very frustrating. Louisa wasn’t the bright one, but somehow she carried the family along. Despite everything, she’s very comfortable in her own skin, which is actually the most important thing.
Another aspect is how the author portrayed Will’s life and what he was going through generally. I actually saw the movie made out of the book first before I read it. My first thought was that Will’s character in the movie is so stiff. But when I began reading the book, I understood why it had to be like that. For someone who used to walk and run to anywhere they wanted, to suddenly become unable to move not even the arms isn’t a very happy situation. It’s enough to make someone hate everything they used to love.
The book is beautiful. All it requires is total concentration. It isn’t the kind of book you can rush through. I think this might be the longest I’ve been on one book. I don’t mind anyway.
Read the book? Tell me your thoughts.
