Need something to keep your bar of Galaxy company this Valentines Day? Our Books team review the reads guaranteed to warm your heart this Feb 14th:
The Tiny Wife- Andrew Kaufman
We learn from the first page, it was never about the money. Like the Beatles wisely warbled, “I don’t care too much for money / For money can’t buy me love”. Enlightened words, but the fat cat CEO of Hallmark, rubbing his hands together gleefully at the prospect of Valentine’s Day, may beg to differ. From the off Andrew Kaufman’s madcap novel The Tiny Wife smashes through the jaded worldliness of its characters in an endeavour to remind us what is really important. The novel begins when Branch #117 of the British Bank of North America is held at gunpoint by an enigmatic purple-hatted robber. But this is no ordinary robbery – the burglar turns his nose up at money and instead demands from each customer an item of sentimental value. Once the goods are handed over, the robber announces that he has stolen 51 per cent of their souls and they must either learn to grow them back or face the fatal consequences. Among the thirteen civilians in the bank at the time is David Hinterland’s wife Stacey, who in the days following the incident, slowly begins to shrink.
While not a conventional romance, the funny and tender narrative is touching and the characters endearing. So, chuck aside the paperbacks emblazoned with simpering heroines and pick up this weird and wonderful modern romance – you won’t regret it.
The Time Travellers Wife- Audrey Niffenegger
The Time Traveller’s Wife often invites review solely based on its literary merit yet it is also an ideal candidate for romantic reading for many reasons above and beyond its prosaic polish.For those skeptical souls who view Valentine’s Day through corporate spectacles, Niffenegger’s timeless novel of time travel can at first appear the antithesis of all things Thornton’s and Hallmark. I am a firm believer in the ability of this book to provide reassurance and warm the hearts of both yourself and your partner. The story tells of the perils facing Henry De Tamble as he attempts to navigate the troubles of involuntary time travel through the ages in conjunction with his relationship to artist Clare Abshire, whilst also providing an insight into her plight as the one left behind. The subsequent unfolding of their love across decades not only provides the required slushy element which constitutes much of the St Valentine’s feast, yet also offers enough of a backstory to captivate and tantalize the reader beyond the need for goo-and-gush. In this way the novel actually manages to transcend the done-to-death love story in a way that is fresh and exciting. Indeed, the book offers something for all readers whether male or female, single or coupled. Accordingly, Valentine’s and romance skeptics in general can dismiss Henry’s condition as the ultimate form of commitment-phobia whilst the romantics can retort with Clare’s recognition of a stranger as the ultimate case of love at first sight.
Lady Chatterley’s Lover- D.H. Lawrence
On its initial publication in 1928, this novel caused an absolute sensation. Printed up until 1959, and becoming the public subject of an ‘obscenity trial’, the novel has achieved cult status as a symbol for both social repression and artistic triumph. It centres around the love affair between the socially privileged but outwardly repressed Constance Chatterley and the earthy and sexually free gamekeeper Oliver Mellors. Constance is a young woman whose husband has recently been paralysed in the war. Mellors offers her both the sexual and intellectual fulfilment that her increasingly petulant and physically defeated husband cannot provide. Many would regard it as a book concerned with sex, rather than romance. However, in the deepening relationship between Constance and Mellors, Lawrence creates a vision of romance that allows for desire and sexuality to go hand in hand with the sense of affection and adoration associated with traditional romance. The fact that Mellors’ adoration of Constance is so brashly physical, that he proclaims she has, “the nicest woman’s arse of anybody!” does not remove the essential fact of his tender appreciation. She is, after all, a woman whose sexual and intellectual life has been dictated by her society, encapsulated in the bitterness of her husband. Romance in Lady Chatterley’s Lover is both tender and harsh, filled with the magnitude and the responsibility of love and heartbreak.