Review: Me before You by Jojo Moyes

Sometimes I hate myself for not reading certain books the minute they appear on my doorstep. Jojo Moyes's Me before You was one such book. Many people I trust told me how much they loved the novel and how much they cried while reading it. Although I didn't know the particulars of the story, I knew enough before I even started reading to make some educated guesses. And that's the problem. I was prepared and thus lost most of the emotional impact.

Here's the premise: When Louisa Clark lost her job at the local cafe, she and her family were desperate for her to find something new because her donations to the household budget were sorely needed. After several false starts, Louisa takes a job with the town's most prominent family as a caregiver to their son.

But there's a catch. This is no ordinary mother's helper position; Lou is to be a companion to Will Traynor, a handsome, successful young man who was stopped short after an accident left him wheelchair bound. Life as a quadriplegic is particularly difficult for Will, who once climbed mountains and rode motorcycles, seeking as much adventure as his high-powered London business allowed.

Lou and Will's relationship is at the heart of the novel, but Me before You is not a simple love story. The two come from opposite sides of town and have had different opportunities and expectations. As a consequence, there is no fairytale instant connection that erases the gap between them; Lou is not Cinderella, and Will is hardly Prince Charming.

As they slowly find common ground and mutual respect, they face a number of practical, philosophical, and spiritual issues. And here again, Moyes rises above the crowd; sidestepping the usual arguments, she presents the various sides to these dilemmas through the eyes of her vividly rendered characters, letting us see how their personal agendas affect their hopes and dreams for Will's future.

Although I was robbed of the gut-wrenching emotions that almost every other reviewer and reader has mentioned, I still loved Me before You. Jojo Moyes blows away the mists of sappy romance to reveal the deeper, stronger, and truer layers of an intense relationship that seems doomed right from the start.

I listened to the unabridged audiobook edition (Penguin Audio; 14 hr, 40 min), which was read by Susan Lyons. The bulk of the novel is told by Louisa, and Lyons well captures the young woman's conflicted and changing emotions toward her job as well as her slow transformation as she is exposed to the broader world that was once Will's.

A few chapters are told from the viewpoints of the minor characters, and I found the changes in perspective to be off-putting, although informative. Unfortunately, their jarring effect was especially noticeable in the audiobook because each was read by a different performer. If Lyons had been left to narrate the entire novel, the interludes would have seemed more integrated with the rest of the novel, keeping me fully immersed in Lou and Will's story.

Penguin USA / Pamela Dorman Books, 2012
ISBN-13: 9780670026609
Source: Review (both print and audio) (see review policy)
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