This month the group read The Course of Love by Alain de Botton. The story follows a young couple, Kirsten and Rabih, through the stages of their relationship, from meeting at work and falling in love, to marriage, children and middle age. It portrays all the demands on such a relationship, whether it be domestic chores, work, financial worries, aging parents, even an affair. It doesn’t hide the difficulties and friction that can arise and the couple even go through therapy at one stage.
The characters are well drawn and quite different. However, there is not a lot to the story. Much of the book is taken up with contemplations on the nature of love, reflections on each new development in the relationship and analysis of how love evolves and how one should respond.
On one level this is a serious and very thoughtful book, but many of the vignettes of Kirsten and Rabih’s life will match your own experiences. Generally, the group found the book a little heavy going, since it seems to dwell on the difficulties in the relationship with very little joy. Although described as a novel, there is more analysis of human behaviour than story.
Our future reading list is as follows:
Jul       This Lovely City                                  Louisa Hare
Aug     Open Water                                       Caleb Azumah Nelson
Sept    Beautiful World Where Are You       Sally Rooney
Oct     Love After Love                                  Ingrid Persaud
Nov    Frostquake                                       Juliet Nicolson
Dec     The Dalai Lama’s Cat                         David Michie
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