Aaron’s Dad Ira believes that books are miracles. “Twenty-six letters and some punctuation marks and you have infinite words in infinite worlds….How is that not a miracle?”
I think he’s right. I am in awe at the way some authors – in this case, Gayle Forman – can use those twenty-six letters and some punctuation marks to create stories as beautiful as We are Inevitable.
We are Inevitabletells the story of Aaron and Ira and their failing business, the Bluebird Bookshop. It’s a story of love: a love of books, a love of music, young love, parental love and fraternal love. It’s a story of friendship too and about amazing places where community is creative. No wonder I loved this book. I wish there was a Bluebird Bookshop in my town and that I could visit every day to drink the wonderful coffee and eat the crumb cake whilst perusing the titles on offer.
This is the kind of book that I wish I had the skill and the talent to write. I’d be content to write something a fraction as good as this, but it nevertheless spurs me on to writing my next chapter and booking myself on the next writing course, in the hope of learning to arrange those twenty-six letters into something that others might want to read.
This is the kind of book that makes me rush to finish it because I want to know what happens, only to immediately be full of regret when I realise the characters I’ve come to love won’t be part of my life anymore. Well, at least, not till I’ve forgotten the story enough to justify reading it again.
A final thing: I totally loved the number of other books that this novel refers to. It’s a lovely quirky touch. I will never look at The Giving Tree in the same light again!
