CBR18 Bingo: Left – Feeling left behind by friends, by partners, and being unable to achieve the next perceived life milestone that everyone seems to be completing.
The transitional state of a long journey has always seemed to me the most romantic and magical of places to find yourself in; marooned in a cozy pod of your own thoughts, suspended in midair, traveling through a wad of silent, blank pages between two chapters.
― Dolly Alderton, Everything I Know About LoveI gave almost all of my energy away to other people when no one had asked it of me.
― Dolly Alderton, Everything I Know About Love
This coming-of-age memoir follows the unexpected story of when the author, Dolly, met and started the longest and most meaningful relationship of her life with her childhood friend Farly. Growing up in the London suburbs, Dolly and Farly were inseparable. When Dolly eventually went off to boarding school at sixteen, she and Farly remained close and visited on another frequently. They both went to Exeter together, as they refused to be separated for the next grand adventure of their lives, and quickly folded in a group of outrageous women into a close-knit friend cohort.
Post-university, Dolly struggled while Farly met the man who eventually became her husband. Learning to share her best friend led to some bitter fights between the two of them. Dolly knew that eventually one or both of them might pair off, but she couldn’t understand why, at twenty-two, Farly would move onto the next step so early in their lives when they had so much more to do before they settled down.
I DNF’d this at sixty percent. I kept picking it up because it was easy to consume in small chunks. However, it was a way to kill time. Nothing sucked me in. So many of the stories were repetitive. It was a classic story of someone wanting to party constantly and never grow up. This type of memoir could be interesting but the author’s self-destructive tendencies overshadowed the eventual life lessons.
Half of the time, the stories were brilliant. Even though it was difficult for me to relate to the main character, I enjoyed reading about the shenanigans she and her friends got up to. Perhaps it’s because of where I am in my life now, but reading about their escapades was exhausting. Additionally, many of the chapters were clearly filler, with epistolary chapters addressing a group of mismatched dinner guests, pranks to ex-boyfriends via text message, and various lists spread over several pages.
CW for alcoholism and disordered eating.
