Ten Things I Learnt About Love by Sarah Butler(Picador)

There are many things I have learnt about love; things that usually have me hating men or hating myself – so nothing really positive in some of my experiences. 

During the weeks of final honours assignment, I clung to this book like it was the life force of my literary mind, something to stop my mind from completely dissolving into oblivion and costing sheets.

Sarah Butler takes you like a naughty school child and drags you through London, your eyes wide with wonder – and looking through the window into someone else’s life, she shows you a way you’d never 1) see London 2) see characters.

We meet Alice in the doorway of her dying father’s room, as she clings to the bits of a resented childhood full of blame and guilt. After losing her mother, Alice is forced back home after years of running from a failed relationship, and – in some ways – a failed family.

Sliced between Alice’s hardships of dealing with death and her sisters, we meet Daniel – a tramp.  Daniel is searching for his daughter; a daughter he has never met and knows exists.

Now I wish I could tell you that Sarah Butler waves her magic wand and all is well in the world of book – but alas, books that deal with tragedy always win.  Books like these are far and few – good thing too, because you’d find me clinging to my Father’s leg weeping for days on end, and what use would I be then. 

I loved this – for those who want to fall in love with books, read this.

10 things i learnt about reading while reading ten things i’ve learnt about love by Sarah Butler

1.    I love reading – more for what I can take away from the book than the actual experience

2.    I’ll give this book to every reader I know

3.    If I wrote a book, it would have to be like this one

4.    I want a finished copy of this book

5.    Sarah Butler should write something else – I want more

6.    Alice is the most self deprecating character I know.

7.    I wouldn’t have stayed like she did

8.    Daniel needs a bath – I could smell him off the pages

9.    I am grateful for my Dad, even though he irritates me with wild notions and bad jokes

10.    I’ll read this again next year

Read more of Kelly's reviews over at her blog.

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