Name: Room on the Sea
Rating: 3.625 (4 reviews)

André Aciman

Room on the Sea

“We are, all of us, little lava lamps”

I adored this book, from the writing style and beautiful atmosphere to the characters. It’s a fleeting story of loved and missed opportunities, lives lived on different paths. Reminiscent of the brief romance in Bridges of Madison County, one of my favourite books, it’s sometimes the shorter books on love that hit the hardest. I love Aciman’s approach to the small beauties in this book, the little moments that are so calmly yet poignantly observed. It’s a love letter to making the most of the little things and to taking the opportunities that come your way. 

Beth Bartholomew

“We are, all of us, little lava lamps”

I adored this book, from the writing style and beautiful atmosphere to the characters. It’s a fleeting story of loved and missed opportunities, lives lived on different paths. Reminiscent of the brief romance in Bridges of Madison County, one of my favourite books, it’s sometimes the shorter books on love that hit the hardest. I love Aciman’s approach to the small beauties in this book, the little moments that are so calmly yet poignantly observed. It’s a love letter to making the most of the little things and to taking the opportunities that come your way. 

Thank you to Faber & Faber for allowing me access to a free review copy via NetGalley, I greatly appreciate the opportunity.

I absolutely adored the writing of this novella! As someone who loves reading books with a heavy literary, character-driven feel, this was right up my alley. The romance in this story felt quiet, quaint, and it was something that gently followed you throughout rather than something that hit you in the face, and to me that was beautiful. 

I found the exploration of these characters to be quite thought provoking, and the decision to make them older, close to retirement aged, was a perfect decision to explore the themes and emotions that this novella dealt with.

I found the characters to be perfectly flawed, and incredibly human. For only 176 pages, I found Catherine and Paul to be very well crafted and compelling to read about. The way they dealt with nostalgia, yearning, the pain of 'what-if's and the missed opportunities of their pasts hit me right in the chest, and despite not having lived nearly as long as the characters in the book, I felt myself understanding and sympathising with the feeling. 

It has taken a me a few days to write this review, and I still find myself thinking back on it trying to understand more, whether I want to or not.

Now, perhaps you are wondering why my rating for this is 3.5 when I have had nothing but stellar things to say. That is because, despite my love for the characters and the writing, I absolutely despise infidelity as a main theme. Both of these characters are married, have been for years, have children and grandchildren and are willing to risk that for a stranger.

While I believe that it is natural for long term marriages and relationships as a whole to lose the spark, and it is incredibly normal for people in these places to stop being in love with their spouse and rather hold a general feeling of love for the years they spent together, I do not believe there is any excuse or reason to cheat. I understand this is a story, and that it is not true in this case, but it is just something I could not move past because after spending your life with someone, it baffles me to think that these characters did not have the decency or respect to communicate with their respective spouses about their problems. I just could not wrap my head around it, and it held me back from enjoying the novella as much as I could have if it simply followed two older people finding love again later in life.

Overall, a very beautifully crafted and well written book, especially for being so short, it was just not my cup of tea in terms of plot.

iris may

Thank you to Faber & Faber for allowing me access to a free review copy via NetGalley, I greatly appreciate the opportunity.

I absolutely adored the writing of this novella! As someone who loves reading books with a heavy literary, character-driven feel, this was right up my alley. The romance in this story felt quiet, quaint, and it was something that gently followed you throughout rather than something that hit you in the face, and to me that was beautiful. 
I found the exploration of these characters to be quite thought provoking, and the decision to make them older, close to retirement aged, was a perfect decision to explore the themes and emotions that this novella dealt with.

I found the characters to be perfectly flawed, and incredibly human. For only 176 pages, I found Catherine and Paul to be very well crafted and compelling to read about. The way they dealt with nostalgia, yearning, the pain of 'what-if's and the missed opportunities of their pasts hit me right in the chest, and despite not having lived nearly as long as the characters in the book, I felt myself understanding and sympathising with the feeling. 
It has taken a me a few days to write this review, and I still find myself thinking back on it trying to understand more, whether I want to or not.

Now, perhaps you are wondering why my rating for this is 3.5 when I have had nothing but stellar things to say. That is because, despite my love for the characters and the writing, I absolutely despise infidelity as a main theme. Both of these characters are married, have been for years, have children and grandchildren and are willing to risk that for a stranger.

While I believe that it is natural for long term marriages and relationships as a whole to lose the spark, and it is incredibly normal for people in these places to stop being in love with their spouse and rather hold a general feeling of love for the years they spent together, I do not believe there is any excuse or reason to cheat. I understand this is a story, and that it is not true in this case, but it is just something I could not move past because after spending your life with someone, it baffles me to think that these characters did not have the decency or respect to communicate with their respective spouses about their problems. I just could not wrap my head around it, and it held me back from enjoying the novella as much as I could have if it simply followed two older people finding love again later in life.

Overall, a very beautifully crafted and well written book, especially for being so short, it was just not my cup of tea in terms of plot.

Room on the Sea

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