Amazing book. When reading, I had a hard time putting it down and at night I would rush home just to sit and read it. I’m usually never like this with books, so you know it must be good.
The ending is terribly sad, however, and makes me question a lot of things in life.
Friendship: People’s true colors shine through at times and sometimes, it’s not a pretty color. In the book, Anne helped her friend, Neely, achieve stardom but in the end Neely only thought of herself and took from Anne the one thing that meant the most to her. I’ve known people like this. I should probably be more forgiving of people, but I hold grudges and haven’t been able to stop this side of me. This is why I only have a small circle of close friends. I’d do anything for these friends and in turn, hope that they’d do anything for me.
Love: Anne runs away from every relationship that is safe and secure. She spends her whole life yearning to find true passionate love. And she does, in Lyon. In the end she gives up everyone that was always there for her and finally has Lyon to herself, or so she thinks. She eventually learns the truth and spends the rest of her marriage watching the man she loves cheat on her. Can you actually have both at the same time; safety and passion?
Life: Anne comes to New York to escape her mundane world in Lawrenceville. She falls in love with this city (who wouldn’t), but has no real goals or ambitions in life. She eventually makes it big and in the end is both famous and wealthy. But is she really happy? Does she even appreciate what she has? I don’t think so. And this is the problem with most people. You can have every that your neighbor is yearning for, and yet you don’t even know how lucky you are. Constantly searching for something more, we often forget to stop and appreciate what we do have.
