'The Love of my Life' is the story of Olivia ('Liv'), who unexpectedly loses her Italian chef husband Luca in a car crash. Distraught with grief, Liv leaves London and returns to the Northern town where she and Luca grew up, even though she has no friends or family there - her mother has broken off all contact, and for some mysterious reason Luca's large Italian family the Fellicones are very unwelcoming. All, that is, except Luca's twin brother Marc, with whom Liv begins an impetuous affair at Luca's funeral, despite the fact that Marc is married with two young children, and that his wife Nathalie hates Liv. This affair continues and casts a shadow over Liv's life, even as she tries to settle into life in Waterford, taking a job as research assistant to a literature professor working on the town's one famous novelist, and making friends with Chris, the chef at the local cafe, and her colleague Jenny. And as Liv recalls her past, we begin to realize why the Fellicones hate Liv, and to realize that if the affair continues with Marc continues, it will be even more destructive than these things usually are...
I bought this novel on the advice of a review from the Bookbag site, where it was likened to Maggie O'Farrell's 'After You'd Gone'. Unfortunately, I found it markedly inferior, largely because Liv is for the most part so unlikeable. In the chapters dealing with her childhood and adolescence, she comes across as profoundly boring, silly and self-involved, with no real interests, and prepared to do anything (even have a fling with the husband of the woman for whom she babysits) to get attention. As an adult, it was amazing how quickly and with what little guilt she entered into the fling with Marc, even though she was still supposedly mourning her husband, and had good reasons not to hurt Marc's wife. Maybe Douglas was making the point that Liv's unhappy fatherless childhood had made her totally dependent on men in a rather clingy way - but if so she didn't make it clear enough, and Liv never really seemed to come to any greater self-knowledge. Nor did Douglas make quite enough of the fact that Liv couldn't have children, though this was an interesting idea to introduce. The other characters in the novel were rather colourless stereotypes: bossy Italian Mamma Angela ordering her sons around; her henpecked husband Maurizio; the nasty vengeful sister-in-law (in fact, Liv seemed to have been pretty hurtful to her, all things considered); the weak lecherous brother-in-law; Liv's cold, religious-fanatic mother (given to phrases such as 'I don't want to breathe the same air as you at the moment') and her creepy friend Mr Hensley. The more interesting characters, such as the Professor who Liv works for and Chris at the cafe felt under-used, and I'm not sure why Douglas didn't make more of Liv's work on the life of the local novelist Marian, which I'd thought would be a big part of the book - it really didn't play much of a role at all, which meant that the 'big revelation' at the end fell completely flat.
I also felt the book was somewhat clumsily put together. There were some unlikely plot developments. If Liv had left school at 16 and never bothered to get any other qualifications or skills, she would have been unlikely to rise high in the world of PR. I've never known someone drink gin AFTER wine rather than as an aperitif. If Liv was that much of an alcoholic, wouldn't she have shown more signs of it? Why did Liv want a university job if - as she said - she had no academic interests? And university professors advertising for research assistants usually do so among graduate students (who are often so much in need of experience that they'll work for free) or at least graduates, and would be unlikely to take on an unqualified woman with few literary interests. And in comparison to Douglas's later very gripping thrillers (including 'In Her Shadow' which I think I under-estimated) the novel really lacks plot: Liv's research work doesn't feature enough, her affair with Marc rambles on inconclusively and we never get much of a sense that she's come to any greater self-knowledge, that her grief process has developed in any way or that she's resolved her problems with Luca's family. This makes the book neither a particularly rewarding family saga, nor a very focussed observation of grief.
There are, it has to be said, some beautiful passages to the book, particularly Liv's memories of past happiness with Luca, and her enjoyment of her work. And I think Douglas should be applauded for not giving the book a straightforwardly happy ending - the final chapter was one of the best written bits. I also liked the 'black dog' images that recurred as a symbol for grief. All this hints at a writer of promise - but I didn't think the promise came to anything much in this book, which was in the end rather cliched and sentimental. Sorry to fans of this book - but I do believe in writing honest reviews!
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![The Love of My Life: A Heartbreaking Story of Love, Loss and Family by [Louise Douglas]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51RYvK9tZIL._SY346_.jpg)
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A heart wrenching tale which will take you through loss, sadness and hope, and every feeling in between.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 27 September 2015
When Liv was a teenager, she never fit in with her family, nor did she fit in with the Felicone family. After falling in love with Luca Felicone, Liv took the giant step of eloping to London with him, and in turn inadvertently burned any remaining bridges she might have had with her family-in-law.One miserable January night, Liv's exciting, love-filled life is torn apart when Luca is killed in a terrible car accident. Dripping with overwhelming sadness, Liv finds herself left with nothing and so moves back home to bury Luca. Remaining in the town where he lies, Liv finds herself a job working for a grumpy, old professor, and befriends a chef in a quiet café, who both might just help her more than she anticipates. Despite knowing she's not welcome, can Liv face the past and reconnect with Luca's remaining family? And when Liv and Luca's twin brother's painful loss draws them together into a secret affair, can the consequences really be that bad...?Let me just quickly warn you that if you are planning on reading this book, have some tissues handy. Louise Douglas does an amazing job of delving deep into your body, piercing your heart and yanking on each and every one of your heart strings. From the minute the protagonist said "I miss him with every breath and heartbeat" in the prologue, I felt the emotional butterflies rise in my chest.The narration flicks from present to past and back again throughout, and as you reveal bits of the past, the present seems to start falling together piece by piece like a puzzle. Each and every character in the book is well fleshed-out and extremely believable. Although the story is told through Liv's eyes, we get to see how not only she, but also the people around her, cope with their grief in their individual ways. As a reader, I found myself both loving and loathing the characters, though felt for each and every one of them as they dealt with the huge hole Luca left in their lives.Despite Liv's mistakes and wrong doing throughout the book (I mean, affairs alone are a big no-no, let alone an affair with the married brother of your deceased husband!), I could not help but like her. Whilst I truly felt heartbroken during the entire book, I also had faith that Liv would be happy again. I simply adored her relationships and interactions with the professor and the chef, and her warmth towards them emanated from the page and straight into my skin, causing me to become fully invested in both of these secondary, yet vital, characters.Aside from a few minors errors (which, by the way, didn't lessen my reading enjoyment in the slightest!), Louise Douglas's writing was perfect. It flowed beautifully and the story was pieced together seamlessly. The element of secrecy was there throughout as I watched the story unfold, and when everything was revealed bit by bit, I found all of my questions being answered and my curiosity satisfied. This was simply a beautiful story with a perfect ending in my opinion.Packed with deeply developed characters and plenty of emotional twists and turns, The Love of My Life is a heart wrenching tale which will take you through loss, sadness and hope, and every feeling in between. I can't wait to discover more of this author's work in the future, and hope she can evoke emotions from me time and time again.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 27 September 2015
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