“I told him a story of two people. Two people who shouldn’t have met, and who didn’t like each other much when they did, but who found they were the only two people in the world who could possibly have understood each other.”
Written by Jojo Moyes, with such vivid parlance and harrowing words that will make your heart bleed and soak in your tears, Me Before You is a novel about two people who are poles apart.
Lou Clark and Will Traynor.
Lou is a twenty six year old woman who lost her job and found herself with an opportunity to care for Will, a young quadriplegic who had been in a rather tragic motorcycle accident that has led to him being crippled.
The closest word to why their paths crossed at this very time, inspite of never meeting each other at any time in all those years that they had spent growing up in their tiny hometown, may be happenstance or to simply put it, fate.
They meet each other when one requires stability whereas, the other needs a breath of fresh air. Two very unlikely people, one who’s ambitious, confident, shrewd, mercurial, someone who loved to live upon the edge of life, but has now lost the will to live on; the other, facile, apprehensive, compassionate, unassuming, lively, someone who loved to live in her comfort zone and never step out of it; but now, has no other choice but to do so..
Lou paints hues upon to Will’s canvas and he in turn, pumps adrenaline into her veins.
The decision to end one’s own life is looked upon in this book and the freedom of choice to decide for yourself, is one of the things Jojo Moyes has emphasised upon in Me Before You.
Though the entire book rides upon Will’s final decision, characters like Will’s mother, Camilla Traynor and Lou’s sister, Treena Clark play secondary roles to show us more insight upon both of their familial lives and how some events that have occurred had imprinted upon them thus, making them the people who they are today.
The last part of the book that entails something very important is what shows the beauty of their relationship. How he had learnt to love that much and how she realised that her path needs to tread away from the mundane, for it was high time she learnt to live, once again.
If you want to read something heartbreakingly poignant and something that helps you move on from whatever you’re struggling with in your life, this is the book for you. For it allows you to think for yourself, to let yourself dream, to create a comfort zone for yourself yet to remember to step out of it when required, to understand who you are, what is it that you want, what you yearn for, to learn your own interests, your likes, dislikes, your ambitions, goals, your relationships inside and outside your bubble, which is nothing but, your life.
[Review by Srreya K.]
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