132,957
edits
Changes
no edit summary
{{infoboxinfobox1
|title=Be Mine
|author=Laura Kasischke
|date=June 2007
|isbn=978-0330449281
|amazonukcover=<amazonuk>0330449281</amazonuk>|amazonusaznuk=0330449281|aznus=<amazonus>0151012733</amazonus>
}}
On Valentine's Day, Sherry receives a mysterious note from an anonymous admirer. ''Be Mine'' it says. Nothing more, just that offer (or threat?): ''Be Mine''. Not used to such attentions, Sherry shrugs it off, and even takes it home to show her husband, where they laugh over what sorry soul might have sent it. But, when Valentine's Day is over, and the notes continue, the couple get more intrigued and become entrapped in a game of Guess Who, trying to establish the identity of the notes' writer. And, with her husband's confusing approval, Sherry starts to pursue the person who they think is the culprit.
At first I though the story was going to be so predictable it would make me cringe. Everything seemed to be pointing to a certain person being the author of those notes - there were a couple of characters who initially seemed to be there just so one of them could be the culprit and the other a red herring, but as the story progresses, there are twists you could just not imagine, turns you could never predict, and an ending which is shocking yet delicious.
I love books like this. It is beautifully written, with so many threads to it it feels like a tapestry, especially when you note how the unraveling of one leads to the tugging on another. The interwoven, overlapping nature of all Sherry's relationships - with her husband, her son, her students, her colleagues, her neighbours, herself - is complex but not unbearably so, and not in a way that makes the story impossible to follow. I like the way all aspects of the book are balanced, so instead of being an erotic novel, or a mystery book, or some chick lit piece, it manages to be all of these things. The language used and is enough to make me urge you to read the book before watching the film which is no doubt already on its way. This book reminded me of [[''The Abortionist's Daughter]] '' which I would also highly recommend, and it's interesting to me that neither that nor this were the respective US authors' first novels, just the first to get wide publicity in the UK.
Ultimately, this is a book about fantasies, and what happens when a fantasy becomes a reality, and though nothing may beat your own personal fantasies, reading about someone else's can come a close second.