Me before you

So the book I took with me to read in the US was In the Light of what we Know by Zia Haider Rahman. This is a pretty heavy book, filled with mathematics and philosophy, life stories, the invasion in Iraq, and the areas where all these things meet. It is not a book you can easily read after say, hiking in 40 degrees Celsius and driving 300 kilometers on single-lane roads through the desert. Or on a nine hour flight sandwiched between a chatty Scotsman who will fall asleep on your knees (seriously...) and a ten year old French girl who will fall asleep on your shoulder.
So I decided to get something a bit lighter, both in content and in weight, and I ended up buying the film edition of Me before you. This was partly based on sentimental value, as we saw the film while we were in the US, and partly on the fact that the Barnes&Nobles was huge and I had really no idea where to begin.
Me before you is a romantic novel by any standard. One could even call it a chick flick, as it is aimed at chicks, and you can flick through it in a day without ever feeling the need to put it down to digest its contents. It is the unlikely story of poor girl from working class family goes to work as a caregiver for a handsome rich guy who has been paralysed from the neck down in a traffic accident. And of course, they clash, they fight, they hate each other, until inevitably they fall in love. As Disney already taught us years ago:

Tale as old as time
True as it can be
Barely even friends
Then somebody bends
Unexpectedly

Just a little change
Small to say the least
Both a little scared
Neither one prepared
Beauty and the beast

Ever just the same
Ever a surprise
Ever as before and
Ever just as sure
As the sun will rise

Funny, as that is exactly how it is (really, Disney movies tell you all you need to know about life). Even after watching the movie, you feel a tinge of fear; will they realise what they mean to each other? Why are they so blind? Why are they so stubborn? And then the sigh of relief when it all works out.
Only in this case, it doesn't really work out. He is still paralysed, and in pain, and completely unable to accept his new life. And without spoilering the end for you, this is a very interesting film to watch in a southern US state, where some things are a lot less accepted than here in the Netherlands.

Anyway, why am I droning on about this fluff novel when I usually write about the Great Literary Works? Because it was fun. I read most of it in a single day (technically longer, as during that day I went through 9 timezones, so let's put it at 24 hours). Not only because I did not need to put it down, I did not want to. It is a great read, even though you can clearly see all the suspense and cliffhanger tricks that Dan Brown and others are so fond of putting in their novels too. This is great writing on a whole other level, but that doesn't make it any less great. And I could snobbishly look down on it, but why bother? It's not like 'Literature' is so much better or wholesome than novels like these. Looking at how many people read them, one could argue that these novels are culturally far more important. And where The Great Literary Novel teaches you something about all aspects of life, these novels teach you something about dreams coming true, and love, and still believing in all those Disney fairy tales of long ago.
So yeah, read it. You will cry, I promise you that.
In the meantime, I have just bought the sequel, which is probably just rush job to cash in on the movie success. And won't read it straight away, because you can only take so much light stuff before you need something you can really get your teeth into again. But whenever I feel the need for some light, improbable romance, it will be ready and waiting.