Chuck and Joey meet in a bar. He’s in his mid-thirties; she’s twelve years younger. He’s long abandoned his ambition of becoming a novelist and now works as a copywriter at a big ad agency. 'Lead copywriter,' he corrects himself.
Joey lives paycheck to paycheck on her barista wages and privately dreams of making it as a poet. They go back to Chuck’s luxury flat—a world away from Joey’s cramped house-share, the crumbs in her bed. Soon, Joey’s imagining a future between them, and Chuck’s moving on from a major change in his recent past. Amazing, how meeting a new person can make you feel so new.
Two tortured, unlikable artists at different phases of giving up; one who left their dreams behind for a corporate job, and one still holding onto the bohemian mess of a barista/poet life.
Despite their very different lives, Joey and Chuck find something in each other that they need, even if they aren't really sure what that is yet. Both of them have fallen prey to the chaos of modern society in a different way, in different tax brackets and experiences - but underneath it all was two messy people, desperate for connection and searching for joy in a world that wants them to just work and consume.
Both of them were chaotic, lonely, flawed, sometimes toxic people trying to muddle their way through life and it made for a complex love//hate relationship with them both. The spotlight mostly followed Chuck (it is a parody of reality, after all) but the third person, fly on the wall narration still gave us a chance to get into both of their minds with a stream-of-consciousness, thoughtful flow.
It's a story with no real plot, no typical structure or clear conclusion - just a directionless snapshot of life that made it rather compelling. Sometimes this style really works for me, sometimes it doesn't; while this wasn't perfect for me and I found it somewhat unsatisfying (yes, life can be unsatisfying so it's a good choice) it's still brilliantly written and if you love those books that feel like a thought experiment, you'll love this one.
It explores the power imbalances within relationships, the way we each have our own perceptions of the same things - how a relationship can be everything to someone and nothing to someone else, and just how isolating and confusing modern love can be in an increasingly connected but lonely world.
This is an ode to the creators, artists and creatives - an essential story about human connection, the desperate need to find meaning and the impossibility of feeling fulfilled in a world that doesn't want you to be.
⭐⭐⭐
- IWYTBH will be available from 21st May from Faber & Faber. I received a reviewers copy of this title.
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