Jojo Moyes

The Girl You Left Behind

/ Rebekahrox / 1 Comment

By Jojo Moyes

“Conned any other women out of their valuables lately ?” she says quietly, so quietly that only he will hear it.
“Nope. I’ve been too busy stealing handbags and seducing the vulnerable.”
Her head shoots up and his eyes lock on hers. He is, she sees with some shock, as furious as she is.”

**spoilers**

As well-written and compelling as some parts of this book were, it took me well over a month to get through it. I chose to do other things rather than return to it. I looked at a lot of movies and some TV series. Plus Christmas. But the main reason was that I was just so utterly disgusted by the behavior and choices of the present-day main character in the novel, Liv. And her travails take up most of the book. I just wanted to avoid her because she just made me mad. The story of the WWI character, Sophie, was very tense and involving throughout her story. But I felt like she was on a path that was as disastrous as it was inevitable. So I can’t say I enjoyed it, exactly. I cared about her greatly, and we leave her at a cliffhanger in her life to begin the modern-day half of the story. Not my favorite device. On the whole, I can recommend the book because although the last part of the book was dragged out, it ended well and with a surprising game-changing appearance at the end. The unsurprising long-suspected truth about the provenance of a painting that links the past with the present is dramatically and touchingly revealed.

In this dual timeframe plot, we begin in a small village in France during WWI. We follow Sophie LeFevre who, with her family, runs an inn that has been taken over by the German occupiers. Her beloved husband, a talented artist is a prisoner of war. The powerful Kommandant is a refined gentleman and art lover who covets Sophie’s husband’s painting of her that hangs in the Inn. And it becomes evident that he also covets Sophie.

Part two is set in 2006 London. The painting, The Girl You Left Behind, now hangs in a young widow’s house which was designed by her husband, a brilliant and famous young architect. Liv cherishes the beautiful painting for its own sake but also because her husband David gave it to her on their honeymoon. Reclusive Liv is still grieving David after 4 years and knows she must get on with her life, but seems incapable of doing so. We also are introduced to Paul, who is a lawyer specializing in returning stolen Nazi art to their rightful heirs. Liv meets Paul, also a single father, when he chivalrously rescues her from an embarrassing situation. They are attracted to each other and Liv is continually struck by what a kind and good man he is. Thanks to Paul, Liv starts to come out of her shell and live again. On Paul and Liv’s first night together he sees her painting hanging in her bedroom and is shocked to the core. It is the same painting he and his company have been trying to locate for their clients, the descendants of the artist, Sophie’s husband. What follows is a court case with Paul and the heirs on one side and Liv on the other. Her lawyers are non-entities who we don’t get to know. This was one reason that the courtroom drama which should have been compelling, wasn’t.

As I mentioned, Liv all but ruined the book for me. She is determined to keep the painting because it’s hers, god damn it. Her husband bought it in good faith and she loves it. She doesn’t care that all signs indicate that it had been stolen from the artist’s family during World War I and was probably also caught up in the Nazis’ evil web of stolen art during WWII. The family understandably wants the painting, now worth millions, back. Liv irrationally blames Paul treating him like a criminal who is trying to rob her of her painting instead of a good guy trying to do an honorable job. Her behavior to him was just shabby and made no sense. Until near the end of the book, that is, when she decides she needs a booty call. That over, she turns on him again. She will not see reason from anyone who has her best interests at heart and in fighting the family’s claim, loses her house, her friends, her reputation, and most sadly, her dead husband’s legacy and reputation. I kept hoping for growth, change, and wisdom to descend on her from the blue, but was continually disappointed.

When she finally has somewhat of an epiphany (pretty much out of nowhere), it is too little too late. When the true story of the painting comes out thanks only to noble Paul’s heroic efforts, it leads to the revelation that Liv has been in the right all along. Not in her actions and decisions, but only by happenstance and luck. In the end, she gets her totally undeserved happy ending.

What rescues the book plot-wise is that we finally learn what became of Sophie and her adored Edouard. But it’s kind of like a bone the reader is thrown. Even the most potentially fascinating detective work at the end is skipped over even while the mystery leading up to the climax is drawn out way too long. The positives were just not outweighed by the pain, injustice, and sadness in the story.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

One Plus One

/ Rebekahrox / 2 Comments

by Jojo Moyes

This is the story of a family who didn’t fit in. A little girl who was a bit geeky and liked maths more than makeup. And a boy who liked makeup and didn’t fit into any tribes.

“I worked it all out in the bath. I’ve been blathering to the kids all these years about how if you look out for people and do the right thing it will all be okay. Don’t steal. Don’t lie. Do the right thing. Somehow the universe will see you right. Well, it’s all bullshit, isn’t it? Nobody else thinks that way.”

Needless to say, this was well-written. The plot was engaging and kept me in a state of suspense and anticipation. Truthfully, even dread at a few points. But that was because I really cared about the characters and I knew that all would not go smoothly for them before what I expected to be a happy ending, with good rewarded and bad punished. At a certain point, I thought the worst had happened, and I relaxed and just enjoyed the wonderful characters, the humor, and how they dealt with their challenges. And even though bad things kept happening (contemptible Marty! The Fishers!), I was OK with it, because everything else was so good, and sometimes it’s worse waiting for the bad than actually being in the middle of it. The story is told from the perspectives of the 4 protagonists.

Jess is a bravely optimistic single mother with a strong moral compass and who is always determined to do the right thing.

She seemed to bounce through life like Tigger; the things that would have felled most people didn’t seem to touch her. Or if she did fall, she bounced right back. She fell again, plastered on a smile, dusted herself down and kept going

She has been abandoned by her useless husband Marty who is living with his mother and dealing with depression. She is fine with that and doesn’t bother him for money or the support she is owed because she knows about depression and that he is jobless anyway. She is caring for Nicky, his 17-year-old son with a drug addict mother, and her own child with him, 10-year-old Tanzie. Nicky is somewhat of a misfit of the goth variety and doesn’t fit in at school, or anywhere really except perhaps in his online gaming community. Tanzie is fine socially and at school. We suspect that Nicky is pretty smart, but we know Tanzie is. She has just been offered a scholarship to an elite school in which she will thrive by virtue of her genius for Math. The scholarship will cover 90% of her tuition, and they really want her. Unfortunately, Jess, who works two jobs just to not keep up with basic expenses can’t even afford to pay the 10% difference. The family is desperate for Tanzie to take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity both because of what it will mean for her future, and out of fear of the neighborhood school she will have to go to if she can’t get in. Nicky is being cruelly victimized by some of the locals who go there and they already have their eye on Tanzie. There is a lot at stake, but there is hope. Jess learns of a Math Olympiad with a prize of 15,000 pounds for the winner. It will cover Tanzie’s tuition for a year and Jess knows that if she can just get Tanzie to Aberdeen Scotland to compete, victory and the prize money are in the bag.

Meanwhile, we meet Ed, whom Jess cleans house for. He is a tech wizard who has made a fortune with his company. He is socially awkward and somewhat of a geek, although pretty good-looking now that he can afford to be. I love an unconventional hero. He has his own problems having inadvertently got caught up in an insider trading scheme. He is possibly facing prison and the bad publicity when it all comes out threatens to tank his company. He needs to get out of the public eye and get out of town. Through a series of unlikely events, the four join forces to get Tanzie to Scotland to win the 15,000 pound prize.

Their adventures on the road are by turns comical, heart-tugging, suspenseful, and even shocking. I was all in and loved Jess and her little family. Unfortunately the same cannot be said about my feelings for Ed, with whom the kids bond with and with whom Jess falls in love. It was a shame really because in many ways, he was a sympathetic, even admirable, and lovable character at times who grows quite a bit in the course of the novel. But I could not forgive his behavior towards his dying father, his mother, and his sister (another great character). He refuses to visit them, fighting his sister all the way, for over half the book. His excuse is that he is trying to protect them from the impending scandal of his trial. But I didn’t buy this seemingly reasonable excuse. He was just cowardly and embarrassed. It was a relief when he finally saw the light and made things right in that regard.

Because in that one moment, Ed Nicholls saw that he had been more like Marty than he was like Jess. He had been that coward who spent his life running from things rather than facing up to them. And that had to change.

But his mother’s and father’s hearts had already been broken again and again and his sister enraged by his selfishness.
All was forgiven, but for me, it was too little too late. Some things cannot be fixed by an apology. And no sooner than I get over that, he turns on Jess and the kids. Yes, Jess screws up and, for once, does something she knows is wrong. But in the same way that Jean Valjean was wrong to steal a loaf of bread to feed his starving nephew and sister. Despite the fact that it all came right at the end, I just felt so much hostility towards Ed for his attitude and behavior that it almost ruined the book for me. But you know, if Jess is happy, then I’m happy.

Come to think of it, the same thing happened with a main character in the other Jojo Moyes book I read. She made me hate a character only to have a character I loved just forgive them. Does she do that with every book? No matter. The book was saved by the wonderfulness of all of the rest of the characters, the bravest and bestest dog in the world, and “the kindness of strangers.”

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Someone Else’s Shoes

/ Rebekahrox / 1 Comment

By Jojo Moyes

She steps forward and makes to touch Nisha’s arm. Nisha immediately snaps it away. She does not like to be touched at the best of times, least of all by someone showing visible sympathy.

Nisha nods, dumbly. Jasmine stops and reaches into her bag. Nisha stares at her. She does not want to take money from this woman, with her catalog-quality jacket and cheap trainers. She does not want to think of herself as poorer than this.

Sam knows that if she stays at home she will either have to sit with Phil in the dead-aired, enervating living room, or start one of the 148 tasks that need doing in the house that everyone else seems to believe are her responsibility. If she does this, she will be seething, her rage barely suppressed, within minutes. And then she will hate herself for it, because depression is no one’s fault.

I’ve been curious to read a “#1 New York Times best-selling author of Me Before You Jojo Moyes,” novel as her women’s fiction is so popular and lauded. But none of the descriptions of her books appealed to me until this one, In Someone Else’s Shoes. Certainly not Me Before You where the hero (spoiler alert LOL) commits suicide in the end. Nope, not for me. Anyway, This one seemed right up my alley.

The book concerns two women whose personalities and lives are as different as night and day but whose fates collide when their two gym bags are exchanged by accident. Nisha, an American, has lived a life of wealth and privilege married to Carl for the last 18 years. It all comes to an abrupt halt on the day she loses her gym bag containing her custom-made Christian Louboutin shoes. On that same day, she suddenly learns her husband is divorcing her. He has ruthlessly locked her out of her penthouse, cut off her credit cards, and basically leaves her to fend for herself on the streets of London with no money, friends, or any other resources other than her wits. The Louboutin shoes are now in the hands of Sam, a low-level account manager for a marketing firm. She is basically a willing drudge and doormat whose boss bullies her unmercifully. Her husband Phil suffers from clinical depression brought on by the death of his father and subsequent job loss. He is totally useless and I unsympathetically hated him almost to the end. Sorry. These are two very unhappy women. And no, neither one of them is very likable at the beginning of their stories. But I’m used to reading about the hard journeys of women who start out as one thing and end up as another. And I had read enough about this book to know they both triumph in the end, become better people and all of their enemies get their comeuppances. But boy, those journeys were hard indeed. Even though it is funny and fascinating and we eventually can’t help but root for them, there was very little light to be had at the end of the tunnel. At times, there wasn’t even a tunnel. But friends (a new concept for Nisha) start appearing and much of the joy and reward of this book comes when the two women and their loyal entourages meet and start to work together to get Nisha her “settlement” and reunite her with her beloved but fragile son stuck in a boarding school in New York. Their mission strangely rests on those red Christian Louboutins. Of course, along the way, Sam also finds her power (sometimes in spite of herself, frustratingly). Will justice be had as well?

It would have been fine with me if some of the sufferings, which got to be a little old and repetitive, would have been cut down a bit. And yes there is at least one big and baffling lapse in the plot. But I can’t be too hard on Nisha for forgetting about that certain something when I forgot about it right with her. And I’m glad Sam was happy at the end but I don’t think I could have gotten over such struggles so quickly. I thought I was looking at a 4-star book all things considered (No surprise, it is very well written). Until the end. The resolution was so twisty, so clever, so satisfying, so complete, and so intricately and perfectly done that I have to give the book 5 stars. I was also moved to tears at Nisha’s reunion with her son. I will take another look at some of Moyes’s books because of this one. Not Me Before You though. No Way.

Rating: 5 out of 5.