*This review contains ~light~ spoilers.

“Now I understand it’s how boys are raised to think, how they are lured into adulthood. I’ve met ambitious women, driven women, but no woman has ever told me that greatness was her destiny” (King 232).

I didn’t know what to think about this book before I read it. Truly it was one of those books that I’ve seen so many times I think I know what it’s about and then I read the synopsis and realize I have no clue. I even helped a friend choose a book for book club, put this very book on the list, and then as I was reading it was pleasantly surprised to see that it took place in Cambridge/Brookline/Boston area. I went back to the cover flap to reread it and it literally NAMES Cambridge, Massachusetts and Harvard square in the first two sentences. Needless to say, even as I started this book I did not know what to expect. I just knew that, if Instagram and Goodreads were any indication, everyone and their mother had read this book and they all loved it. Now I feel like I’m part of the club because honestly I really loved this book as well.

So incase you are like me and think you know what this book is about but actually don’t: Writers and Lovers is about Casey Peabody, a thirty-one year old writer and waitress trying to write her first novel. She has recently lost her mother, moved to a tiny room in Brookline and gotten a job at a restaurant in Harvard Square. She’s facing this tension in her day to day life where she feels this compulsion to write and finish her novel, but she is also fearful of the instability she faces as a waitress with no health insurance or stable income. She often wonders if she is doing the right thing. Still, she seems to enjoy the way working at the restaurant exhausts her body and her mind most days. Personally, I loved how both jobs added to the pacing of the book—they way you could feel the speed and movement in the pages where she’s working at the restaurant, how the rhythm of the kitchen and the dining room and the bar all helped momentarily quell her anxieties about life and writing. I enjoyed how this compared to moments with her novel, where she’s slower, more deliberate and contemplative.

Ultimately this is a book about relationships—both romantic and platonic. Yes the story follows two of Casey’s romantic relationships that the cover flap states she starts with “two very different men at the same time.” But it is also about the dynamic between the staff at the restaurant, her strained relationship with her father, and her friendship with Muriel. Honestly I was so pleased at how her relationship with Muriel played out. I think part of me thought there would be some sort of animosity or drama because they are both writers and women but they just like truly love each others novels so much and UUHHH it’s just what I needed to see.

While Casey certainly finds comfort in some aspects of her romantic relationships, I thought there were some real aha-moments—for both her character and me as a reader— about how differently men and women are raised to see themselves.

“Nearly every guy I’ve dated believed they should already be famous, believed that greatness was their destiny and they were already behind schedule. An early moment of intimacy often involved a confession of this sort: a childhood vision, teacher’s prophesy, a genius IQ. At first, with my boyfriend in college, I believed it, too. Later, I thought I was just choosing delusional men. Now I understand it’s how boys are raised to think, how they are lured into adulthood. I’ve met ambitious women, driven women, but no woman has ever told me that greatness was her destiny” (King 232).

This moment of realization is really vital for Casey. It helps her begin to articulate the frustration she feels, both as a women in the world and as a writer who has been told by her asshole landlord “I just find it extraordinary that you think you have something to say” (2).

I consumed this book so fast, and though I sort of knew what was going to happen at a certain point I was still a bit heartbroken—not in a way that I thought things should have been different, but in a ~life is complicated and just hurts sometimes even when it’s good and right and beautiful~ type of way. And even though I didn’t date any of these characters, the moment when Casey thinks “I’ve forgotten what gets revealed right after you break up with someone” really made me feel some type of way. Relationships can feel so intense and all in and intimate, but the second they stop the dynamic can change instantly. I know it’s not quite the same, but I kind of liken it to when someone’s really sweet to you at a bar until you tell them you have a boyfriend or you don’t want to dance with them and all the sudden you’re a slut or ugly or insert any other insult.

But I digress! This book clearly made me feel some feelings and I would whole heartedly recommend it. The last thing I’ll say is the book takes place in 1977 and there’s a lovely reference to her friend scribbling on a photo of Kenn Starr in the newspaper.

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