Today I welcome TLC Book Tours back to The Book Binder’s Daughter with a novel by David Nicholls which was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize. I invite you to read my review, learn a bit about the author and visit the other stops on the book tour.
My Review:
This story is funny, sad, heartwarming and frustrating all at the same time. Douglas Petersen’s life is ordered, and organized and drama free. He is, after all, a bio-chemist and he approaches his life with the precision of a scientist. When he meets Connie Moore, an artist who is his exact opposite in every way, he falls in love and wants nothing more than to settle down into a well-ordered domestic life with her. But he quickly learns that life can be messy. Very, very messy.
Despite their differences and some serious obstacles, Connie and Douglas manage to stay together for 25 years and raise a son named Albie. One day, just before Albie is about to leave for college, Connie wakes Douglas up in the middle of the night and announces that their marriage has run it’s course and she wants to leave.
About half of the book is taken up with Douglas’ musings and reminiscence about how he met Connie, their early years of marriage and their foray into parenthood. Douglas is not sure where things went wrong in their marriage, but he truly believes that for many years they were happy. I felt, at many times throughout his flashbacks, that he was much more devoted to Connie than she was to him. It bothered me, for instance, that Douglas proposed to her in Venice, but it took her three months to finally say yes while he waited patiently for an answer. He didn’t give her an ultimatum, he didn’t bring it up constantly, he simply waited.
The Book Binder's Daughter 