My Book Hangover

I haven't had one of these in ages. Not since my stint with the Harry Potter series. But last night I stayed up until 1:34 a.m. just so that I could find out what happened next in Marisa De Los Santos's Love Walked In. My friend Courtney, who has impeccable book taste, sent me this one in the fall and said that I absolutely had to read it. That I would love it. My only excuse for not staying up reading it at all hours sooner is that there is a devastating scene in one of the early chapters. The book has two narrators: thirty-one year old Cornelia who drops out of her PhD English program (hello, can I relate or what?) and finds herself at loose ends, and eleven-year-old Clare, who watches her beautiful and once highly capable mother, Viviana, spin out of control in a very scary way. The latter is the reason I could not get into the book at first, but things have shifted for me over the last few months. For instance, I am totally engrossed in HBO's "The Wire," and if I can watch that scary show, I guess I can handle just about anything in fiction. So I returned to the book last night and exhausted myself in order to finish 3/4s of it. I still have 30 pages left which I plan on savoring this morning.
Reasons to read this book? Beautiful, witty people with lovely vocabularies populate it. Tons of references to old movies and movie stars and good literature. Unconventional love stories aplenty. I haven't read a book this fresh in awhile. Reminds me of "The Gilmore Girls," actually. The fun in that show was trying to keep up with all the literary references and witty banter, and so, too, with this book.

I am so tired I can barely string a sentence together about this one, but if I've turned you off with the Gilmore Girls references, I suppose I ought to mention that Cornelia also reminds me a little bit of Jay Gatsby, She is a fantastic dreamer. I need to get back to the book so that I can keep cheering her on.