Jojo Moyes - Me before you
This book is about Louisa Clark who is Will Traynor’s carer. He’s a quadriplegic who wants to end his life in Switzerland. Lou tries to take his mind off the idea. This is a love story.
Spoiler-free review
At first I hated this book. Not because of the content itself, but because of the first impression I had of the characters. There’s this naive, sloppy woman who, at 26, has no clue what she wants to do with her life and this grumpy-ass sarcastic man in a wheelchair. I mean - come on; if you desperately need to fulfill any stereotypes, do it properly at least!
At some points, it was painfully obvious what was going to happen. The boyfriend that she didn’t love anymore (it was obvious from the start, when she talks about him having changed a lot) and said sarcastic guy in the wheelchair who would lose his shit after some 100 pages.
I had a few issues with this book that I want to share in this review. I feel there are so many stereotypes about people in wheelchairs and so many people thinking 'man, I feel so bad for this person because they can't do this and that' and therefore assuming that disabled persons feel bad for themselves if they lose their formerly abled body - like Will does, because he wasn't born a quadriplegic.
Then there's other people who use wheelchairs that seem to do things that surprise most of the able-bodied people. They think those disabled people are 'so brave' and 'so inspiring' because they do stuff that nobody would have believed them to be able to do. I know what I'm talking about, my boyfriend is in a wheelchair and sometimes when we go out there are people approaching us saying how lovely it is that we're a couple 'despite' his disability.
People in whelchairs do not do things 'despite' being in a wheelchair. They do those things - and they're in a whelchair. That last half-sentence is, of course, unneccessary.
They're normal people who learn to adapt to their circumstances - like everyone with an abled body does, too - but their circumstances are, in most cases, visible.
I didn't feel like Will was an adequate representative of disabled people. Of course, there are those that do not get on their feet again (yes, that pun is indeed intendet!) and keep being sarcastic all the time and bully the others around them. I have met such people.
So, all in all, I don't have a problem with his character but with the fact that this is the only piece of mainstream literature (that I know of) that has a disabled main character and - guess what - he's the grumpy type.
I wished for this book to have maybe another disabled character or a character in a wheelchair that is the complete opposite of Will. One disabled character doesn't make the book diverse, after all.
Nontheless, this book carries a meaningful message. It’s that our choices should belong to us. Wheter in life or concerning death. However much I hated the end, I liked the story that was told in general, how the potential suicide was handled. I was in favour of death-choices previously, but now that I read this book I am sure I did the right thing to believe in something like that, however much it can hurt.
(originally posted September 2015)
This book is about Louisa Clark who is Will Traynor’s carer. He’s a quadriplegic who wants to end his life in Switzerland. Lou tries to take his mind off the idea. This is a love story.
Spoiler-free review
At first I hated this book. Not because of the content itself, but because of the first impression I had of the characters. There’s this naive, sloppy woman who, at 26, has no clue what she wants to do with her life and this grumpy-ass sarcastic man in a wheelchair. I mean - come on; if you desperately need to fulfill any stereotypes, do it properly at least!
At some points, it was painfully obvious what was going to happen. The boyfriend that she didn’t love anymore (it was obvious from the start, when she talks about him having changed a lot) and said sarcastic guy in the wheelchair who would lose his shit after some 100 pages.
I had a few issues with this book that I want to share in this review. I feel there are so many stereotypes about people in wheelchairs and so many people thinking 'man, I feel so bad for this person because they can't do this and that' and therefore assuming that disabled persons feel bad for themselves if they lose their formerly abled body - like Will does, because he wasn't born a quadriplegic.
Then there's other people who use wheelchairs that seem to do things that surprise most of the able-bodied people. They think those disabled people are 'so brave' and 'so inspiring' because they do stuff that nobody would have believed them to be able to do. I know what I'm talking about, my boyfriend is in a wheelchair and sometimes when we go out there are people approaching us saying how lovely it is that we're a couple 'despite' his disability.
People in whelchairs do not do things 'despite' being in a wheelchair. They do those things - and they're in a whelchair. That last half-sentence is, of course, unneccessary.
They're normal people who learn to adapt to their circumstances - like everyone with an abled body does, too - but their circumstances are, in most cases, visible.
I didn't feel like Will was an adequate representative of disabled people. Of course, there are those that do not get on their feet again (yes, that pun is indeed intendet!) and keep being sarcastic all the time and bully the others around them. I have met such people.
So, all in all, I don't have a problem with his character but with the fact that this is the only piece of mainstream literature (that I know of) that has a disabled main character and - guess what - he's the grumpy type.
I wished for this book to have maybe another disabled character or a character in a wheelchair that is the complete opposite of Will. One disabled character doesn't make the book diverse, after all.
Nontheless, this book carries a meaningful message. It’s that our choices should belong to us. Wheter in life or concerning death. However much I hated the end, I liked the story that was told in general, how the potential suicide was handled. I was in favour of death-choices previously, but now that I read this book I am sure I did the right thing to believe in something like that, however much it can hurt.
(originally posted September 2015)
No comments:
Post a Comment