Stupid kids in love
A friend offered the book to me with a warning about the silly content. I tried anyway and now I regret for such a waste of time! First, because love stories are not my taste. Second, because the characters and background could not be more stereotypical: a troubled girl with an Asian looking boy (by the way, he is into martial arts, it couldn't be more stereotypical) both meeting in the bus, hating each other at the first moment, but falling in love at the second. Eleanor and Park...ha! Surprise surprise!
Eleanor is the only reason why I finished the book, I felt sorry for her all the time. She had such a miserable life without asking for it. And, indeed, if you are a reader with the minimum of empathy, you would feel the same. She is the hook! While Park is an ordinary kid with ordinary family and ordinary thoughts, nothing further.
It made me remember how unrealistic, exaggerated, superficial and fragile the concept of love is when we are young and inexperienced (some people refuse to overcome this phase). What did I learn from that? Two new words for my English vocabulary: aisle and porch.
Youngs, 80ties, new wave, love, broken hearts and tragedy seems to be the formula for teenagers' books to become best sellers. After watching the movie "The fault in our stars" and the series "13 reasons why", "Eleanor and Park" looks like a déjà vu.
"aisle"
a passage between rows of seats in a building such as a church or theater, an airplane, or a train
i.e. "Here it comes the stupid kid though the aisle!"
"porch"
a covered shelter projecting in front of the entrance of a building.
i.e. "In the US one might have so much space to build a house that one can even build a porch in front of it"
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