Weekend Reading: Eleanor and Park

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March 9, 2015

It took me a couple of weeks to get through Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell. There were so many parts in it that made me stop and stare into space. Thinking. Remembering. Feeling.

Like when Eleanor and Park are talking about comic books and mention Dazzler and I remember “Hey! I read Dazzler comics when I was a teenager. She was one of the X-Men?”

And when Eleanor and her family go to the grocery store and her mom buys them all day-old cream horns and I’m like “Wow. I remember the super poor days of heading straight for the cheap day-old pastry section of the grocery store bakery.”

Thinking, “Hey! Wasn’t that Smiths song ‘How Soon Is Now’ the theme song for Charmed?”

Speaking of music, that line:

“There was something about the music on that tape. It felt different. Like, it set her lungs and her stomach on edge. There was something exciting about it, and something nervous. It made Eleanor feel like everything, like the world, wasn’t what she’d thought it was. And that was a good thing. That was the greatest thing.”

Yes!

Thinking about those moments where you see someone you really like and you want to say something but so much has happened between you and things got so weird and you’re young and self-conscious and don’t know what to say so you don’t say anything. And you kind of regret it for the rest of your life.

Feeling how important it is to find just that one person to make your miserable existence bearable, that one person who brings spark and joy to your life, and the outside affirmation that you’re special and wonderful and needed. And if you don’t find that, you’re screwed.

So, yeah. A couple of weeks. Thinking. Remembering. Feeling.