From the
BLURB:
When
Lauren and Ryan’s marriage reaches the breaking point, they come up with an
unconventional plan. They decide to take a year off in the hopes of finding a
way to fall in love again. One year apart, and only one rule: they cannot contact
each other. Aside from that, anything goes.
Lauren
embarks on a journey of self-discovery, quickly finding that her friends and
family have their own ideas about the meaning of marriage. These influences, as
well as her own healing process and the challenges of living apart from Ryan,
begin to change Lauren’s ideas about monogamy and marriage. She starts to
question: When you can have romance without loyalty and commitment without
marriage, when love and lust are no longer tied together, what do you value?
What are you willing to fight for?
This is
a love story about what happens when the love fades. It’s about staying in
love, seizing love, forsaking love, and committing to love with everything
you’ve got. And above all, After I Do is the story of a couple caught up in an
old game—and searching for a new road to happily ever after.
‘After I Do’ was the 2014 women’s fiction novel by Taylor Jenkins Reid, the second novel
she wrote.
So … after
loving ‘The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo’ and ‘Daisy Jones and the Six’ I decided
to peek at Taylor Jenkins Reid’s backlist and see if I couldn’t get more of her
sweet, sweet stories into my veins. At a glance; while her backlist is still
women’s fiction, ‘Evelyn’ and ‘Daisy’ were the first two books in which Reid changed
things up from suburban and ordinary family-sagas, to the lives and troubles of famous people. But in both cases (and especially prominent in ‘After I Do’)
is Jenkins Reid’s preoccupation with examining the veneer of happiness, and the
breaking-point at which people decided to really start examining their lives and the
truth of their relationships.
‘After I Do’
for instance, is about Lauren and Ryan who’ve known each other for eleven years
and been married for six, but when we meet them they’re at breaking-point. Little
annoyances, grievances and nit-picks have poisoned their marriage and one night
they both confront the startling realisation that they don’t like each other
very much right now. For Lauren, this translates as a deep sense of
disgruntlement and disappointment when Ryan’s business work-trip is cancelled
and she doesn’t end up getting the time alone she craved. For Ryan, he admits
that he’s started looking at other women and wondering “what if?” It’s small;
but that’s their breaking-point.
Now at
this stage, I’ll fully admit that Lauren and Ryan pretty quickly brushed-aside
the idea of counselling or doing any real work on their marriage. They both
considered ‘open marriage’, date-nights and time apart as a solution … and kind
of decide to meld that into one big idea of living apart for one year. Dating other
people. Not corresponding with each other. Really going their separate ways and
at the end of 12-months, coming together to see if they still want to continue
their marriage.
Everyone
else in their life – family, friends and co-workers – pretty quickly label this
a ‘trial separation’ but neither Lauren nor Ryan are keen on the idea of
putting such a label on it. They genuinely want to do this to see who they are independent
of each other (fair enough, since they met at 19) and if they want to continue
being together – but the underlying belief from both of them is that this “time
off” will definitely result in a stronger marriage.
The book
is told entirely from Lauren’s POV, which works well to heighten the drama –
just as she doesn’t know if Ryan is seeing other people, or how he’s coping,
nor do readers. We also get a brief run-down of the start to Lauren and Ryan’s
relationship through her eyes; getting the dewy romance of their teen years,
which heightens the drama because we know – much like Lauren – that there is
something good between them, and worth fighting for.
During her
marriage sabbatical(?) I was pleased to see Lauren exploring through her friends
and family, different amalgamations of relationships and marriages and how
other people’s married-lives work. I also really liked that her sister stands
as a character who doesn’t want a relationship right now (maybe ever) and
definitely doesn’t want kids, and that Lauren checks her heteronormativity when
her knee-jerk reaction is to say; “you just need to meet the right guy!” Lauren
really does learn to see the myriad of ways that people exist both in
relationships, and being single.
I will say
that maybe the one way this novel presents itself as Jenkins Reid’s early-work
is in its somewhat simplicity. Part of me wonders that if she was writing this novel
*today* - she’d take it from a slightly trickier perspective (maybe from a
person that Lauren or Ryan dates, who falls for them but is doomed to heartache
because it’s destined to only be casual and temporary). Or what if (and I’m
showing my absolute adoration for Georgie and Sam in Melina Marchetta’s ‘ThePiper’s Son’ here) either Lauren got pregnant or Sam got a woman pregnant while
on this ‘year off’.
That’s
maybe the one way this novel isn’t a five-star for me. In its simplicity –
especially because thanks to ‘Evelyn’ and ‘Daisy Jones’, I’m a little more used
to Jenkins Reid writing trickier, more grey-areas in her depictions of people
and relationships.
But ‘After
I Do’ is still a solid, fantastic read and I’m really glad I’m diving into her
backlist. If this novel and her latest works are any indication, I’m going to
really enjoy the ride!
4/5