Sundays at Tiffany's -- The Book Review

"I miss you already" .. Or so said Michael and now a few hours after finishing the book, I feel a similar longing in my heart: I am already missing James Patterson's Sundays at Tiffany's (co-written with) Gabriel Charbonnet). Apart from Love story and then Oliver's Story, no other romantic book has been able to capture my attention like this one. And what a splendid write-up this book was!





Now I associate James Patterson normally with novels centered around crime, mystery and serial killers. James Patterson has produced some awesome fictional characters - Alex Cross, The Women's Murder Club and the Maximum Ride series. So, this novel was a bit of a pleasant shocker for me. I mean, the romance genre is as far and as diverse as he could manage. Now, I am no romantic - The only romantic novels I ever read were Erich Segal's Love Story and Oliver's Story. Both of these were great novels, so simply, eloquently and emotionally written. And something told me that this novel might turn out to be just as good, despite romance not being the author's forte (at least, with the number of novels published in the serial killer and mystery genre, no one can question his knack for getting the chill across).

Now getting back to the book, the story trails the life of a young girl whose world is built around an imaginary friend. Actually, saying that it trails the life of Jane is a bit of a misnomer -- The book is only about the aprt where Michael has to leave Jane when she turns 9 and then the second aprt deals with how Michael and Jane are reunited. However, nothing has been mentioned of the interim period when the imaginary friend leaves the young kid and by a quirky twist of fate, is reunited with the now grown-up girl Jane. I am actually thankful to the author for not dragging the book or making it too complicated. Besides Jane and Michael, there are only a handful of characters to deal with and with a crisp writing style, you can't just help but keep turning the pages one after another. Though readers may find the other characters quite sterotyped and atypical, it's the girl and her imaginary friend who grasp the attention of the readers from Page 1.

Most romantic novels have a happy ending yet after going through Eric Segal's Love Story and Oliver's Story, I know that happy endings are not a must. And with the way this book has been composed, it had a surreal feeling about it all throughout! And yet there is always the feleing that this was just the sweetener, somewhere somehow the author will lose the plot and make a mess of this fine love story. But credit to both the authors for maintaining, sustaining and ultimately delivering one of the most suspensefully joyful endings I've stumbled across!

I'll suggest all readers to try this book at least once; if not buy it then just go to the coffee shop somewhere in the bookshop and devote a spare hour to this novel. I am sure you'll be hooked to the novel and ultimately, just like me, you too will start missing the book once it's over!

N.B.: Just a word of caution: Do not go in expecting a lot of complicated stuff or a flood of emotions from the book, it's written very simply and hence it's imperative that you treat it like a simple book too! Try and feel the undercurrents of love flowing through the book. Though the authors could have tried harder and made the other characters feel a bit more real and wanted, I am nonetheless pleased with the book and well... Yes, I've been missing it already! ... sigh ...