Book Review

Landline by Rainbow Rowell

Rainbow Rowell is one of those authors who always seems to attack my emotions directly, when I’m not looking. I love her use of unconventional characters, and I love that even though the character’s lives are imperfect, they get to find love anyway. Landline is not Rainbow Rowell’s best book. But through a combination of skill and serendipity the book managed to turn me into a gibbering mess. I’m not sure I’d call it “good” but I’d certainly call it “effective”.

I read Landline in a state of panic because I had written a thing about Rowell’s appeal and only later discovered that I had left out an entire book, so:

 

Beaker from the Muppets wigging out with both hands and his head vibrating back and forth

 

Luckily for me, Landline is a fast read, although it’s expensive once you factor in the price of several boxes of tissues. Here’s the deal: Georgie is a career focused woman who writes for TV and is about to get her own show with her writing partner Seth – if she can pull together a bunch of scripts over Christmas week. This means she can’t make it to the Christmas holiday vacation with her in-laws. She thinks everyone should stay home so she can work and come home at Christmas and be with the kids and then go back to work, but her husband Neal calmly but defiantly packs up the kids and heads to Omaha without her.

It takes Georgie a while to grasp the concept that things are seriously wrong between her and Neal and she spends the week not getting any writing done, trying to reach Neal, who won’t answer his phone. Because she can’t bear to hang out at her empty house, she spends all her time at her mom’s. When Georgie’s own phone runs out of juice, she uses an old landline – which connects her to the Neal of 1998. During Christmas week of 1998, Neal and Georgie had a huge fight when she dragged Neal to a work party and he stood around like this:

 

Grumpy Cat Party mode activated YAAAAAY

 

Then Neal pointed out that he hated California, he hated TV, he hated everything about Georgie’s life other than Georgie, and he drove back to his parents’ home. Georgie cried all week, thinking they were over, but at the end of that week, Neal showed up at her house and proposed, with these words, which are either endearing, infuriating, or both, depending on your tolerance for grump: “I love you more than I hate everything else.”

So in the present day, Georgie is talking to the past Neal, and she and Neal have to decide whether or not they can have a future together. This involves a lot of heartfelt and tearful conversation and some gorgeous writing as Neal and Georgie both try to figure out what kinds of compromises they are willing to make in order to be together.

 

From Scary Movie - we've traced the call. It's coming from inside the house.

 

This leads to some gorgeous writing. When I refer to the tissues, it’s because of quotes like these:

 

“Neal didn’t take Georgie’s breath away. Maybe the opposite. But that was okay–that was really good, actually, to be near someone who filled your lungs with air.”

“Having kids sent a tornado through your marriage, then made you happy for the devastation. Even if you could rebuild everything just the way it was before, you’d never want to.”

God, the three of you.  When I wake up on Saturday mornings–late, you always let me sleep in–I come looking for you, and you’re in the backyard with dirt on your knees and two little girls spinning around you in perfect orbit. And you put their hair in pigtails, and you let them wear whatever madness they want, and Alice planted a fruit cocktail tree, and Noomi ate a butterfly, and they look like me because they’re round and golden, but they glow for you.

 

‘Real isn’t relevant,’ Georgie said, turning completely to face Heather. ‘It’s like . . . you’re tossing a ball between you, and you’re just hoping you can keep it in the air. And it has nothing to do with whether you love each other or not. If you didn’t love each other, you wouldn’t be playing this stupid game with the ball. You love each other–and you just hope you can keep the ball in play.’

 

Dude saying I am so happy and so sad it's like a perfect storm of emotions

 

This is a romance that tales place after the romance. Romance in marriage is hard, because instead of waking up to a servant offering to press your ball gown for you while you drink a pot of chocolate in bed, you wake up to find that the dog barfed on the carpet and the small child who kept you up most of the night is lying next to you and affectionately kicking you in the head. It was incredibly touching to see two married people who don’t look perfect or have perfect lives struggle to find not just friendly love but romance love. Unfortunately, I’m not convinced that they will ultimately have a happy ending despite all the hugging at the end of the book.

Both Neal and Georgie have some truly jerk-ass qualities, although they have enough positive qualities that they aren’t completely unlikeable. Neal can be a manipulative whiner, based on his poopy party behavior and his tendency to leave the state without answering the phone just because Georgie, who apparently has made time to go visit the in-laws many times and never worked on Christmas before in her life, has one sucky holiday. Plus it’s revealed that he quit his job to be a stay at home parent, and Georgie feels guilty bout this because her career ruins everything. WTF? He hates his job! He has no career aspirations! Of course he’s a stay at home dad! If he comes up with some career aspirations, then they can re-evaluate but in the meantime, why the angst? That being the case, Neal only likes his hometown in Omaha and he pouts about fricking EVERYTHING and never answers his phone.

 

Tina Fey saying RUDE and shaking her head

 

But Georgie is no angel here either. Her plan to have the family stay home during Christmas despite them being all packed and exited and Grandma being all excited about having them is just selfish. Plus, she knows Neal hates social stuff, so why drag him to it? Honestly, both of the characters have decent qualities and jerky qualities – like a lot of married couples, they are completely compatible expect for one major thing, and that one major thing has the ability to throw the entire relationship off, and it’s worse because neither of them are wrong. Neal isn’t wrong to be an introvert who likes Omaha, although frankly I wonder if he has clinical depression since he seems to be perpetually unhappy about something. Georgia isn’t wrong to want a career that will demand a great deal of her time. They just aren’t very compatible, mostly because Neal hates living in LA and Georgia can’t live in Omaha, plus Neal wants Georgie all to himself and Georgie wants Neal to be around when it’s convenient.

The ending made me weep copious tears because it looks just like this:

 

Hermione hugging Ron in HP movie 1

 

But it’s also frustrating. Nothing is resolved. They are the same people they were before. They are going to try to be more considerate of each other’s feelings, and that’s good…maybe that’s enough. But as Georgie is well aware, she’s still career-driven and Neal is still a grumpy cat. I mean, I can think of some things they might work on. Georgie could stop dragging Neal to parties. Neal could work on selling art and also get the anti-depressants he clearly needs. But their core issues are still the same. Thank God, this does not turn into a book in which the woman has to give up her job to make her man happy – but it means they are in the same position they were in at the start of the book.

So will they have a happy ending? Not knowing is sort of the point, but it’s also frustrating.

 

The Cake is a Lie - with a picture of cake that is not a lie because it's in the picture

 

Not a lie – I cried buckets because I loved the theme of romance in marriage and middle age. Also, there’s a whole thing near the end that I won’t spoil for you that made me shriek in delight – Georgie is all up in her own headspace when she’s yanked into the WORLD due to hilarious and chaotic events, and it’s just a huge breath of air in the middle of a ton of angst, and a total delight. Landline was insanely good at making me feel ALL THE THINGS, but it’s uneven. Some moments seem pulled out of thin air. A lot of side characters aren’t fleshed out at all, and Seth is just a bizarre person who seems to exist purely to mess things up for Neal and Georgie. It’s all over the place and I’m not sure it’s happy after all, but:

 

Troy from Community- My Emotions My Emotions

 

Oh, my, they were everywhere. 

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Landline by Rainbow Rowell

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  1. Janelle says:

    Wow! I had a completely different reaction to Georgie and Neal in this book. I despised Georgie and, though Neal isn’t perfect, he was the only character I understood in the entire thing. Emotionally manipulative? How?Defiantly packs the kids off for the holidays? Girl, please. They had plane tickets, it’s the holidays, and thr alternative was staying home while Georgie spent the entire week holed up with Seth. Yeah, I would make the same choice as he did.

    My biggest problem with this book is that there’s no conflict. Georgie ends the book in the same place she began emotionally.

  2. Leah says:

    I actually just got this out of the library yesterday! I’ve heard a lot of people have sort of middling reactions to it, but Rainbow Rowell’s writing is just so easily devoured I really don’t care. She has a knack for making characters and situations that are SO relateable no matter who you are, and for articulating complex feelings in ways that make you go, “Yes, yes, exactly!” The only issue I ever have is that it usually feels like the heroines only ever change and evolve because of the heroes… I love them all, but I wish the women weren’t always saved from their lives/problems/themselves by the intervention of Prince Charming, who usually triggers some sort of emotional growth or maturity. But I think about the only character I’ve ever actively disliked is Eleanor in Eleanor and Park, and largely, Rowell just makes really awesome, genuine sounding people you root for. I’ll be happy to read this myself kicked back in bed later this evening.

  3. thisisanalias says:

    Wow, your review made me get a little teary eyed – because I started recognizing a lot of my own marriage in this book! I don’t think I want to read it… the truth hurts, you know? But it makes me want to pick up some of Rowell’s other stuff, because I haven’t read anything she’s written.

  4. Amy Raby says:

    I loved this one.

  5. Disclaimer: I have not read this book, ergo my comment is purely in response to the review and thus may be way off base. Also, novel ahead.

    “Georgie is a career focused woman who writes for TV and is about to get her own show . . . if she can pull together a bunch of scripts over Christmas week.”

    “Neal calmly but defiantly packs up the kids and heads to Omaha without her.”

    Both of these things seem like rational decisions, especially given that Georgie “has made time to go visit the in-laws many times and never worked on Christmas before in her life.” Missing one holiday to achieve a lifelong goal seems like an obvious choice to me, as does going ahead with a trip that has already been planned and budgeted despite one person being unable to join. So right off the bat, I don’t understand why neither character can see the other’s point of view. Of course, the book would probably be a lot shorter if they did.

    Then we get to the WTF bits.

    “Neal, who won’t answer his phone.”

    Excuse me? He won’t answer his phone? What is he, fourteen? What’s that you say–he’s an adult who has been married to her for more than a decade and they have two children together? My mistake.

    “1998, Neal and Georgie had a huge fight when she dragged Neal to a work party and he stood around like [grumpy cat]. Then Neal pointed out that he hated . . . everything about Georgie’s life other than Georgie . . . at the end of that week, Neal showed up at her house and proposed, with these words . . . ‘I love you more than I hate everything else.'” (emphasis added)

    There’s a lot about this that bothers me.

    A. It was a work party. I don’t like work parties, either. Does anybody actually like work parties? But you know what? When it’s time for my husband’s work holiday party, I suck it up and socialize and try to be pleasant to people I’ve never met. He does the same at my work’s summer picnic, because these things are important for both of our careers and we support each other in our endeavors because we’re a team, and we’re adults, and for fuck’s sake, it’s one night out of the year.

    B. Is it possible to hate everything about a person’s life and still love the person? Can we really dissociate an individual from her passions, activities, and ambitions? What is left when you take all that away? Would she even be the same person? And if she’s not, would he still love her? It’s kind of like saying, “I love you, but I hate everything about you.” I don’t understand it.

    “Unfortunately, I’m not convinced that they will ultimately have a happy ending despite all the hugging at the end of the book.”

    You know, I’m not convinced that staying together and working out their differences would necessarily qualify as a HEA for this couple. I know it’s sacrilege to say this in Romancelandia, but sometimes people are never going to work as a couple no matter how hard they try or how much they love each other. Compatibility of personality is huge, and “opposites attract” is not always a good thing. I hear about couples who hate each other staying together “for the children,” and I always wonder, “Is it actually better for kids to grow up with parents who battle nonstop but stay together, rather than separating and getting some peace?” I don’t know. I don’t have kids, so it’s not something I have to ponder for my own life, so really it’s none of my business, but I still wonder.

    FINALLY, and of course I’m going there, would this story even have been written if the genders were reversed, or would it have been seen as superfluous because the workaholic father is such a familiar narrative? How much of the criticism Georgie receives is because she is a hardworking and successful woman whose husband stays at home? And one more question: does their method of working things out involve Georgie giving up a significant aspect of her career/ambition? I’d like to know, because I see that trope a lot in romances (and, obviously, in reality).

  6. Mireille says:

    I hated Neal with the fire of a thousand burning suns. Boy knew what he was getting into when he married a comedian who’s lifelong dream was to write a TV sitcom. When that opportunity comes along, of course you drop everything for it. Have Christmas on January 25, who gives a shit, it’s just a date! Neal hated to laugh and was unhappy for no reason and didn’t pick up the phone all week even though he was away from his spouse, who was also away from her two children.

  7. Mireille says:

    I hated Neal with the fire of a thousand burning suns. Boy knew what he was getting into when he married a comedian who’s lifelong dream was to write a TV sitcom. When that opportunity comes along, of course you drop everything for it. Have Christmas on January 25, who gives a shit, it’s just a date! Neal hated to laugh and was unhappy for no reason and didn’t pick up the phone all week even though he was away from his spouse, who was also away from her two children.

  8. Mireille says:

    Gah, sorry about the double post! (Hopefully this one doesn’t double-post too!)

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