Review: Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin
Let’s talk about comfort
It’s definitely autumn, or fall now, assuming you’re in the northern hemisphere. Depending on your tastes, you may currently be indulging in pumpkin spice lattes, digging out some cute cosy knitwear, or pulling your boots on to go kicking leaves around in a golden sunlit park. You may equally be grumbling under three blankets on your sofa, gutted that summer is over. Whether you identify with any of these or not, I’m certain that we all have some comfort items that we return to again and again. A film that we can watch over and again without getting bored; a favourite pyjama top that should have gone in the bin a long time ago and is more holes than fabric; a piece of music that hits you straight in your gut no matter how often you hear it.
Today’s book is one of my all-time favourite comfort books. It’s one I return to at least once a year or so, and every time it leaves me with a sense of satisfaction and well-being. I’d liken it to wrapping myself up in the cosiest of quilts on a cold day, wearing cashmere socks, and drinking tea. Proper self-care and self-indulgence. But do not be fooled by the build-up! - this is no easy-read identikit romance.
Something Borrowed
Arrow Books, 2004
Rachel has been in the shadow of her vivacious friend Darcy since childhood. Always more popular, better-dressed, and in the middle of anything that’s going on, Darcy is one of life’s golden people, with Rachel happy to tag along behind and enjoy the reflected gleam. But now, as the women turn 30 , Rachel is beginning to get a little tired of coming second to Darcy all the time. Although Rachel has worked incredibly hard to qualify as a lawyer, she is is working huge amounts of hours in a job that will never love her back. She is single and hasn’t been on a date in months. Meanwhile PR-lovey Darcy is flitting from party to party, and has just got engaged to Dex - a handsome, successful lawyer. That’s the Dex that was Rachel’s friend first, at law school.
“It’s all changed now. For better or worse”
And so our stage is set. At Rachel’s 30th birthday party, she and Dex end up going home together. As a reader, it feels like a blow - we thought we were meant to be rooting for Rachel? The homely underdog, the good girl? Surely she wouldn’t act like this? And Darcy is meant to be selfish and attention-seeking - we’re not meant to be feeling sorry for her, the wronged woman! But that’s the skill of this book for me. Instead of dividing the world into neat black-and-white lines, of moral absolutes, Giffin explores the vagaries of human behaviour. The characters are built up with layers of back story, flashbacks to episodes that happened in their childhood and teenage years, right through their 20s. Ancillary characters are added - the groomsman, the work friend, the doorman, the other school-friends. The whole book is told from Rachel’s perspective, and it’s hard not to feel for her as she tires of playing second-fiddle to Darcy, time and again.
“You have much to be thankful for”
As the story progresses, and Rachel and Dex struggle to decide and agree what needs to happen next, the difficulties abound: and all the time Dex and Darcy’s wedding is getting closer. We follow characters who want to do the right thing, but are overtaken by the force of their feelings. There are multiple close calls, and wrongs done to friends and family in this book, and at no time does Giffin try to insinuate that any of the wrongs add up to a right. Life is messy and people are complicated, and as we saw in An American Marriage, we never can tell what’s going on in someone else’s relationship.
Something Borrowed is the first of a two-book series - the second is, perhaps predictably, called Something Blue, and takes up the story from Darcy’s perspective. It’s very cleverly done, because Darcy is an unreliable narrator, twisting events and their impacts to suit her own narrative. But having read Something Borrowed, we know much of the story from the other side, and as such can place the whole thing in context.
So if you’re looking for a romance to read, but one that’s a little edgier, with fewer neatly tied ends, then Something Borrowed could be the one for you.
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Something Borrowed was released in film version in 2011. The reviews are pretty poor - if anyone’s seen it you can let me know if it lives up (down?!) to them. The book’s definitely better ;-)
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