Book Review | Why You Should Never Befriend Your Literary Hero
I literally had to plough my way through the pages carrying a deadweight of hopes, because Sophie Pattison, the 37-year-old heroine, though she was kind, lovely and positive, was also hopelessly boring. Throughout the book Sophie is content to be a wallflower, taken advantage of by people. Sophie loves reading; she works at a local book festival and has seen all author tantrums
When my editor asked me to review Meg Mason’s book Sophie, Standing There, she told me she had heard good things about the book. So, my expectations were quite high. When I started reading the book, that bubble of expectations burst rudely in my face.
I literally had to plough my way through the pages carrying a deadweight of hopes, because Sophie Pattison, the 37-year-old heroine, though she was kind, lovely and positive, was also hopelessly boring. Throughout the book Sophie is content to be a wallflower, taken advantage of by people. Sophie loves reading; she works at a local book festival and has seen all author tantrums. Though she has an amazing brother Laurie, his wife Jo and a best friend Emma, yet Sophie lives a sad and lonely life. Content with being the invisible person she is at work and in general.
One night Sophie rediscovers an author, she had read a long time back. This rediscovery leads to her devouring that author’s books, interviews and podcasts. The author’s words start speaking to her as does the author (in her mind). Those parts felt creepy to me. At this point the author’s name isn’t revealed, but her mental conversations with Sophie continue. Sophie falls in love with this author. From the wordsmith, the author becomes a friend to Sophie or we can say a literary crush. Though she knows that their paths will never cross.
The story perks up midway when Sophie finally meets Lilac Dunne at the literary festival. The author who had occupied her mindspace is now before her. This leads to more meetings, the two end up spending some time together. Lilac came across as a bit domineering, literally bulldozing Sophie into meeting her and chatting with her.
Lilac like a well-trained therapist extracts all Sophie’s personal information, from her childhood to her marriage with Paul, to her divorce, Paul’s brother Adam, a drug addict and several other aspects of her life, hitherto unknown to others. At this point I felt that Lilac was searching for a muse in Sophie or inspiration for her book, and perhaps Sophie would end up in her book as a character.
If Sophie as a character didn’t work for me, then neither did Lilac. There was nothing exciting about her. She came across as overbearing and patronising and her one-dimensional interactions with Sophie didn’t bring the story to life.
For me the book was disappointing. Neither the story nor the writing was particularly exciting. A big chunk of the story was spent inside Sophie’s head and the view from that place was dull and insipid. The story could have done with a few pages less and more lively writing.
Rachna Chhabria is a Bengaluru-based children’s author and a freelance writer.
Sophie, Standing There
By Meg Mason
Bloomsbury Publishing
pp. 336; Rs 699
