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‘The Juliet Club’ by Suzanne Harper is just lovely. I read it in one day, which is something I just never manage when a book is over 200 pages long. I’m a slow reader, so that’s against me and I’m also busy/distractible but this book just hooked me with its pleasant mixture of romance, Shakespeare and well characterised teenagers.
Kate Sanderson has just had her heart broken, not that she’s about to admit it. So, to the horror of her friends, she’s decided to give up on love and concentrate on her studies. When she wins entry to the first annual Shakespeare seminar in Verona she’s anticipating a long month of learning about Romeo and Juliet, while eating gelato and pasta; absolutely no summer flings allowed. The other Shakespeare scholars don’t seem to offer much in the way of romance, especially not Giacommo Marchese who continually fights with Kate about everything. But how far away can you really be from romance when living in Verona, answering letters sent from troubled lovers as part of the famous Juliet Club and working on the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet?
I really admire Suzanne Harper after this book. She managed to get me to completely identify with her main character even as Kate’s attitudes to love diverged with mine. Everything she wrote for Kate seemed right for the character and I was rooting for Kate to get what she wanted from the beginning to the end, even though what Kate wants changes dramatically along the way. It’s also wonderful that Kate doesn’t have to compromise her intelligence to find a relationship, she starts off a smart girl and while she tones down her verbose responses at times, that just keeps her from tipping over into obnoxiousness. It never feels as if she is dumbing down to appear more attractive.
Harper makes sure that her secondary characters don’t become just plot facilitators that help to get the main characters together. They each have their own individual issues and character traits, as well as their own love stories. I could quite happily have spent much more time with Tom, Benno and Silvia because they felt so real. They had complex emotions, which stemmed from the histories that had shaped them into the people they are at the beginning of the book. They also change, or reveal more about themselves as the story progresses, showing how self-aware they are but also discovering things they didn’t know about themselves.
Sadly Lucy’s character was a little weak. Although Harper clearly tried to make her more than a bubbly blonde looking for love by making Lucy doubt herself this was done a little too late in the book to make any real impact on how I viewed Lucy. She was a nice girl, but she felt a bit insubstantial compared to strong female characters like Silvia and Kate. Still Harper manages to juggle six characters and creates enough space alongside the main narrative for three of the secondary characters to express themselves as fully as the main characters. The book never feels overburdened with so many different stories; it retains its lightness and its punchy pace. Some chick-lit authors, writing for adults struggle with just two secondary characters.
The device of having her characters answer letters addressed to Juliet allows for some vigorous discussions on love and Shakespeare that address the importance of literature and romance. I especially liked the way that the author shows how quickly we will initially take a position on a love affair according to our gender. All reason goes out the window because the way we have experienced our own relationships colours how we respond to the romantic dilemmas of others. We can only experience our own relationships from the position of our own gender, and while empathy towards the opposite gender may be something we strive for in other areas of life it is extremely hard to empathise with them when it comes to romance because (if you're straight) they have been the source of all your romantic disappointments. This is all brought to the surface by the different reaction the boys have to the girls when discussing one of the letters. Another of the most perceptive arguments about romance and Shakespeare actually comes from Lucy who relates Romeo and Juliet to real life:
‘…I realized that Romeo and Juliet meet and fall in love and get married and die in three days, which is like a super-condensed version of what happens to most people over their whole life. One way or another you end up losing the person, but you still are happy you loved them.’
That quote sums up for me how this book manages to be so positive but also remains realistic. There are family troubles, the characters worry and feel resentful but love is important too and it manages to compensate for the problems of the world. I’d recommend this for anyone interested in love literature or life.
Other Reviews
Dreaming in Books
Kate Sanderson has just had her heart broken, not that she’s about to admit it. So, to the horror of her friends, she’s decided to give up on love and concentrate on her studies. When she wins entry to the first annual Shakespeare seminar in Verona she’s anticipating a long month of learning about Romeo and Juliet, while eating gelato and pasta; absolutely no summer flings allowed. The other Shakespeare scholars don’t seem to offer much in the way of romance, especially not Giacommo Marchese who continually fights with Kate about everything. But how far away can you really be from romance when living in Verona, answering letters sent from troubled lovers as part of the famous Juliet Club and working on the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet?
I really admire Suzanne Harper after this book. She managed to get me to completely identify with her main character even as Kate’s attitudes to love diverged with mine. Everything she wrote for Kate seemed right for the character and I was rooting for Kate to get what she wanted from the beginning to the end, even though what Kate wants changes dramatically along the way. It’s also wonderful that Kate doesn’t have to compromise her intelligence to find a relationship, she starts off a smart girl and while she tones down her verbose responses at times, that just keeps her from tipping over into obnoxiousness. It never feels as if she is dumbing down to appear more attractive.
Harper makes sure that her secondary characters don’t become just plot facilitators that help to get the main characters together. They each have their own individual issues and character traits, as well as their own love stories. I could quite happily have spent much more time with Tom, Benno and Silvia because they felt so real. They had complex emotions, which stemmed from the histories that had shaped them into the people they are at the beginning of the book. They also change, or reveal more about themselves as the story progresses, showing how self-aware they are but also discovering things they didn’t know about themselves.
Sadly Lucy’s character was a little weak. Although Harper clearly tried to make her more than a bubbly blonde looking for love by making Lucy doubt herself this was done a little too late in the book to make any real impact on how I viewed Lucy. She was a nice girl, but she felt a bit insubstantial compared to strong female characters like Silvia and Kate. Still Harper manages to juggle six characters and creates enough space alongside the main narrative for three of the secondary characters to express themselves as fully as the main characters. The book never feels overburdened with so many different stories; it retains its lightness and its punchy pace. Some chick-lit authors, writing for adults struggle with just two secondary characters.
The device of having her characters answer letters addressed to Juliet allows for some vigorous discussions on love and Shakespeare that address the importance of literature and romance. I especially liked the way that the author shows how quickly we will initially take a position on a love affair according to our gender. All reason goes out the window because the way we have experienced our own relationships colours how we respond to the romantic dilemmas of others. We can only experience our own relationships from the position of our own gender, and while empathy towards the opposite gender may be something we strive for in other areas of life it is extremely hard to empathise with them when it comes to romance because (if you're straight) they have been the source of all your romantic disappointments. This is all brought to the surface by the different reaction the boys have to the girls when discussing one of the letters. Another of the most perceptive arguments about romance and Shakespeare actually comes from Lucy who relates Romeo and Juliet to real life:
‘…I realized that Romeo and Juliet meet and fall in love and get married and die in three days, which is like a super-condensed version of what happens to most people over their whole life. One way or another you end up losing the person, but you still are happy you loved them.’
That quote sums up for me how this book manages to be so positive but also remains realistic. There are family troubles, the characters worry and feel resentful but love is important too and it manages to compensate for the problems of the world. I’d recommend this for anyone interested in love literature or life.
Other Reviews
Dreaming in Books
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