Do not mistake me for a model student.
I started reading The Statistical Probability of Love At First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith around two hours ago and I, uh, finished it (before eating snacks for another hour.) (Yeah, I'm a speedy reader.)
And I didn't even stop to analyze the characters or anything which was really dumb of me because I wanted to finish this book so I'll have a post up.
I am not a clever person.
Anyways, Hadley Sullivan, our wonderful female protagonist, thought that it was one of the worst days of her life having missed her flight and being late to her father's wedding to a woman she never met before.
Then she met a boy. His name was Oliver, he's British (gotta love those accents, eh? *nudge* *nudge*) and his seat was in her row.
Even it's right there in the title, their encounter didn't feel like love at first sight. It didn't feel like it happened instantly like THAT (snaps). Of course the book was 236 pages long and it covered a span of 24 hours so obviously it would feel like forever to the reader.
Despite what I was thinking when I read the first couple of pages, this book was not that fluffy. But let's not go into that.
Now onto character development.
Imagine this: Your father flied overseas to teach at a school for a semester. You thought he's coming back. He said that he would come back. Except...He didn't. Instead, he found another woman. Fell in love with that other woman. Divorced your mother to be with that other woman.
Hadley thought she hated this woman. "Despite the sugary e-mails the woman has been sending her ever since Dad proposed - filled with wedding plans and photos of their trip to Paris and pleas for Hadley to get involved, all signed with an overzealous "xxoo" (as if one x and one o weren't sufficient) - it's been exactly one year and ninety-six days since Hadley decided that she hated her, and it will take much more than an invitation to be a bridesmaid to cancel this out." (Smith 9). She blamed Charlotte (the other woman) for her father's betrayal. Taking her father away from her and her mom.
But later in the wedding, she told Violet (a friend of Charlotte) that now after everything, she realized that she was mad at her father instead of Charlotte. "'With the stuff like that, it's just a matter of who's doing the asking, and because of her, I hated it." She paused, smiling. 'Then one day, I realized it wasn't her that I was really angry with. It was him.' Hadley looks off towards the church for a moment before answering. 'Then I guess,' she says finally, 'that I'm already a step ahead of you.'" (Smith 126).
She didn't want to be there at the wedding and she didn't want him to be at that wedding too. She wanted to go back. She thought he should be back in the kitchen of her home, wearing the ratty pajamas and drinking tea. And when she saw the light in his eyes, so full of joy, it wrung her heart.
Later on when she returned back, after reading the book her father gave her, that she had intended to give back, she realized that he was apologizing. "So when he'd given her the worn copy of Our Mutual Friend that day in Aspen, after everything that had happened, there was something too familiar in the gesture. She'd been rubbed raw by his departure, and the meaning behind the gift made it hurt all the more." (Smith 153).
She had a talk with her father. Both said some things they wanted to say, needed to say, but never did, before. She forgave him in the end, making him promise that she would be there for the baby in the future. She wanted to be a part of their lives even though before she would do anything to keep them away from hers.
And everything was okay again.
Dear Trang,
ReplyDeleteI love your blogging voice. It's really unique and it's not at all mechanic—I like how you start with a hook instead of just giving the name of the book and the author. You used brilliant textual evidence and gave a nice summary of the book so I got what you were talking about. I've heard about this book but haven't ever read it...236 pages in 2 hours o.0 So besides how their relationship changed, how has Hadley changed? Her father?
Heeeeeyyyy Jessica. Ok so, since Hadley's father was only there for the last part of the book and since we only get to see the past him from Hadley's thoughts, I can't say how he had changed. I can only assume. And I think that he had gotten more out-going, more social since Hadley had said that she didn't expect so many people to show up at his wedding. Though it is very possible that they all came from Charlotte's side.
DeleteAs for Hadley, she kind of flip-flopped. I like to believe that Hadley was a totally princess when she was young (it's my personal headcanon for her), believing in true love and stuff like that. Throughout the book, you can tell that Hadley liked to believe that her parents' marriage was a happy marriage. They had been married for almost 20 years. So when she found out that her father met another woman, it was a cold betrayal. I think she stopped believing in long-lasting love (it is very likely that this is false since my memory can be faulty at times but I think she scoffed when the lady in the plane was talking about it. Long-lasting love I mean).
But hey, her father still loves her mom. He's just out of love with her, if you get what I mean.
And they're both happy. Her mother had found love, her father had found love. They are both okay.
And I don't think that Hadley is that doubtful of love anymore. (Especially since she met Oliver. They've known each other for a little over 24 hours. Instant Connection.)