Me Before You by JoJo Moyes

"I'm just thinking of what I know about Will Traynor, what I know about men like him. And I'll say one thing to you. I'm not sure anyone in the world was ever going to persuade that man once he'd set his mind to something. He's who he is. You can't make people change who they are."
      -Bernard Clark's fatherly advice to Louisa near the end of the novel

This book was selected for our Page Turners group by being strongly suggested by a couple of members. Since a film version has been out for a while, I knew a little of what to expect. I expected a tear-jerker. My readers will know I try hard not to include spoilers in my posts. It seems this novel has spoilers everywhere! I even saw a description as an answer on "Jeopardy" recently, under the heading Recent Novels, with the question being this book title; it pretty much gave away the plot.

The story centers around Louisa Clark, a young woman with a pretty unexciting, unfulfilled life, who takes a job helping quadriplegic Will Traynor. Will had been a mover and shaker before a tragic accident left him paralyzed. He has lost all zest for life and become bitter and self-pitying. Louisa is hired by his mother to hopefully cheer him up, perhaps even give him a reason for living. Although the relationship starts out rocky making Louisa want to quit, she hangs in there and the two come to care about each other. In addition, I will only say that Louisa gains as much from the connection as he does.

Moyes's writing style is easy and enjoyable. I liked the book but thought it was predictably sad so I am giving it a 4. Litlovers.com calls it a romance novel; my husband would call it chick lit. But I do think it will give us plenty to talk about when we meet this week. More then....

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The Page Turners met on our regular day and apparently we liked the novel---the average rating was 4.4---no votes under 4. Our discussion followed the publisher's questions. Much talk was generated by Will's outlook on life and whether we understood his feelings. There was some difference of opinion and a few people cited real-life examples of folks who have overcome serious injury to live fulfilling, even inspiring lives. I speculated that the prospect of living as a quadriplegic might be more difficult for a man to accept than a woman. As one might expect, most discussion was about the meaning of life, the right to die, assisted suicide and related topics.

There were several interpretations of the Me and You in the title. One of the best, we agreed, would have referred to both Will and Lou BEFORE they met the other. In other words each one could have said, "This story is about Me before You." Some of our members have read the sequel, After You, and have liked it as well. Others have seen the film version.

A good selection for a book club---plenty to talk about related to Me Before You!