A Forty Year Kiss - by Nickolas Butler

It was a view into life - but I wouldn't have welcomed Charlie in my life so openly with the demons he was still facing. It was complicated, it was a second chance - it was life

When I read the synopsis for A Forty Year Kiss, I was immediately hooked. I've always been fascinated by situations in which people remarry their ex-wife/ex-husband. I also liked that this was the love story of an older couple, which I don't see a whole lot in contemporary fiction. The best way I can describe this book is "quiet". It's slow, meandering at times, soft, and just...quiet. There's a story happening but without bells and whistles, and without major drama. The things that could be considered "big" in terms of life events are handled and explored without theatrics, if that makes sense. After finishing the book and stepping back from it, I can say I really appreciate the story that was told. I love that the characters are very real and flawed. Their struggles, their joys, their internalizations all felt real and believable, which is important to me in any book I read (though plenty of books are lacking in this). I also LOVE that the idea from this book came from a conversation overheard by the author, so much so that parts of that conversation are actually used in this book. I love thinking about how cool it would be if the real-life people that had that conversation would pick up this book and realize it was about them. Unlikely, I know, but still fun to think about. That all being said, I did find myself bored with this book at times. I was eager to get through it, but more so because I wanted to finish it and move on from it, not because I was excited to see what happened. I think this is a book that I may have loved if I were in the right headspace for a book that was so quiet and slow, but with where I'm at right now, I just found it to be dragging at times. I also felt that while the characters were flawed and certainly had their tensions and struggles, some things went way too smoothly. That's not to say that I wanted the characters to struggle, but just that it didn't feel authentic; there were some major things that happened that I feel would have caused a lot more strife. Things that felt like major betrayals were just shrugged off and didn't cause any tension or anger. I think this was partly to show how the characters have grown and how at this stage in their lives, there are some things that aren't worth getting angry about, but it just didn't add up, given the seemingly minor things that DID cause tension and frustration between them. I was especially shocked that the issue that caused the dissolution of their marriage the first time, which was still very much a potential issue in the current day, wasn't reacted to in a believable way. Having a family member with the same issue, I can assure you that you don't go through that level of trauma and pain and suffering only to be understanding and unconcerned when that issue continues to present itself at a later date. And the fact that it caused the end of their marriage was such a focal point that it just didn't make sense to me that it wasn't a bigger concern in the present day. That all being said, it was a good read. I did like it, and I think there will be plenty of people out there who LOVE it and rate it higher than I have.