The Girl You Left Behind - Jojo Moyes

"That is why I don' t like having too much stuff. When i was in the shelter people was always nicking it. Didn't matter where you leave it - under your bed, in your locker - they'll wait till you was going out, and then they'd just take it. It got you so's you didn't want to go out, just for fear of of losing your stuff. Imagine that.
Imagine what?
What you lose. Just trying to hang on to a few bits."

I  am usually not the biggest fan of romance at the core of stories (Shopaholic ugh), but I really liked this one. While it covers the usual typical essence of romance stories - the guy you met out of the way, the girl dealing with vulnerability, them being challenged to trust each other and the likes. It also speaks about knowing what to hold on and let go, and most importantly when. 

The core of the story tells about a painting with a story from 100 years ago, and is told in parallel with how the painting affects another love story 100 years later (no they are not descendants of the painting's couple, which makes it more interesting). I like this parallel story telling thing. So it's essentially two different love stories in alignment with each other, this continuity style really rocks my socks. 

Compared to the other books I've been reading, I would consider this pretty light-hearted stuff. A much welcomed change really. I am also fond of stories where it emphasizes a certain stubbornness and strength in its female characters (projection? =P) and this was much reflected especially in the story of the painting's owner. The other theme I've noticed in the books I've been reading is the dilemma between standing your principles and values in times of desperation. And these are not sleazy people mind you; these are people who would fight their values to the bloody end. But when it comes to situations of extreme need, especially survival of those they love, everything becomes grey, and it think that got me thinking about our humanness. About how it is so easy for us to judge a person who has not keep to the values they promised, yet we have not been put in that same position which requires that amount of conflict. Maybe we would have made the same compromise.

Oh oh, and the story also reminds me of the chinese idiom "红颜薄命" (Hóngyán bómìng) which basically means, "pretty face, bad fate". Knowing the Chinese culture, we put, or at least try to put a reason to everything, whether or not it makes sense. Haha. In this story. the lady of the painting, Sophie reminds me exactly of this idiom - her pretty face brought her a bad fate, though it the end, it's hard to say whether the fate is bad or good, READ.

And I'm also wondering how many men can forgive their wife who has laid in bed with another men just to save his life?

(http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1339865124l/13637360.jpg)

"All that counts is truth McCaferty," he would say, just before the beer turned his conversation into blather. "Without it you are basically just juggling people's daft ideas," (pg 433)