My best friend's wedding
It often seems to take people by surprise whenever a book from the derivatively-named "chick-lit" genre makes it big. Bridget Jones's Diary, The Devil Wears Prada, Confessions of a Shopoholic, and Bergdorf Blondes have all had such distinction. And like many of those titles, Borrowed was made into a movie, mainly to capitalize on the marketability that these books have among there target audience: women. They seem so expertly designed to appeal to women, whether through label-dropping or romantic fantasies or perky heroines. Sometimes they have all three. Borrowed, for the most part, possesses none, which adds a new element to the typical formula of a successful chick lit novel.
Rachel is the pinnacle good girl: she got good grades in school, she's in a demanding job working at a law firm, and she is the maid of honor of her lifelong friend Darcy. Darcy is everything Rachel wishes to be: gorgeous, confident, self-possessed, and able to always get whatever she wants. She's even getting married - to Rachel's good friend Dex. When Rachel and Dex share a drunken night of passion together, Rachel becomes panicked and guilt-ridden. Then Dex confesses that he kinda-sorta liked Rachel back in law school, before Rachel introduced him to Darcy. A conscious decision is made to turn the one night stand into a full-on affair - which Darcy never suspects. As the summer wears on, Rachel realizes that she is falling hard for Dex; unfortunately, it doesn't look as though he is about to cancel the wedding. Rachel has to decide what's more important to her: an old friendship steeped in layers of complicated feelings, or a chance with the one guy who might be worth the risk?
Let me start by saying that I ended up liking this book more than I expected to, and I feel a little embarrassed to admit that. Here's why: this book has a lot of potential, but it wastes much of it. For a start, Rachel is as bland as she claims at one point; I think she's supposed to be a sort of everygirl, but if so, that doesn't come across well. She is somewhat like Lee in her observations and passivity, only Giffin fails to dig deep into her character. Is Rachel likable? Yes, absolutely. She's just not all that special, so the relationship between her and Dex never seems believeable. Likewise, the other characters are two-dimensional at best: Dex is a patient Adonis, Darcy a selfish manipulator, Ethan (another old friend) a wise wiseacre. The pacing is loose, allowing the plot to meander around trips to the Hamptons, lifeless first dates, and a baby shower in Indiana and Darcy's bachelorette party. Things start getting exciting once Rachel grows a backbone as she tries to sort out her life.
Your experience with reading this book relies to some degree on who you believe to be the antagonist. Is it Dex? Is it Darcy? Or is it Rachel herself - that is, her perception of what love means and who to remain loyal to? There's a lot of analysis going on in this book about the dynamics of Rachel and Darcy's friendship - how the competition aspect has the ability to override every pleasant/friendly feeling between the two women. If Darcy's character came with more of a complication - if we could've seen, even if Rachel couldn't, why Darcy cares about her - it might've been more satisfying. But Giffin makes underwhelming choices as a writer, and so we are not given those gray areas. That said, there are a few surprises in store, and I do not begrudge Rachel the ending she is given. In the end, I think this novel is about discovering and letting go at the same time, and while some story elements are problematic, I admire this message. That may be all that its readers are looking for.
Rating: 3.5 bottles of Newcastle out of 5.