31 Silver Linings – A Writing Challenge {Day 16}

My book club is not for the faint of heart…or the fair weather reader. We began a little under two years ago with The End of Your Life Book Club and never looked back. We’ve read more than our share of takes on World War II (Unbroken, Life After Life, All The Light You Cannot See), some throwbacks (A Time to Kill, The Pact), and even some current best sellers (Gone Girl, What Alice Forgot, The Goldfinch). We’ve shied away from the classics a bit and I’ve frankly not encouraged it. Yes, we read A Christmas Carol back in December (though, if truth be told, far fewer read it than just remembered it from watching any number of film versions each holiday season), but it’s not been a genre we’ve frequented.

This month’s selection fell into that category: Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. And I’d be lying if I told you I’d had the least bit of interest in it when it was selected. I was still struggling to get through the beautiful tale of All the Light We Cannot See from last month and for some reason believed Rebecca would harken to the likes of Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights…and I just wasn’t feeling up for the struggle. Yet I was just disappointed enough in myself for not finishing last month’s book in time to help facilitate a great discussion that I challenged myself to push through – and was richly rewarded for it.

The story is told from the point of view of a young woman, caught up in a whirlwind relationship with a man recently widowed. They marry and return to his estate, Manderly, where she attempts to navigate her new life in the shadow of his late wife. Fraught with insecurity and incorrect assumptions, she struggles wildly until a fantastic plot twist forces her to grow up virtually overnight as she sees that reality is not at all how she’d perceived it.

And so too, my opinion of this book. I was simply fascinated from the opening lines through to the end, thinking at once I might have to start over to really grasp it all. While I understand it to be required reading in some schools, I’d highly recommend it be added to your list, especially if you love a good “I never saw that coming!” type of plot twist, coupled with beautifully flowing prose.