Before I dive into my review, I should come right out and say that the author Glenn Dixon is a friend of mine. I met him shortly after I moved to Calgary and I don’t know exactly how we came to be friends, but I do know that I would see him out at numerous book events, and the rest is history. Although he’s my pal, I promise this is an honest review. If I read the book and didn’t like it (which would have been incredibly awkward, to say the least) I simply wouldn’t have reviewed it. Such is the risk* I take when befriending authors and publishing book reviews at the same time.
I read Glenn’s last book a few years ago, Tripping the World Fantastic, and I liked it, but I didn’t love it. But many people clearly disagreed with me because it was nominated for the W.O. Mitchell Book Prize, so lots of people did love it. I’m so excited to say that I didn’t have that same experience with his latest release Juliet’s Answer, because I fell head over heels in love with this book.
One reason to pick up Juliet’s Answer is the unique premise. It’s a memoir and a love story, written from a man’s (!) perspective. Glenn is a world traveller, and after having taught Shakespeare’s story of Romeo and Juliet in his high school classroom for 20 years, he decides to travel to Verona where the (supposedly) real-life Romeo and Juliet’s story played out. While there, he volunteers for an official club that responds to the thousands of letters a year that are sent to ‘Juliet’, asking for her advice on love. Why people want advice from a young girl who died mere days after experiencing true love is beyond me (aren’t there better authorities on the matter who maybe lived a bit longer?) but I’m clearly a cynic. Glenn was too, as he was driven back to Verona by heartbreak, but there is a happy ending to this story, and hint hint, it involves him falling deeply in love again.
What makes this book so fantastic is the fact that Glenn effortlessly weaves various story lines into an easy to follow and suspenseful narrative. While he describes his travels he also tells the story of teaching the famous play to one of his classes, which is hilarious. This is probably my favourite part of the book, because his inner dialogue as a teacher is priceless. We get to know some of his students and their own personal stories, while at the same time he describes his own love troubles; his balance of humour and heartbreak is brilliant. At the same time, he drops in a few interesting points of research about the science of love and how we’ve come to view it over the centuries. Plus there are fabulous pictures at the end, so we get to see all the beautiful places he’s visited. What’s not to love?
*My husband claims I never take any risks-well there you have it, proof that I do!
I read an ARC of “Juliet’s Answer” a few weeks ago and found it utterly delightful. I had never heard of people writing to Juliet and just the idea of a group that volunteers to respond, makes me happy. I thought Dixon did a wonderful job of meshing a memoir with travel writing, a throughly enjoyable read. Also, when I get a book from an author I know, I do what you do – decline to review it if I didn’t enjoy it and if I did enjoy it, I always give the disclaimer that I’m a friend at the start of the review. It keeps things from getting awkward!
I had never heard of this club either, and I’m surprised there are so many people who devote so much time to this cause, but it is nice! It’s things like this that can remind us there is still good in the world 🙂
Exactly! My review is scheduled to post February 7th and I made a similarly stated comment about the idea of snail mail letters written by strangers to be a positive thing in the world. It makes my heart happy.
I’ve been curious about this book. Glad you liked it!
I saw a movie a few years ago about letters to Juliet. It was a cure story, but I can’t remember what it was called…
it’s a nice easy read for sure Naomi-almost like literary chick lit or something..
Sounds interesting and I <3 the cover! 🙂
It’s a really unique premise, which is why it seems to be doing so well right now (apparently it’s been selling out at local book stores!). The cover is cute!
This sounds fantastic. It is SO hard to review a book written by a friend. I’m glad you liked this one! I’m a sucker for travel memoirs set in Europe anyway, so I’ll have to check this out.
I know, reviewing for friends can be a landmine, and if you’re someone who is involved in the publishing industry in numerous ways, it can happen often! It seems as though many take the same (safe) route I do though-no review if they didn’t like it.
Great review! Fair and balanced even though you know the author. Sounds like a good book! (Thank goodness, ha.)
right? I breathed a sign of relief on that one LOL