Finally - A road trip worth REMEMBERING
Travel stories have become a failsafe story-writing hack in recent times – the second cheesiest plot structure next to the main character suffering from cancer. Having been disappointed with An Abundance of Katherines after reading Paper Towns, or Hector and the Search for Happiness after watching The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, I was getting thoroughly sick of the premise. Jojo Moyes' book, The One Plus One, was a refreshing exception.
Bringing together an entertaining mix of characters including a 12 year-old math genius with motion sickness, a teenage boy with a flair for writing and eye-makeup, and an affection-craving dog who smells as madly as he jumps around, the book tells the story of struggling divorcee Jess Thomas and knee-deep in professional fiasco Ed Nicholls.
Abandoned by her husband, Jess is left to raise Nicky, the product of her husband's affair, who she comes to love as dearly as her own daughter Tanzie. They are knee-deep in every kind of financial struggle imaginable and desperate for a way to reach a Math Olympiad taking place in Scotland with no means of transport. Enter Ed Nicholls, the until-recently successful tech-expert with his own sea of troubles and a very comfortable Audi. The characters unite in an intense road trip from London to Scotland. Naturally, love happens.
It may sound cheesy on paper, but fans of Me Before You are familiar with Jojo Moyes' knack for taking a cliché and painting it in colours of optimism. She reminds us that some problems, such as an illness in Me Before You, or financial struggles, difficult teenagers, and disappointing relationships in this case, are clichéd for a reason – because they plague so many lives so often.
It was fun to watch two families obviously meant to be together finding their way to each other – like witnessing the most satisfying game of Tetris. But this book felt especially alive, even more so than Me Before You at times, because it so realistically portrayed flawed, relatable characters, and their inner battles between principles versus life's hurdles. It shows how an intricate web of very minor choices, made against one's better judgment in truly desperate circumstances, can coalesce to form disasters in the most unexpected of ways. Even more jarring were the depictions of two eccentric yet innocent children being bullied to the points of extreme, and the intense emotional and physical pain it causes.
Road trips are often thought of as a form of escapism, and these characters certainly followed in that route. But seldom did the book get boring, courtesy of the unexpected twists in events and the emotional roller coaster ride they entailed. Unlike most other stories that use larger-than-life incidents as the catalyst for climax in characters' psychological journeys, The One Plus One shows how optimism, forgiveness, and sense of humour are sometimes all it takes to battle the worst of circumstances. That, and wearing flip-flops in winter in anticipation of spring.
Sarah Anjum Bari is a ravisher of caffeine and prose, with a heart that lives in Parisian cafes. Reality checks to be sent in at s.anjumbari@gmail.com