Julie's Review: The Myth of You and Me

Summary: Stewart peers into the complicated heart of friendship in a moving second novel (after 2000's Body of a Girl). Ever since a cataclysmic falling out with her best friend, Sonia, after college, Cameron's closest companion has been Oliver, the 92-year-old historian she lives with and cares for in Oxford, Miss. Oliver's death leaves Cameron alone and adrift, until she discovers that he has given her one last task: she must track down her estranged best friend (whose letter announcing her engagement Cameron had so recently ignored) and deliver a mysterious present to her. Cameron's journey leads her back to the people, places and memories of their shared past, when they called themselves "Cameronia" and swore to be friends forever. It was a relationship more powerful than romantic love—yet romantic love (or sex, anyway) could still wreck it. Stewart lures the reader forward with two unanswered questions: What was the disaster that ended their friendship, and what will be revealed when Cameron and Sonia are together again and Oliver's package is finally opened? The book is heartfelt and its characters believable jigsaw puzzles of insecurities, talents and secrets, and if Cameron's carefully guarded anger makes her occasionally disagreeable, readers will nevertheless welcome her happy ending.

Review: A girlfriend lent me this book and while I read it quickly, the ending was pretty predictable and a bit disappointing. You can pretty much think that if a friendship that was very strong in youth ends up disintegrating in young adulthood the reason was most definitely a man. I won't give tell who and when but that it was a bit disappointing that the author chose this route. What I found most redeemable about the books were the flashbacks to how Cameron and Sonia became friends and how they stayed friends throughout most of their youth and young adult life. It is understandable how Cameron liked the life of a nomad since she grew up moving a lot in life since her dad was in the armed forces, so the fact that she gets up and leaves soon after Oliver dies it's not too surprising. What is contained in Oliver's package is the most interesting part of the whole the story.

I will give the book credit, it did make me think about past friendships and the reason they are in the past and the truth is that in life you tend to out grow people and people are in your life for a certain time and reason. That being said I think every friendship teaches you something about life and something about yourself.

Final Take: 3.5/5