Saturday 14 August 2010

Goodnight, Beautiful

We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone — we find it with another.
~ Thomas Merton

That's the book.
I just finished it at my office yesterday.

You know the feeling of walking out of a movie theatre right after a movie has ended, and you find yourself in that "in-between" state of mind where you're still trying to get a grip on reality while the other good half of your mind is still swimming around in the virtual world you had just experienced?

Dazed.

I think that's the right word for it.

If you're a reader like me, then I guess you'd agree when I say that that's the exact same feeling you get when you finish a book, put it down, and try to get back to reality.

Needless to say, I could hardly concentrate on my work for a good 10 minutes after I finished the book.

Moral of the story: Do not read when you know you've got something important to do afterwards, like working, studying, or worse, going for an important exam.

Dorothy Koomson did it again. She amazed me the first time, and now she's done it, better than ever.

Basically, the book is about -


*spoilers ahead; I'd recommend you read the book yourself coz it's really good, but if you're too lazy then by all means continue*

- some kind of complicated relationship between a wife, the husband, and the husbands best friend. Mal and Nova were best friends since they were kids, and they have always loved each other, but as fate would have it, they never had the chance to get together.

Personally, I think it's Nova's fault and I think I kinda hate her, though she seems to be the real "victim" in the story, but I don't see how is that when she's the one being a hazard to a beautiful marriage - I hate Mal too, for choosing Steph over Nova, even though he knows he loves Nova.

So Mal meets Steph at a bar, get together, and eventually get married to each other, but Steph can't (or rather, won't) have kids. At least Mal thinks she can't (coz of an abortion she had when she was younger), but Steph actually doesn't want to, because she is bipolar and she doesn't want her child to have it too. Okay, this part is a little confusing; I'll skip.

Anyways, the couple have always wanted a kid of their own, so they ask Nova to be their surrogate, using Mal's sperm.

Wrong move.

It's already enough that Steph has to put up with her husband going "Nova's my bestest friend" and stuff, and now she's having their baby??

Steph has all the right in the world to be jealous.

The couple were happy at first, but then one day when Mal visits his unborn baby (and Nova), a series of events unfold, leading them to realising their true feelings for each other. Turns out, both of them have always loved each other, but both have always thought the other didn't love him/her back.

At this point, Mal regrets.

Have I mentioned how much I hate Nova?

That night, Mal texted Nova "Goodnight, beautiful."

For the following few days after that, Steph noticed something amiss, and suspected her husband to be unfaithful, so she checked his phone and saw the text Mal sent to Nova.

Scared, she asked Mal to cut all ties with Nova.

At this point, Mal should have just left Steph for Nova, thus cutting short their torturous marriage, but nooooo, Mal just had to go against his true feelings and choose Steph instead, leaving Steph wondering for the next few years if he actually regretted his choice.

Eight years later, Nova's seven year old son, Leo (yes, the child who was supposed to be Mal's and Steph's), is in a coma. Steph reveals the entire truth about Nova's son (because Mal's family think Leo was the product of his infidelity with Nova) and Nova contacts Mal to see her son for the last time before he dies.

Mal has sex with Nova, Leo dies, and Nova finds out she's pregnant with Mal's child (again).

Nova goes away to live a new life with her new daughter, while Mal goes back to Steph and their relationship is (seemingly) patched up.

The way I see it, the 3 of them are plain fucked up.

I apologize for my language, but there is absolutely no other way to describe it.

Why the heck would Mal wanna go back to Steph, when he knows that he'll spend the rest of his life trying to deceive himself into believing he is happy with Steph? And why would Nova go away, when she obviously knows she's gonna suffer so much pain from missing Mal?

Sometimes I wished Nova would be a bitch and steal Mal from Steph, and then maybe I wouldn't hate her so much.

I pity Steph the most, coz she's gonna spend the rest of her life with a guy who doesn't love her properly and totally; a part of her husband would always be with some other bitch who already has had 2 of his kids.

I'm just so glad we don't usually get into situations like this in real life, and that I've only have one person I truly love, not some bullshit about having this guy as my soulmate and another as my best friend cum secret lover.

***

Watched Salt today.

Pretty good, I guess.

Nights.

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