Pushing Thro the Grey Clouds - Silver Linings Playbook

Our first book meet was rather fun! Despite our differences over how we perceived the book, we had multiple things to talk about..

For this meet, we'd voted to read The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick. We met at Casper & Gambini's behind the Kuwait City church. The ambience was perfect: relaxed couches, ample sunlight, and nearby mousy customers that allowed our noisy opinions to flow..

I really wanted to like this book but I drove into the story with high expectations due to rave reviews. I need to learn not to do that.

The beginning of this novel was interesting. A divorced college professor pollyannishly seeking retribution with his former wife, simultaneously looking at people in his life with kindness. I was looking for an intriguing tale of a disturbed man being set straight with the help of his friends & family, with a light-hearted romance. What I got was a lesson on psychology on different levels. Plain and simple.

We agreed to love Patrick, for his undying love to his former wife, for his sheer kindness to people around him, his distant father, Tiffany's deep seated troubles, and even to a guy who beat him up at the stadium.. It was also easy to relate to his mum, someone who was relentless trying to hold the strings of her dysfunctional family together, whilst seeking respect & appreciation from her own husband.

They're quiet a few things that irked us though. The storyline was filled with detailed football scenes, that tempted us to scroll down those paras. Patrick's blind obsession to get back to his wife, requires a reader to be pretty patient to his awfully-pointless determination. This is one of the biggest drawbacks of the book. Which is why the book needs a serious discussion to understand why the heck can't he just get over her!

Despite my high expectations falling flat, the more I thought of the ending, the more I loved it. It was realistic, charming, and definitely brought an end to a gloomy day..