Book Review: "Twenty-one Truths about Love" by Matthew Dicks

Things I enjoyed about this book:

1. The fact the book was written entirely in lists was really creative.
2. Amidst everything that went on in the book, it’s really a story about love, fear, and family.
3. Many of Dan’s thoughts are surprisingly on par with mine.

Things I didn’t enjoy about this book:

1. The list format started to wear me down.
2. There was one particular plotline that I found really irksome.
3. Darned book made me cry...

Dan left his teaching job to run a bookstore. It wasn’t as easy or profitable as he thought it would be. (Of course, he thought teaching would be easy, too, but...) He's afraid to reveal the extent of his financial struggles to his wife, Jill.

Much of Dan’s life is characterized by running away from his problems. He’s the master of not saying what needs to be said. He has feelings about his father, who is suddenly trying to reconnect with him after years of estrangement. He has feelings about the specter of Jill's first husband, who died, hanging over their heads.

When Jill gets pregnant he knows he must do something to get money or he’ll lose her—but his idea is a desperate one. He struggles with the reality of the situation and every possible solution, but he keeps coming back to the least-certain and riskiest one. And he knows the ramifications of his actions may be worse than his current situation.

Twenty-one Truths about Love is a poignant, sometimes scattered, sometimes disturbing look into the mind of a man who is struggling in so many ways. While some of the lists in the book illustrate where Dan's heart and mind are, some are a little quirky and bizarre. And some are downright funny.

Matthew Dicks is a great writer (his Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend still haunts me). I loved the concept and the heart of this story. It’s just, the list thing dragged the story down a bit, to the point where I skimmed through the lists when the subject seemed extraneous. (Some of the lists ran way too long, too.)

Despite my ultimate weariness with the lasting power of this concept, this was a really creative twist in storytelling and I’ll think of this book for a long while.

NetGalley and St. Martins Press gave me an advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making this available!

The book will publish on November 19.