The Versions of Us | Book Review

Wednesday, July 27, 2016

I picked up The Versions of Us at Waterstones on Tottenham Court Road on my last trip to London as I ran out of reading material shortly before my flight back home. And ain't nothing more boring than an airport commute + waiting around at the airport + a 1 and 1 /2 hour flight if you haven't got a book on you! I really liked the concept of this book, as it basically explores all the What Ifs of our lives.

The story follows Eva Edelstein and Jim Taylor who meet on one fateful day in Cambridge in October 1958, when Eva has an almost-accident with a dog while riding her bike to college. As with every chapter of the book, this first one is split into three versions. In version one the two of them meet and then decide to go out together, while in version two Eva is simply thanking Jim for his help before returning to her boyfriend David. Version three is rather similar to version one, as the two of them get on well and decide to go out together. Three different stories then unfold based on that one decision the two made here as well as several ones to follow.

Reading this book and following the three different lives the protagonists could have had really got me thinking. It's amazing to see how the tiniest and at that time unimportant decisions can alter everything in such a big way in the end. I especially loved how the book made me reconsider my 'favourite version' quite a lot! While at first everybody will probably agree that version one is the good, the happy one, as you read on you will see that things can change, that sometimes life gets in the way of happiness and also that life always goes on. I loved that even in the versions that started out so badly for the two, in one way or another things got better.

I took from this book, to not be so impatient with myself. I often find myself despairing about my life, about not being where I wanted to be at this time of my life, about things not going my way and I often fear that it will never get better, that I won't find the job I love, meet the man I want to spend the rest of my life with and all these other things I want. But Eva and Jim didn't always feel at their best, they were unsuccessful at their careers in some versions and unhappy with the partners they chose in other versions, in the end though it always got better, new doors opened, new opportunities arose so why shouldn't that be the case with my life too right?

So you can see, I really enjoyed this book and it really meant a lot to me. If you're in a similar situation as I am at the moment I cannot recommend this book enough! But even if you're not, I promise you will like this book. Because don't we all sometimes wonder how things would have turned out if we did something else differently? Don't we all sometimes regret something because we accuse it of sealing our fate with something we're not happy about now? Well this book explores all these what ifs, follows the consequences of decisions made and yet it's a happy book.

If you're looking for a new book try this one! Have you already read The Version of Us? If so what was your favourite version? What did you love most about the book? And last but not least: please leave me any suggestions to books you recommend in the comments below. I'm always on the hunt for good books and I guess if you've followed this blog for a while and have seen all my book reviews you probably even know what I'm into - thanks in advance :)

Lots of Love,
Jess xx