Reproducing an old review of Love Story that I wrote long ago. RIP Erich Segal.
What can you say about a twenty-five year old girl who died? That she was beautiful. And brilliant. That she loved Mozart and Bach. And the Beatles. And me.
Thus begins Erich Segal's classic - Love Story. Whenever I read this novel I get captivated by these lines and I don't look up from the book until I have finished reading the last line, some 130 pages later. The first time I read Love Story start to end, I had a semester exam less than 12 hours later; since then, I have read it many more times, and each time, i can't help but feel that lump in the throat.
Come, let me take you to that beautiful world in which Jennifer Cavilleri (an American of Italian descent) and Oliver Barrett IV (no relation to the poet) shared a few years. The kind of world that perhaps looks beautiful in Erich Segal novels. The kind that you dream about.
Erich Segal started his career as a novelist with Love Story, the love story of a Harvard Law student, the son of a banker and a Radcliffe music student, the daughter of a baker. They meet in the library and start with a wonderful bickering session.
"What the hell makes you so smart?" I (Oliver) asked. "I wouldn't go for coffee with you," she answered. "Listen - I wouldn't ask you." "That," she replied, "is what makes you stupid."
Typical Hindi phillum style, you might think. And perhaps you are right. The story is very predictable. Oliver and Jenny get married and the senior Barrett decides to disinherit his son. The newly married couple faced hajaar difficulties because Oliver is yet to complete his law studies. Again, typically, the face everything with wonderful spirit. Oliver stands third in his class and gets a hi-fi job. And then, everything seems to be going well, until the doctors starts talking about leukemia.
If this is novel is so typical and predictable, why am I crazy about it? Because it is different (as our Bollywood folks keep saying!). When I was asked at an interview what my favourite novel was, I said Love Story. The interviewer asked me, "Why?" I replied, "Because I feel that the same things can happen to me too." (That I didn't get the job is a different matter altogether.)
The words 'simple' and 'brilliant' pretty much sum up the book. The story is poignant, the narration is simple and the humour is infectious.
There are some wonderful lines in the novel. Like when these two get married, Oliver says, "Jenny, we are legally married!" She replies, "Yeah now I can be a bitch." Or the most beautiful line of Love Story. "Love means not ever having to say sorry." Don't take it too literally though, times are different :-)
If you have not read this before, just rush to the nearest bookstore and read it. If you've already read it half a dozen times, one more time will still be fun.
PS. The movie's good too, but the book as usual, is better!