Book Review: "Still Me" By Jojo Moyes

Source: amazon

Introduction

Book Name: Still Me 

Author: Jojo Moyes 

Language: English 

Genre: Literary Fiction

Author

Jojo Moyes, who was given the song's title by the Beatles, was born in 1969 and raised in London. After a varied career that saw her work as a minicab controller, typist for NatWest producing braille statements for the blind, and writer of Club 18-30 brochures, she completed a degree at Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, London University.

Aside from 1994, when she worked in Hong Kong for the Sunday Morning Post, she worked at The Independent for ten years, holding positions as assistant news editor and arts and media correspondent. 

In 1992, she won a scholarship funded by The Independent newspaper to attend the postgraduate newspaper journalism course at City University. Since 2002, when her debut book, Sheltering Rain, was published, she has worked as a full-time novelist.

Plot

Louisa Clark arrives in New York prepared to begin a new life. She has faith in her ability to embrace this new adventure and maintain her relationship with Ambulance Sam despite their distance of more than 3,000 miles. 

She is thrust into the opulent Gopnik family's world, which includes Leonard and Agnes, his second wife who is much younger, as well as an endless supply of household staff and hangers-on. In this privileged world, Lou is determined to make the most of the opportunity and immerses herself fully in her job and New York life.

Before Lou realises what is happening, she is mingling in high society in New York, where she meets Joshua Ryan, a man who carries a hint of her past. In Still Me, Lou struggles to hold the two halves of her world together while carrying secrets that aren't entirely her own and that results in a drastic improvement in her situation. 

And when things reach a crisis point, she is forced to ask herself, Who is Louisa Clark? And how do you make peace with a heart that has two homes?

Personal Review

With Me Before You, Jojo Moyes created a modern love story about two people from very different backgrounds who first find a vague annoyance and then fall in love as they learn more about each other and their own ideas of what it means to live a meaningful life.

Instead of having cancer, the protagonist in this story, Will Traynor, is a quadriplegic who is determined to end his life after becoming paralysed (a fact that drew righteous ire from the disabled community), and Louisa Clark is his upbeat, well-intentioned caregiver. 

After reading two novels, Louisa returns to Still Me and begins a new life in New York City working as an assistant to a wealthy Fifth Avenue wife.

The best instalment of the Me Before You trilogy has been produced as Louisa has grown and matured and as Moyes' novels have done as well. Here, Moyes tries to explore what it really means to discover oneself and create a life with others rather than just for them. Louisa travels to New York while working for the Gopniks. 

Louisa finds herself caught up in the lies and secrets of Mr. Gopnik's second wife, Agnes, who is well-intentioned but self-centred, and she starts to lose sight of the things that are important to her, like her love of bright, vintage clothing and her relatively new paramedic boyfriend back in London.

The difficulties (and heartache) she encounters in the nonstop city force her out of her comfort zone and down genuinely unpredictable paths. Louisa discovers how to create a life that is genuinely hers alone while steadily maintaining her enormous heart and sense of compassion and making new friends along the way.

The return of previous characters occurs frequently enough to please even the most devoted readers, and Moyes' talent for creating completely original and endearing new characters that come to life on the page is still present. 

Ashok, a kind and socially active doorman, is one of the new characters, and Margot De Witt, Louisa's grouchy elderly neighbour, emerges as an unanticipated ally and friend. Margot, a touching ode to women who must deal with the personal cost (and reward!) of prioritising one's career and desires over societal expectations and domesticity, is a cross between Iris Apfel and a vastly kinder Norma Desmond.

Her story, which runs concurrently with Agnes', serves as a sharp, timely reminder to Louisa of the disconnect between women's private lives and the public personas they are expected to assume.

For readers of the earlier books, Moyes has created a fitting end to her trilogy, providing a conclusion bursting with pathos and warmth. Finally, Louisa and Moyes take on the challenge of courageously looking inside their own hearts as they strive to transform an ordinary life into something extraordinary. There is a lot to learn from these pages even if you haven't read the other books in the trilogy. 

Here, Moyes has written a clear-eyed story of self-discovery and the sacrifice required to live a life honestly in pursuit of the things you love, where Me Before You occasionally veered into manipulative sentimentality. While doing so, Louisa manages to convey just enough sentimental gestures and small acts of kindness through the lens of her refreshing sincerity.

Written by: Greeshma Chowdary 

Edited by: Nidhi Jha