Review: George and Lizzie

George and Lizzie--a clever, inventive and funny first novel by "America's librarian" Nancy Pearl--examines what it takes for young lovers to finally come into their own, deal with their pasts and places in the world and solidify their relationship.

In the 1990s, George and Lizzie meet by chance: Lizzie--drunk on vodka, stoned and heartbroken over losing a guy she loved--is taken to a bowling alley by her college roommate, who longs to heal her friend and "mellow the sadness." In the adjacent lane of the Bowlarama is George, a dental student high on happiness while out to impress "the current woman of his dreams." The two pairs of strangers bowl side-by-side until Lizzie loses control of her ball, disrupting a potential strike for George and what could've been a stellar 200 game. The mishap sheds light on George's and Lizzie's respective personalities and launches a narrative imaginatively woven together through short episodes about the pair--who they were before their fateful meeting, the history and influences that shaped their lives and how they eventually evolve individually and, later, as a married couple.

Colorful yet perpetually cynical, secretive and regretful, Lizzie--Elizabeth Frieda Bultmann--is the literature and poetry-loving only child of respected and admired psychologist parents. They are behaviorists from Ann Arbor, Mich., who treat Lizzie more like a developmental psychology case than their own flesh and blood. Their detachment and inability to express love for Lizzie inspires her to act out in rebellious ways--most notably when she decides on a lark, as a high school senior, to sleep her way through the entire football team. Her conquest for meaningless sex with 23 young men is dubbed the "Great Game," and when her parents learn about it, they publish an article about Lizzie's adventurousness in Psychology Today magazine. This has far-reaching consequences and leads to a life-changing romantic heartbreak for Lizzie, who becomes emotionally paralyzed and robbed of happiness well into adulthood. Will Lizzie ever surmount her sordid past? In contrast, George Goldrosen is a softhearted optimist and "purveyor of happiness"--a good-natured, football-loving, endlessly forgiving dentist who had a wonderful childhood in Tulsa, Okla. His heart is untroubled outside of his aversion to pain, conflicted feelings toward his orthodontist father and idolizing his charming, good-looking older brother, Todd, who moved to Australia and renamed himself Kale.
 
Lizzie's and George's opposing views of the world, along with the opposites-attract nature of their decade-long romance--rife with complications and various references to literature and football--help them to grow in unexpected, often over-the-top ways. With humor and heart, Pearl mines the absurdities of life to great effect, while also unraveling a much deeper, moving love story that touches upon thought-provoking aspects of family, happiness and truth. --Kathleen Gerard, blogger at Reading Between the Lines.

Shelf Talker: A comic love story about how contrasting experiences of youth can define and shape lives and seep into the nooks and crannies of adulthood.

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