“I think I can live without you, but it won't be any kind of life.”
Rainbow Rowell has consistently written novels that I’ve enjoyed, immensely, and Landline is the newest novel of hers that I can add to that list.
While I don’t think that the concept behind Landline is unique, and it isn’t. Time travel themes have been done before, and in a lot of cases done better, but this was still such a great story, because what Rainbow Rowell does really well, in my opinion, is making the readers empathize with her characters. And I felt so much for Georgie.
The story revolves around the life of Georgie McCool, a TV writer who is about to catch her big break with a show she’s writing on. The issue is that the Network bigwigs want more than just the Pilot written for the show, so Georgie chooses to stay to help write over Christmas. This does not go over well with her husband, Neal, because they had already made plans to take their children to visit family in Omaha. Still, Georgie, wants to stay and get this TV show written. It’s her dream after all, and she assumes that the family can go another time to Omaha.
She assumes wrong, because Neal takes the girls without her, leaving Georgie alone days before Christmas (her own choosing). While on her own, she visits her mother, and because her phone never seems to have a charge, she uses an old landline to call Neal to make sure he and the girls have made it safely. She gets a hold of him, but it’s Neal circa 20 years ago. And thus a reconnection of souls occurs.
I would have loved to have read this during the holiday season, because I thought it just had a wonderful theme of family, mistakes and love to it. I thought that Georgie really grew during the story, and I just wanted her and Neal to have a true happily ever after.
I would definitely recommend this to any of my friend that want something quick and relatively light to read. While there was drama in the story, it took a backseat to Georgie and Neal’s reconnection, and I loved that.