Landline by Rainbow Rowell

Landline

by Rainbow Rowell

Georgie McCool knows her marriage is in trouble. That it's been in trouble for a long time. She still loves her husband, Neal, and Neal still loves her, deeply -- but that almost seems beside the point now. Maybe that was always besides the point. Two days before they're supposed to visit Neal's family in Omaha for Christmas, Georgie tells Neal that she can't go. She's a TV writer, and something's come up on her show; she has to stay in Los Angeles. She knows that Neal will be upset with her -- Neal is always a little upset with Georgie -- but she doesn't expect to him to pack up the kids and go home without her. When her husband and the kids leave for the airport, Georgie wonders if she's finally done it. If she's ruined everything. That night, Georgie discovers a way to communicate with Neal in the past. It's not time travel, not exactly, but she feels like she's been given an opportunity to fix her marriage before it starts. Is that what she's supposed to do? Or would Georgie and Neal be better off if their marriage never happened?

Reviewed by Terri M. LeBlanc on

3 of 5 stars

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It’s election season and this house gets constant calls every night during dinner wanting to know our opinion about who should be elected president. Yes, I’m one of those crazy people who still owns a landline. And yes, I grew up in the 80s and 90s and can recall stretching the cord on the phone at my parent’s house to the bathroom, closing the door part way and talking to my high school boyfriend hoping no one would overhear. So to say I identified with Georgie and the phone in her childhood bedroom is a little bit of an understatement.

I like the messages or lessons in Landline more than I liked the characters. Georgie and Neal were just a tad too annoying to me. While I do believe their relationship is a reflection of real relationships, I found it hard to identify with them. There were times when I wanted to slap Georgie for being so wishy-washy. She was so frustrating whimpy and so full of non-action when it seemed clear she WANTED to act that I found myself grinding my teeth and telling her to move her ass in my head as I listened to this in my car.

Now the messages or lessons of Landline I totally identified with. The idea that love is something you work at and work for made my heart sing. The idea that we shouldn’t take our loved ones for granted is something I identified with a great deal. The “hindsight is 20/20” reflection on what life might have been if we had taken the other fork in the road happens on a regular basis for many of us. And if you have experienced the loss of a loved one, either through death or a breakup or separation, who doesn’t wish they could talk it all through again and try to make sense of why it happened?

Overall, I enjoyed Landline. It tells a realistic love modern love story about how our daily lives and actions affect those around us, ourselves included. While I did find Georgie’s inaction annoying, the overarching messages and lessons in Landline made this a strong read for me.


This review was originally posted on Second Run Reviews

Last modified on

Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 30 June, 2016: Finished reading
  • 30 June, 2016: Reviewed