Cambridge |
Hongkong |
The Versions of Us is Laura Barnett’s debut
novel that works on the theme that there could be different versions of us that
might lead to alternate endings.
The novel reads like three different novellas about the same protagonists. The
novel is best read in one seating as it makes reading easier when the different
versions simultaneously unfold the different paths taken by the protagonists ,
Eva Edelstein and Jim Taylor. When I read it in between my work and activities
that need attention, I found myself revisiting the previous pages to refresh my
memory in order to get a clear
view of the version I was reading as I swapped from one version to another . Eva and Jim Taylor are essentially the same people in all three versions. Eva is an easy to like character as she is sensible and
strong. Eva becomes a writer while Jim is a
solicitor turned painter and artist ;their stories began when they were nineteen
and university students at Cambridge.
In version one, as Eva swerves to miss a
small dog, her bicyle hits a nail and the tyre is punctured. Jim passes by and
offers to mend it and they fall in love. Eva breaks off with David, the
boyfriend she has and marries Jim.
Later , Eva will think, If it
hadn’t been for that rusty nail, Jim and I would never have met.
In version
two, Eva’s bike narrowly misses a
dog which skitters towards her and
she is all shaken when she stops.
Jim asks if she is alright.
‘Are you all right there?’
Another man was approaching from the opposite direction : a boy, really , about
her age, a college scarf looped loosely over his tweed jacket.
‘ Quite all right, thank
you,’ she said primly. Their eyes
met briefly as she remounted- his an uncommonly dark blue, framed by long,
girlish lashes –for a second she was sure she knew him, so sure that she opened
her mouth to frame a greeting . But then, just as quickly, she doubted herself
, said nothing, and pedaled on. As soon as she arrived at Professor Farley’s
rooms and began to read out her essay on the Four Quartets, the whole thing
slipped from her mind.
In version two,
Eva marries David.
In version
three, Eva’s bike hits the nail and Jim helps fix the puncture. She ends up falling for Jim but she decides to do the right thing by marrying David, her boyfriend then. She subsequently finds herself unhappy in her marriage. On New Year’s Eve, David, an
actor and Eva attend a party at the Hancock Park Home of David’s
agent in Los Angeles.
‘Eva stands alone, drinking
champagne, looking down at her hateful pink dress. She has an uncomfortable
vision, suddenly, of her entire relationship with David as an unspooling
sequence of these moments, a shifting film-strip of inappropriate dresses,worn
to parties at which she knows no one.’
I have always been fascinated by themes about chance,coincidences and the big question of 'what if'. Are our lives pre-ordained or the result of random meaningless encounters or serendipitous
moments? Every decision and choice we have made maps the course of our
lives. Some moments do change
everything. Whatever knocks and hitches we face along the bumpy roads
of life may or may not be the consequences of our choices. We can only hope that these hiccups help us to become better people.
Barnett's debut novel cleverly explores the nature of love and the possibilities about how there might be some moments when our lives could have taken a different course. The author gives us three possible versions of what possibly happens in the future for the protagonists. click
Barnett's debut novel cleverly explores the nature of love and the possibilities about how there might be some moments when our lives could have taken a different course. The author gives us three possible versions of what possibly happens in the future for the protagonists. click
Cambridge |