Love Walked In

by Marisa de los Santos (Goodreads author!)

published	November 28th 2006 by Plume
binding	Paperback
isbn	0452287898 (isbn13: 9780452287891)
pages	320
description	When Martin Grace enters the hip Philadelphia coffee shop Cornelia Brown manages, her life changes forever. But little does she know that her newfound...more [close] When Martin Grace enters the hip Philadelphia coffee shop Cornelia Brown manages, her life changes forever. But little does she know that her newfound love is only the harbinger of greater changes to come. Meanwhile, across town, Clare Hobbs—eleven years old and abandoned by her erratic mother—goes looking for her lost father. She crosses paths with Cornelia while meeting with him at the café, and the two women form an improbable friendship that carries them through the unpredictable currents of love and life. Love Walked In, the first novel by award-winning poet Marisa de los Santos, is bursting with keen insight and beautifully rendered prose. Invoking classic movies to illuminate the mystery and wonder of love in all its permutations, Love Walked In is an uplifting debut that marks the entrance of an enchanting literary voice. BACKCOVER: “Love indeed walks in, and with it, a breath of fresh air.” —Marie Claire “This is a book that will be passed from friend to friend with the words, `You have to read this.'” —Richmond Times Dispatch “Love Walked In, by Marisa de los Santos, is the kind of book that makes you want to hunker down on a chilly day in a comfy chair and read straight through 'til dark. . . .This [is a] poignant, heart-tugging story about a single woman and a little girl who develop an unlikely bond.” —The Washington Post Book World “A bewitching, warmhearted grown-up fairy tale about old movies, charming princes, and finding happily ever after in the place where you'd least expect it.” —Jennifer Weiner, author of Good in Bed, In Her Shoes, and Little Earthquakes “Marisa de los Santos's funny and beautifully written love story is as luminous as the silver screen.” —Lolly Winston, author of Good Grief “A touching, triumphant story of the power and variety and responsibility of love. A joy to read, filled with characters you wish you knew in real life. Love Walked In is every bit as engaging as the classic movies Marisa de los Santos lovingly invokes.” —Karen Joy Fowler, author of The Jane Austen Book Club “Exquisite and stylish, Love Walked In proves that love in all of its forms—romantic, friendship, familial—is all around us.” —Sarah Jessica Parker [close]
date added	02-16-07 edit book

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Paula rated it:

06/22/08

Read in June, 2008

I'm going to be completely honest about this and hope that my own recent... bitterness isn't seeping in to my review at all.

First, let me talk about the format of the book. I've only read one other book (recently) that used a shifting perspective to tell the story. I thought the vacillation between Cornelia and Clare to be fascinating, as well as much more successfully rendered than The History of Love (as well as less-confusing than said other book, mainly because each chapter says which pe...more I'm going to be completely honest about this and hope that my own recent... bitterness isn't seeping in to my review at all.

First, let me talk about the format of the book. I've only read one other book (recently) that used a shifting perspective to tell the story. I thought the vacillation between Cornelia and Clare to be fascinating, as well as much more successfully rendered than The History of Love (as well as less-confusing than said other book, mainly because each chapter says which perspective is telling that part of the story). It was also nice to read a book with an artistic framework (as in, told by the same person at the beginning and the end) and fresh language.

What I thought at times was disingenuous, however, was the dialog; at times, Cornelia just sounded a bit... off, especially when the dialog between characters went on for what felt like too long a stretch. Also, for the most part I enjoyed Cornelia's first-person account of how her life came to be what it is at the end of the novel, but (especially in the middle) I found she was too arch and witty for my liking, as though at that point it was inappropriate for her to be so.

Clare's traditional third-person perspective was more real to me, maybe because it's just more natural a story-telling trope in my literature-laden existence. Also, especially around the 1/3 point of the novel, I simply found Clare's story to be more interesting than Cornelia's (maybe because that's exactly the kind of story that I more often than not don't find myself reading), and only near the end was I beginning to pull for Cornelia again (and hope that her inevitable relationship with Teo would avoid typical chick-lit. conventions). Then again, about 1/3 of the way through the novel I had a better sense of where it was going.

Which leads me to my next point. I was both thrilled with and annoyed by not knowing what was coming next. On the one hand, I found the gradual unraveling of the story exciting and refreshing, and, even though I knew eventually Clare's mother would show up again to reclaim her daughter, I didn't know when it would happen until just before it did. On the other hand, it seemed odd that it took almost 100 pages for Cornelia and Clare to meet in the first place (considering that the narration alternated between them since the beginning of the novel), as well as that it took me so long to figure out that Martin was Clare's father. And not until about 2/3 of the way through the novel did I figure out why all the characters who had been introduced thus far at seemingly sporadic intervals were so important in the first place. The ending was neat and tidy, but maybe it took a little too long to set up that ending. Or maybe it just didn't need to be that... tidy.

I don't think I needed Cornelia to spell out for me that the "love" that "walked in" to her coffee shop was really about Clare and Teo and not about Martin, mainly because I got that about 225 pages in. But I was very, very pleased that the "love" Cornelia found again wasn't that typical, chick-lit. type that's become so popular these days. And I suppose that the ending really isn't all that "tidy" since I couldn't figure out how the complicated situation could possibly reconcile itself (except, now that I think about it more closely, I suppose there really was only one way in which it could happen, which is the one De Los Santos chose), but Cornelia just happening to inherit everything from Mrs. Goldberg was perhaps just a bit too convenient.

I also found myself, at times, confused with the setting of the book. Does it really only take an hour to get from Philadelphia to New York, for example? I don't live far from Philly, but it takes me well over two hours to hit just NYC... Plus, I had a really hard time placing Clare's mother's house in the relative area of Pennsylvania, as well as the general location of Cornelia's family's home. Not that the description was lacking at all, it just felt... not quite specific enough? I'm not sure what I mean exactly, just that my mental pictures were fuzzy at best when Clare and Cornelia walked around the city of Philadelphia, for example.

Overall, the book was pretty-well executed, not entirely predictable (yet satisfying in a happy-ending sort of way), and genuine enough to allow me to suspend my disbeliefs long enough to fall into the story De Los Santos was telling. I appreciated the literary references more than the film ones, I suppose, because I know the literary ones better, but I'm interested in going out and renting/buying those movies, so that's something! And, again, I'm all about endings that aren't exactly "happy" ones but feel resolved, and this book absolutely does that for me. Very glad I finally got around to reading it, and it makes me wonder where De Los Santos's newest book takes this story!...less

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