The Book of Us

Noah Greene has found the perfect girlfriend, which is great, because there’s a whole lot in his life that isn’t perfect – including starting at a new school in grade 11. Miranda is smart, athletic, and has a close group of friends. She may not be in the “cool crowd”, but that is more because she doesn’t care than anything else. Everyone seems to like her. All this Noah inherits when he first catches her eye and then her heart.

But then the “incident” happens during the summer. Miranda overhears a conversation that he has with another girl at the beach. What he says destroys their relationship and tears down the life that he had carefully built for himself. In desperation, he concocts a play to win Miranda back before prom. He will prove himself worthy of Miranda and document his journey through the book he writes with the working title of “The Book of Us.” This grand gesture will win Miranda’s heart and earn him the forgiveness that he so desperately desires.

The main premise of the novel, therefore, is that Noah is telling the story of their relationship. The novel starts in this moment of anger, then rewinds to explain how Noah and Miranda arrived at this pivotal moment before continuing to the conclusion. Although the story is told in the third person narrative, Noah includes footnotes throughout the novel to explain how he knows what a character is thinking or to provide commentary. He takes the reader back to the beginning of their relationship to show how he hid things from Miranda who accepted his flaws and understood the reasons why he originally kept secrets.

In his story, Noah creates an arc where he, as a flawed character, learns from his mistakes and improves himself to win the woman he loves. He puts Miranda on a pedestal and paints her only in glowing terms. His portrait of his own life, however, is not as kind. The reader learns that his family is struggling financially and emotionally. Noah cares for his alcoholic father and must work to supplement his father’s Workers’ Compensation benefits. To explain his lies and secrecy, and to show the difference between their living situations, Noah includes a chapter where they meet each other’s parent. Miranda has an excellent relationship with her mother who is a professional with a good job and an engaging personality. Noah, on the other hand, has tried desperately to keep his school life and his personal life separate. At Miranda’s insistence, she visits Noah’s shabby apartment, and her first impression of his dad is seeing his dad stumbling naked to the bathroom.

When Miranda breaks up with Noah, he quickly realizes how reliant he was on her and her social group. He decides to befriend her friends, hoping they will give Miranda glowing reports about him. But, as he starts his friend campaign, he realizes that Miranda’s friends all have their own lives that are also not perfect. He realizes that he is doing them a disservice by using them to gain brownie points with Miranda. This is just one of the schemes he concocts. He also tries to impress her with his basketball skills, by working out in the weight room, and by being the best student in the English class that they both take. Each of these schemes fail utterly. In his path of self-discovery, he finally begins to understand that being the best doesn’t mean being the star.

One of the strengths of the novel is Noah’s voice as he writes his book. Since he is the author of the story, he tries to ensure that his motivation and reasoning are understood by the reader, who he is hoping will be Miranda. Through his actions, he clearly shows the reader that his motivations are self-serving but well-intended. He is trying to do what he thinks Miranda would want him to do. He also honestly depicts his failed attempts to improve how Miranda perceives him.

It is when he finally realizes that he needs to make some changes without the weight of Miranda’s perceived approval that he begins to really begin to grow. It is this part of the story that I had the hardest time accepting. Because Noah is writing this for Miranda, it was in the back of my mind that Noah was now an unreliable narrator – was he really changing for himself, or was he still doing what he hoped would impress Miranda? The author, Shane Peacock, masterfully plays with this tension, allowing Noah to be aware of what he is doing and why. There are moments of humour in the novel. I wish there were more. It could use some additional levity to balance the guilt and love-lost angst.