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    I Could Love You: A Novel
    I Could Love You: A Novel
    I Could Love You: A Novel
    Ebook402 pages5 hours

    I Could Love You: A Novel

    By William Nicholson

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    British suburbanites wrestle with the trials of midlife: “Smart, crisp insight and lacerating wit . . . The feel of a Nick Hornby novel with a little more teeth” (Publishers Weekly).
     
    When Belinda discovers her husband is having an affair, she’s furious, hurt, and bent on leveling the score. But Belinda isn’t the only one in her affluent suburban neighborhood suffering the indignities and disappointments of middle age. Instead of resting comfortably in the glow of earlier good decisions, she and her neighbors have just as much angst as they did in their twenties.
     
    One of Belinda’s friends fears her own husband is unfaithful, too. But when she finds out there’s no other woman—that he’s found God instead—this, to her, is the biggest betrayal. A renowned artist, near death, is convinced that his entire life has been a waste. And a schoolteacher, upon achieving his dream of selling a screenplay to Hollywood, finds himself buffeted by the maddening whims of the studio executives, who are no longer looking for a serious drama, but a low-brow comedy about a talking dog.
     
    Yet, even as the grownups in this searching, beautifully told story try to claw back the happiness that has slipped away, two college kids who believed they’d never find love discover a glimmer of hope . . .
     
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Integrated Media
    Release dateJul 5, 2011
    ISBN9781569479551
    I Could Love You: A Novel
    Author

    William Nicholson

    William Nicholson is a screenwriter, playwright, television writer, and novelist. In addition to his Academy Award–nominated screenplays for Shadowlands and Gladiator, he is the author of Motherland; several young adult and fantasy novels; and a sequence of contemporary adult novels set in England. He lives in Sussex, England.

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    Reviews for I Could Love You

    3.5/5

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    • 3/5
      This novel is quite reminiscent of the movie 'Love Actually' - set in and around London during the Christmas holiday season, a cast of interconnected characters spanning all age groups seeks meaning in love and life. Nicholson has reasonable success making the characters' voices distinct, though for the first section of the novel I did have a hard time keeping track of which people were related, which were just friends and which ones were the most unknown. The middle aged-group are battling the monotony of monogamy and the challenges of childrearing; the adolescents are either over-sexed or under-experienced, trying to navigate the complexities of sex and relationships; the oldest character has given up on life, feeling a lack of recognition of himself in the world, while the youngest child is desperately seeking attention and love in all the wrong places. Nicholson places his novel soundly in modernity, referencing and also mocking our obsession with things like Facebook and also tackling our perception of art, both traditional and modern. I enjoyed this book, I found myself engaged in the characters' struggles and rooting for some and against others. I think Nicholson has an entertaining novel here that does a good job of capturing the way people often overthink their lives to an almost comical degree. I wish that some of the characters had been more developed, I wanted more from Matt the plumber and from Meg, his live interest - I think they might have been the most interesting stories in the book and their non-resolution left me a little wanting. But in general, I liked the book, it was an enjoyable read - I give it 3 stars.
    • 3/5
      I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway, that in no way affects the content of my review. This novel centers around love. We see many characters, whose lives all seem to be connected in some way, and we see their journeys in relation to love. The joy of love, the heartbreak, the awkwardness of new love, unrequited love. Overall I enjoyed the book. It was a little confusing at first remembering who certain characters were but then it became easier as I read more. I enjoyed most of the characters stories, but there was one thing that just seemed off to me. In the book Alice finds out that Chloe, her friend, and her most of the time absent father Guy are in a relationship. She is rightfully mad, but she calls him seconds after figuring it out and forgives him right away. The whole situation seemed weird and that just made it weirder.
    • 5/5
      William Nicholson's novel is the second in a series of three set in Sussex, England. The first novel was The Secret Intensity of Everyday Life. I Could Love You will be followed by the third novel that will be published in November 2011, according to the author on his web page. I Could Love You is self-contained, but I recommend that the reader starts at the beginning of the series. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. It is well-structured with each chapter focusing on one of the main characters who provides the point of view. The writing style reminds me of Anthony Powell, Patrick Hamilton, and Simon Brett. A careful presentation of the English language allows the reader to experience immediately and clearly the thoughts and actions of the characters. The themes in the novel also remind me of the work of the British writers I mentioned and also the work of Henry James. A main theme is desire, the physical attraction of one person to another. When social context sets the standard, there are winners and losers in the ability to be desired. At first, the comforts and routines of social interaction seem easier and better for physically attractive individuals, and the apparently less appealing ones lag behind. The undesirables have a bag they keep adding to with little hurts and big disappointments that they must drag behind them as they venture out in the world looking to be desired. As the load grows, their progress slows until they no longer have the will to leave the house. If unchecked, the probability of a chance encounter with someone who could desire them dwindles to zero. The advantage is reversed when it comes to love. The undesirables are sometimes able to throw off their expectations and enter relationships with more true emotion (fear dominates) than the desirables. Then, astonishingly, they become more desirable than the physically attractive ones and offer reciprocal desire for their partners. Here is the platform for the realization that, miraculously, I Could Love You. This is not what friends and family are demanding but rather what each person must discover independently. The considerable risk, though, is that being an iconoclast can lead to social isolation without ever having an opportunity to feel desired. And, even when the time comes, there is always the possibility that the person cannot quite express true personal desires to another. Each of the main characters tries to find the truth in relationships by realizing the artificiality of social standards of desirability. Paradoxically, those who find the beginning of the truth independently must confirm it in being desired by another person. Those who act on desires created by popular social judgments experience the pain of missed or distorted love. I am adding William Nicholson to my short list of very good British writers. I look forward to reading the other two novels in the series.
    • 4/5
      When I first began “I Could Love You” – the title of the book threw me a bit. It just sounded so…halfhearted? The “could” was such a qualifier that I didn’t know what to expect.What I got was a book that starts off with what seem too many characters who are too interconnected, but that grows in emotional depth and honesty. The reader is given a view of love and sex at many stages of life, in many different forms and from very differing points of view.Some loves are secret, some are brand new, some decades old and undergoing great change. The reader is able to view the relationships from both partner’s perspectives which at times proves fascinating.“What more can he offer her? Love? This thing that women distinguish from sex, the sticky residue that’s left over when you take sex out of the equation. The thing that lasts, where everyone knows sex is fleeting. But love and sex can’t be separated like this, they’re both somewhere in the seething mess along with vanity and habit and dread and self-doubt. Even on its own no one knows what love is. Is it the flush of infatuation? Is it the confession of desperate need? Or a heightened form of friendship?”To which the answer seems to be, it is all of these things and more. It depends on the circumstances of the people, the way they meet, where they are in their lives at the time, what their pasts and futures hold. These characters are torn between those they love and desire and those who love or desire them. Which is stronger? Which proves to be of a greater power? Desire or being desired? Loving or being loved? Beauty or being seen as beautiful?“…beauty. We define it so variously that it doesn’t exist. What does exist, what remains constant, is our feelings about beauty: what we seek is a certain feeling about ourselves which is stimulated by the perception of others. The entire process actually happens in the mind, in our own minds and in the minds of the people round us.”Some characters stood out more than most…Belinda and Tom and Meg and the effects of infidelity. Alice and Jack and Chloe and young love and heartbreak.And by the end of the book, after looking at love from all sides and places and times, the title makes much more sense. It isn’t half-hearted at all. It’s gentle hearted, a whisper of hope, that after all, “”I Could Love You”.
    • 4/5
      Received this as a GoodReads First Read.A seven day soap opera. A small town in England, several families and others interconnected through relationships and friendships and acquaintanceships. Marriages are faltering and strengthening; relationships are strengthening and breaking apart. Adults are trying to figure out this thing called life, their teenage kids are trying to figure out this thing called life. The one thing that everyone figures out, “It isn’t about being happy.”Great easy reading, a bit harsh language, but as I said, “soap opera.”

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    I Could Love You - William Nicholson

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