Love Story

....Eric Segal

St .Louis Post Dispatch regards Love Story “For someone who was in love or is in love or hopes to be in love.” Instinctively the accolade sounds real music to ears but until you are an apathetic psychopath you end up landing in either of the aforementioned classes. Ok, no tomfoolery! Let’s jump to business. Segal makes for an excellent bed time narrator with Love Story. Its not that he puts you to sleep instantaneously but that he facilitates the biological process with a flush of smoothness arising from the abyss of his tale.


The plot could not have got simpler and more mundane . The narration threads in Oliver Barrett IV a rich guy pursuing a degree in Harvard and Jenny Cavilleri a middle class working woman . Opposites as they are in most schemes of life their attraction begins without much delusion. Love calls for sacrifice and Oliver ; the man he is answers the call and estranges himself from his father. They marry and go to live together. The entire saga sounds much more of a bollywood movie made in the early nineties. The initial stages of their married life puts them in the thick and thins of life. With not much money to support they live a life barely fulfilling their daily needs. It is only after Oliver gets a job that they move into posh corners of life.


The book seldom gets romantic but when it does it does just enough to strike the right chord. And so you feel when you read “Love means never to say you are sorry!”One never drowns himself in the book. The water is not so deep. It weaves no fairy tales. Just reads and lets you read. Consequently, it becomes improbable to draw a dichotomous view on the book.
It is but with the end drawing close that Segal hits the jackpot. The conclusive pages are magnificently blended . Every word strikes a message. It leaves you craving for more. Yes , the end does the magic. You just feel you are on a high and it all ends. It unsettles you for a moment. The pain is bearable. It’s just that it is unjust!


It’s in this unsettled state that one ends up dreaming the one person he has loved or hopes to be in love with. And in this one instant Love Story cradles itself in the swing of magnificence. Segal sighs with relief. It has done his part. It has made you recall love.