THE COURSE OF LOVE by Alain de Botton

At least the reader of this novel doesn’t have to deal with multiple unidentified narrators or a wacky timeline.  However, the author interrupts the narrative on almost every page with observations about romantic or marital love.  I don’t think I would have missed anything if I had skipped these snippets, but I realize that they are integral to the author’s intentions.  The storyline involves Rabih and Kirsten, both of whom lost a parent at a young age.  Rabih’s mother died of cancer, and Kirsten’s father walked out on Kirsten and her mother.  Consequently, they have a parental loss in common, but illness and abandonment bring very different insecurities to the victims, and the aggrieved children therefore have very different coping mechanisms that linger into their adult lives.  In any case, Rabih and Kirsten fall in love and get married, and this book seeks to explore the mundane and sometimes boring aspects of marriage rather than the exhilaration of the initial meeting and courtship.  The author examines both partners, but primarily Rabih, and their approach to marriage and raising a family, with all the required compromises, challenges, and division of labor.  Although I was not overly fond of the author’s frequent musings on the relationship, I did find the writings of a marriage counselor somewhat enlightening as to why Rabih and Kirsten struggle in their relationship, despite their obvious love for one another.  I kept expecting something drastic to happen, but the author did not have that in mind here.  This is not a book about human tragedy.  Rather, the author offers some philosophical commentary on the millions of ordinary people who make up this world.