Review: Why We Broke Up

Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



Dear Mr. Handler and Ms. Kalman,

Two days after I finished reading your book, I still can't stop thinking about it. That's why I gave it five stars. Because "It was amazing" is when you can't stop thinking about something. Sticks to your head like a 1990s bubblegum pop song. And I mean that in a happy happy way.

Mr. Handler, you described the feelings of teenagers so perfectly. I could imagine that perfect, imperfect high school boy everybody loves to love--handsome, athletic, with a heartbeat-skipping, eardrums-pounding smile, etcetera etcetera. I could imagine falling in love with him too, like Min Green did. I could imagine blaming myself, mentally chasing myself with a meat cleaver, should things go wrong between me and him--crying crying crying because he's so perfect and yet he's not. And between his perfection and assholey imperfection, I find myself wallowing in the muck of self-pity because perfect, imperfect as he is, I do not deserve him.

Having read this more than a decade past my teenagerhood, and at an age when I myself could be dealing with a teenager soon enough, I know that Min should have chosen the right guy, the kind guy, the guy who likes the same movies as she does, the same coffee, the same different stuff, who rides on the same arty waves as she does. But because you painted the characters so well, I actually felt for the "jerk" in the story. I felt that he really loved the heroine. But he couldn't help who he is, which is simply, of course, a teenager.

The title is a dead giveaway (duh) that unlike most teen romances/young adult books, Why We Broke Up does not (would not?) have the heroine and the boy ending up in each other's arms (or some other variation of a happy-ish ending). But the important thing is, your book dealt with Teenage Reality. I mean, come on, how many high school couples really end up with each other? Broken, bleeding hearts are really part of the teenage journey, and thank you for telling a deceptively simple, but exceptionally clever (and heartfelt!) story about that.

By the way, that self-loathing soliloquy near the end? Plain Brilliant.

Ms. Kalman, if only I could draw/paint my praises for your work, I would. And even if I could write them, I don't have the words. I'm a FAN.

If the two of you were a real-life couple, I would tell you to go on and have more more kids. Your superior genes deserve to spread.

Looking forward to your next collab.



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