4 out of 4 stars
Share This Review
A Journey of a Lifetime in Under 24 Hours
I love romantic stories as much as any other girl. But have found myself disappointed by most of them over the years. That was not the case with this book.
From its protagonists to the way it was woven together (because there is no other way you can describe the writing style), Breaking Sandcastles by Kirk Burris is a beautifully-written love story that breaks every convention of the romance genre, but which still retains within it the beauty of destiny we often see in real life (if we are observant enough).
The story begins by introducing us to the sixty-four-year-old protagonist, Marion, who is quirky, funny, and “not too shabby, for an old broad”. She is obviously still in love with her husband, Jonathan, even after having spent so many years together. And through beautifully-written descriptions of the setting and subtle body language, we are told that the two old lovebirds live in a house by the sea.
But the story quickly takes a tragic turn when Marion finds her husband collapsed on the sand, having sustained a severe heart attack. The remaining story takes us back and forth from the present timeline of the 21st century to the 1960s when Marion and Jonathan met for the first time and how their life unfolded through the decades after that.
Mr. Burris is a brilliant author because each shift was woven so masterfully into the whole that by the end of the last page I felt as if I had lived a lifetime spanning decades alongside the protagonists even though in reality, I had only spent close to 16 hours finishing this book.
I loved the story!
In fact, never before have I laughed, cried, gotten angry, irritated, and experienced every other emotion while reading a book.
Nor have I found myself learning and growing just as the protagonists did through the story. So I shall repeat it again – Mr. Burris is a brilliant writer. And here are all the technical reasons why this book really stood out to me:-
1. The characters were well-developed, full flesh and blood with distinct personalities and point of views.
And while all the secondary characters were not as well-developed as the protagonists, I really liked the way Belladonna Beaumonte grew as a person over the years. Her dialogues and reactions were as distinct as Marion and Jonathan’s in the story.
I also felt the same distinctness from Cassidy (Marion’s daughter).
2. Mr. Burris has taken to heart the cardinal rule of good storytelling – show, don’t tell.
3. The author is very good at writing descriptions and evoked emotions from me. In fact, the deliciously described delicacies positively left me salivating and reaching for my phone to order in some dessert. Here’s a small snippet (warning: it will make you hungry):
“Dessert was a chocolate lovers dream. A little black dome came out for each of them. It looked harmless at first. What appeared to be a hard outer shell, was actually a perfectly smoothed layer of rich ganache. As the fork slid through the top, it revealed that inside were three layers of decadence; one dark chocolate mousse, one light chocolate mousse, and the bottom, a layer of velvety chocolate cake.”
In fact, I loved the entire dinner party scene on Captain Bonheur’s yacht at St. Tropez.
But it wasn’t only the technical aspects of good storytelling that has me head-over-heels in love with this love story.
I loved it because it reminded me of my own grandparents’ love story and how they died five days apart from each other. That’s why I said earlier that this story is hauntingly realistic even though not many of us are fortunate enough to find our soulmate the way Marion and Jonathan did.
I loved it because it reminded me that in real life angels come to us bearing messages in many different forms. It’s up to us whether we listen to them or don’t. Like Jonathan did when Noemi, the Can-Can dancer at Moulin Rouge told him, “whatever happened, make it right”.
I loved it because it taught me that love knows no age, race, caste, or creed. And while Breaking Sandcastles tackles only the age aspect of it (Marion is eleven years older to Jonathan), it showed me how judgmental I was of women who are older than their lovers, and how inconsequential age truly is in the grand scheme of things. It’s maturity that truly matters.
And I loved it because when I understood why the book was named Breaking Sandcastles, I also understood that life is impermanent and that every end is an opportunity to build something even better in the future. So there truly is no point trying to force everything to go our way. Because it won’t.
I give this book 4 out of 4 stars. Thank you, Mr. Burris, for sharing this story with the world.
******
Breaking Sandcastles
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Like RiaM's review? Post a comment saying so!
