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Comments (0)Any single Jewish woman over age 18 can relate to Dr. Annabelle Charbit’s Maxine in “A Life Lived Ridiculously,” even if she is not afflicted with obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Maxine, a 28-year-old woman in London, is miserable, with few friends, and is constantly nagged by her parents and relatives to find a nice Jewish husband. She meets Sam, a smooth-talker afflicted with numerous terminal diseases, and believes it’s a match. However, Sam is a manipulative sociopath from whom Maxine must escape to retain any sanity.
What makes “A Life Lived Ridiculously” so refreshing is how real it is. We have all dated people like Sam, liars who will say anything in order to get what they want from you. Charbit, a first-time novelist, captures everything that makes the dating scene simultaneously so exciting and so frustrating, from the exhilaration of a first kiss to the despair when you realize that he is ignoring your messages.
Maxine is delightful not despite her mental quirks, but because of them. The reader empathizes even more when circumstances do not work out in her favor than for the typical protagonist, because he or she recognizes how difficult dating can be even for the most socially “normal” people. Charbit also does a good job of building up suspense about Sam, giving the novel an exciting twist towards the end.
Charbit’s novel is not only a fun read, but also will ring true with all who pick it up. Her imperfect, yet often lovable, characters will captivate the reader for the entirety of the book.