The Lover's Dictionary by David Levithan

The Lover's Dictionary - 211 pages

David Levithan

Summary (From Goodreads)

There has to be a moment at the beginning when you wonder whether you're in love with the person or in love with the feeling of love itself.

If the moment doesn't pass, that's it―you're done. And if the moment does pass, it never goes that far. It stands in the distance, ready for whenever you want it back. Sometimes it's even there when you thought you were searching for something else, like an escape route, or your lover's face.

How does one talk about love? Do we even have the right words to describe something that can be both utterly mundane and completely transcendent, pulling us out of our everyday lives and making us feel a part of something greater than ourselves? Taking a unique approach to this problem, the nameless narrator of David Levithan's The Lover's Dictionary has constructed the story of his relationship as a dictionary. Through these short entries, he provides an intimate window into the great events and quotidian trifles of being within a couple, giving us an indelible and deeply moving portrait of love in our time.

Review

I found this to be an interesting and creative method of both writing about love and building a narrative in general.  The book is indeed formatted in the style of a dictionary, but instead of merely defining each of the chosen words, a scene is described - anywhere from a line to a page or two in length - that bears some relevance to the accompanying word.  The style doesn't lend itself particularly well to creating a singular, cohesive narrative, however, as the majority of the entries aren't in chronological order.  That said, the namelessness of the narrator and their partner, as well as the breadth of scope of the words and scenes included - both positive and negative - lend well to creating very real, relatable vignettes for people in all stages of love.