Book 39/30.
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
4 ½ silver lined stars 🤩
The Silver Linings Playbook takes us inside the mind of Pat Peoples, showing us the world from his distorted yet endearing perspective. Pat has a theory: his life is a movie produced by God. And his God-given mission is to become physically fit and emotionally literate, whereupon God will ensure a happy ending for him — the return of his estranged wife, Nikki. A former history teacher who has moved back to his childhood home after spending time in a psychiatric hospital, Pat believes he has been away only a few months but soon realises that is not the case and he struggles to piece together his lost memories and what has become of his wife, Nikki. Which leads him to theorise that his life is a film created by God and that its silver lining will be the end of “apart time” with Nikki once he becomes a better man.
This debut novel by Matthew Quick is both a breezy and a serious read. Breezy in that it is a darkly comedic novel that I read in two sittings, and serious because of its subject matter centered around mental illness and the dynamics of a dysfunctional family.
During his first week back home, Pat gets invited to a dinner party by his former best friend Ronnie and his wife Veronica, where he meets Tiffany, Veronica’s sister, who is also struggling with her mental health. The two slowly become friends and their friendship was definitely maybe my favourite aspect of the novel and I rooted for them from start to finish 😍
On his quest to become a better man, Pat builds new relationships and rebuilds existing ones centered around the Philadelphia Eagles. There is a lot of football talk in this book, which some Goodreads reviewers were not fans of, but I did not mind it for two reasons:
1. Football is how Pat reconnects with his brother and the world around him as he becomes part of a community while tailgating. The sport also provides him with a link to his emotionally distant father.
2. It was fun to read about the Eagles because Taylor Swift (my ULTIMATE fave) is an Eagles fan, a fact I did not know until I heard the lyric “with my Eagles t-shirt hanging from the door” in the song gold rush off evermore.
With time we come to learn that Playbook is a story about a guy whose life has been shattered yet he does not even realize the extent of it. We do not learn why Pat was in the mental institution until later in the book, and that reveal had me deep in my feelings 🥺
This was my second Matthew Quick read and I enjoyed it sooo much more than I thought I would 🥳 Ironically, the first book of his I read was Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock and I liked it less than I thought I would 😅 I even lowkey felt bad that I rated it 3 stars because I really thought I would love it as Emily May wrote a beautiful, moving review that made me add it to my Goodreads Want to Read shelf the minute I read it. But with Playbook, I (furiously) debated whether or not to give it a 5 star rating, but after thinking it through I realised that having to (furiously) debate that in the first place means the answer is no. Because with 5 star books, as with love, when you know, you know 😍 But it was too damn special for just 4 stars, hence the extra ½ star as I quite enjoyed this darkly comedic novel and was won over by Pat (he is sooo lovable), his childlike voice full of optimism, the quirky characters who all felt incredibly real, and the author’s lighthearted approach to serious topics. Many Goodreads reviewers say Playbook is the adult The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and now I am interested in rereading it to see if I agree with them.
PS: I started reading this on August 15 at that is Jennifer Lawrence’s birthday, making it the perfect day to start the book her Oscar winning performance was based on 🤓 and now I cannot wait to rewatch the movie and compare it with the book 🤩
PPS: I am not a fan of movie/TV tie-in book editions but since it’s #JLaw and I love her, I overlooked my dislike 😅
View all my reviews
** A guide to ratings **
1 star – did not like it
2 stars – it was okay
3 stars – liked it
4 stars – really liked it
5 stars – it was amazing
Lwile the Leo 