Book Club

Have you ever read Wuthering Heights? I have, a few times. I generally love anything Brontë and anything Austin.

Recently, my book club read Pride and Prejudice. I may have already mentioned that I love it. I love Darcy and all the characters he has influenced in the romance genre. There are a lot. I couldn’t fathom someone reading that book and not liking him. Some people don’t.

But Wuthering Heights? Heathcliffe is a whiny baby, and you will not get me to believe otherwise. I may have to read it again, though. I may find myself relating to Catherine again. It is interesting to come back to these stories as an adult. I romanticised the gothic nature and some of the obsessive traits and things that maybe now I can see as mental illness, but before, this was love. I was reminded of it when Meyer added the book reference to her Twilight series. Wanting to pull you into the romance and liken Bella and Edwards love as that same all-consuming love that is not the conventional choice, a love that transcends death.

I did not have love as a kid in a typical way, and for someone to obsess over me was its own kind of obsession for me. I really haven’t got over that. The attention that comes from obsession can be addictive. When you have no one making an effort, that kind of effort looks enticing. But no one can keep it up and be a real person at the same time.

And I want real. I want balanced. But I will still dream of that transcendental, all-consuming love.