Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

Lincoln hates his job. Working nights at the newspaper as "internet security" isn't a hard job, and it pays very well. But the principle of the thing doesn't change. Lincoln is paid to snoop. He is the one that must read flagged intra-office emails to find the offenders who email things not appropriate and not pertaining to work. Some people might like going through other people's things, but it leaves Lincoln feeling off. He should quit this job, find a job in the sunlight, working with other people, instead of reading their emails. But then Beth and Jennifer get flagged, again, and again. Lincoln has never met them, never seen them, or heard them actually speak, but he can't help but feel like he knows them through their tell all narrations. They either can't take the policy seriously or don't care, and Lincoln should really send them a warning, get them to stop. But how could he give up Beth's wit or Jennifer's quips and stories? By the time he understands how deep in he is it's got to be too late to do anything about it. How can you become friends with someone when you've already read all of their very private emails?

In this funny and heartwarming story the reader follows around Lincoln O'Neill as he desperately toes the line between curiosity and the socially unacceptable. I absolutely loved this book. It was fun and interesting, and though it isn't a book filled with action it still manages to keep the reader sucked in page to page until it's done. 

I very much admired the way Rowell went about telling this story. All things accounted for, it was a delicate endeavor to tell a story about someone reading other people's emails and not make it creepy. But I have to say I didn't find Lincoln creepy at all. I actually kind of identified with him. He's just trying his best, and he doesn't mean to get as far as he goes. But do any of us really? I found it very realistic at how easily it is for him to get caught up in the web he finds himself. One thing leads to another until your standing at a chasm you didn't know you were toeing. But that's life. 

Another thing about Lincoln and his story that just really appealed to me was his age group and the place that he was stuck. He is firmly wedged in that area of time that no one wants to talk about: the "graduated but not left the house" person, who doesn't really have the job they want and just doesn't know how to get unstuck from the life they are now leading. I've heard the high school stories, the college stories, the midlife stories and beyond. But no one likes to talk about that transition period in between college and finding the life you want. I know not everyone finds themselves in it, but it is a very real and growing phenomena today and it was refreshing to find a story that addresses it without become slow and boring. 

I have found in reading Rowell (my first experiencing of her writing being with the YA novel Fangirl) is that she excels in writing about what no one wants to talk about. She takes these topics that everyone marks off either because they want to ignore them or everyone deems them too boring to support an actual novel, and she turns them into very real and wonderful stories. her books are all rather long, but they read like they short. you start them and before you know it you're done.

I was left with the best feeling of contentment when I finished this book, and the first words that left my mouth as I closed it at the end was, "That was beautiful". If you like something fun and quirky with just a little bit of divine intervention thrown in, you will love this novel.