There are no words to say how much I loved Emily (especially at first). I was truly amused by her younger self, possessing a very good vocabulary (in her own words) and never afraid to use it (mistakenly every now and then, but still charming me). She started talking at nine months (and her mother was so proud she kept recounting it), and wanted to become a writer, because she felt that’s what she was put on Earth to do. She’s carefully planning her future and is an outstanding student, so everyone (including herself) thinks that she’ll go far. Juliet is the very opposite at the time: her parents have recently divorced so she’s very shy and sensitive. She always feels like everyone else knows something she doesn’t, and is sort of ashamed because of that. Her favorite interjections were (and will remain) “Great Caesar’s Ghost!” and “For corn’s sake!”, the former amusing me to no end :)

It’s interesting to notice just how different the two girls actually are: Juliet loves order (for her an ordered kitchen/room is the symbol of an ordered life), Em doesn’t. Em hates ordinary and/or ubiquitous things; Juliet loves losing herself in a crowd. Em is the nostalgic kind, looking fondly to the past and fearing the future; Juliet is the very opposite, she always loves thinking about what the future can bring her. Nevertheless their friendship seemed very real to me: their personalities did clash at times but each wanted to protect the other from harm when things got rough.

The pie could be considered a character in itself, always there at the most important times in the girls’ lives. Em is much more attached to it (to the very idea of pie actually), as it reminds her of her glorious past that she has become so attached of. It is perhaps worth noticing though that, even if the girls make the pie all throughout the book, it ends up uneaten most of the times (for various reasons). A true symbol of their friendship actually: when things go okay between them they eat the pie together; when something goes wrong the pie is the first to “suffer”.

I must say I have totally loved Em’s college teacher, Dr. Campbell, and I very much agreed with his advice of keeping it simple. One of the things that amused me the most in the book was when Em was writing one of her assignments (“A tactile experience”). Em writes a short essay about tasting the pie, and I admired her talent then and there:

The first bite of pie was the best. It was surprisingly flavorful, an unexpected delight, like discovering an open gas station at midnight when your car is running on empty.
First the flaky crust, melting like snowflakes on the tongue. Then the first surprise of cherry, tart as a cold wind slapping against your face. Just as you grew accustomed to the cherry, the chocolate wrapped its loving embrace insidiously around your taste buds. Chocolate, like every Halloween you’ve ever experienced, every Easter basket left by that ubiquitous bunny. Cherry and chocolate mixed up, tart and sweet together, like conjoined twins with their arms wrapped around each other. Bundled up in the flaky embrace of the crust, like a child securely rolled up in his favorite blanket.
That was the first bite of pie. And also, the best.

And then her teacher writes on her paper “Rather an abundance of similes, like a torturous rain of hail upon my weary brow. Keep it simple.“, which amused me to no end, firstly because I didn’t notice it before but, now that I looked again, almost every sentence was a simile! :) Plus the teacher has imitated her style when writing the answer! :) :)
I just know I would have loved Dr. Campbell a lot, too bad he appears only a few times throughout the book, too few for my taste, I would have wanted more :)

In the end, I have to say I am left wondering “did that pie really taste that good?” :) (it does seem like a strange combination for pie filling — cherries, chocolate chips and Karo syrup)

What I liked most: Em. She’s got to be, by far, the character I have most things in common with, ever (or at least in all the books I’ve read). I have seen my feelings in her thoughts more than once (which I found cool, but has also helped me understand her better). The simile sort of fades in the later years (or is it that how I would like it to be?) but I am glad I felt it nevertheless (I’m always happy when seeing my feelings in books because I always thought I cannot express myself clearly enough — a problem book characters very rarely have).
My favorite moments in this (what I call) simile were two: first of all when Em was finishing high school and worried that all her friends will scatter throughout the country and their friendship will fade; the second was when she went to college and realized that she’s grown, that now it doesn’t matter that she talked at nine months (a former reason of pride) anymore, it only matters what she’ll do from now on.

What I liked least: Ugh. Vernon. More precisely, the way Vernon talked. This seems to fade a bit in the later years, but I found him really annoying at first. Especially as it was clear that the author wanted him to be one of the good guys. But his manner of speech was SO blah. (I do understand the whole “Drama Queen” concept but I’m not sure I like it, in general, and I definitely don’t like it here, in particular)

Recommend it? Yes, it’s a very fast read (and captivating too).

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