Have you seen You’ve Got Mail?  Think about that movie, remove the bookshop wars, and reduce the interactions to more passive ones.  That would have to be Attachments.  Rainbow Rowell’s grown up novel is an amusing kick off to my reading week.  Honestly, she can write for any audience and the story would be seamless and flowing.

This has to be the first novel where I don’t know who the lead character is.  All I know is the male lead, Lincoln, has the same name  of my favorite couple’s first baby.  What a life Lincoln led.  You’d think it was plain and simple, but that’s the beauty of it all.  Oh and the lack of meet cute.

Attachments tells the story of an email screener guy (Lincoln) following the story of two friends (Beth and Jennifer).  They all work for the paper The Courier.  A movie critic and a copywriter, Lincoln immediately took to a liking to their friendship and developed a more intimate relationship with their email… which is kind of creepy since it was essentially professional and paid stalking.

I find Lincoln such a simple character.  He was exactly as Rowell portrayed him to be:  a person still finding what he’s good at.  And he’s my age.  (You have to read the book to find that out because I certainly won’t tell you.)  In a way, Lincoln echoed the same sentiment of every millennial I know.

I know I’m good at a lot of things, but I don’t know what I’m best at.

It was marvelous, to see a character perfectly portraying your innermost thoughts in the most uncomplicated and practical manner.

Then there was Beth and Jennifer.  I swear this friendship should be the envy of many.  Lincoln was right in describing them both — gentle, kind souls that are both completely selfless.  Their witty banter is enough to keep anyone working the night shift awake.  I wish these were the mails I read back when I worked the night shift.  (But then I was working for a BPO and I highly doubt that customer complaints would have the same articulate prose as a copywriter and a movie critic.)

This is a book worthy of a second read.  I have to admit it took me longer to finish than Eleanor & Park but this is a novel based on adults.  Oh, and the fact that the cover lacked the figurative drawings of the main characters only let your mind explore to how they really look like, much like what Lincoln did while reading those emails.

With a line so effortlessly drawn and unerringly sincere, who wouldn’t want to be drawn to a love story at the modern age?

3.75 out of 5 stars