In Katherine Taylor's Rules for Saying Goodbye, ostensible chick lit characteristics abound.
At first glance, the novel follows a 20-something who lives in New York City, drinks too many cocktails and has lots of romantic encounters and intriguing friends -- typical fare for a chick lit novel.
After turning a couple pages, though, one will realize that gossip, celebrities or references to designer shoes will not be found in this novel. Instead, Taylor takes the pedestrian idea of a young woman just getting by in the big city and turns it into something dazzling.
Some unique attributes hide beneath Taylor's carefully constructed prose, including wisdom, wit and, most importantly, heart. Rules for Saying Goodbye, for lack of a better term, is simply chick lit with a brain -- a genre that is often and sorrowfully absent in the literary world.
The novel moves as the protagonist, also named Katherine Taylor, grows from age 13 to age 29. And while Rules for Saying Goodbye is filed strictly as fiction, it's difficult to avoid presuming that many of the events discussed in the book are indeed autobiographical.
Although the novel spans 16 years of Katherine's life, there is hardly a rhythm or pattern for this movement. In fact, the novel eventually becomes a series of rather disjointed events instead of a traditional life story. While at times it may be confusing, this is the heart of the novel. Instead of focusing on the specific events that happen in Katherine's life, the reader should see them as a collage of instances that change her as a person.
Many readers will be able to draw comparisons between Rules for Saying Goodbye and J.D. Salinger's 1951 classic, The Catcher in the Rye, a distinction not surprising given Taylor's satirical style. The novel's protagonist, Katherine, is truly the female Holden Caulfield, because the novel is constructed almost solely upon her innermost feelings and disappointments.
The 11 "rules for saying goodbye" finally crop up in Chapter 14, providing a welcome intermission from Katherine's narration. It is clear that Taylor ruminated before penning these meaningful guidelines. One highlight is No. 10: "Write a note on very nice paper. Make it simple. Dear Henry, I have loved you completely. Be too hurt to sign your name." The 11th rule advises, "Once you are gone, be gone for good."
While the rules seem to solely follow Katherine's outlook on romantic relationships, these rules ultimately take on a greater context. They come to describe her life in general, as friends, significant others, and even personal thoughts and dreams change and evolve. When these things happen, she is forced to say goodbye. In this sense, the rules take on an even more poignant connotation.
In the end, it's one of those novels where nothing happens, yet everything happens. Tears are shed, cocktails are consumed and hearts are broken -- and readers will cherish each bittersweet tumble along the way.
Grade: A
