Crush by Ada Calhoun

The unnamed storyteller of the debut novel by Ada Calhoun, Crush is encouraged by her husband Paul to trust herself and dare kissing other men. A kiss-open relationship, nothing more, but expectedly this first step, took seriously by the protagonist, will end up the relationship, although she is maniacally adverse to divorce and keep repeating it obsessivelly until it is actually happening.

The elements of the relationship game meet highly intellectual conversations about love and friendship ending up laughing out loud when faced with the absurdity of the situation. It is well written with references on point, but the naivity of the main character when it comes to relationships is appalling. 

She is taken over by the flow - a e-platonic intellectual relationship with a professor that will eventually end in bed - and she gets disappointed - a talented penpal with a bibliography on point doesn´t make one a relationship material. She is rarely having her own thoughts when not adding different quotes to fill her plot, like pieces in a puzzle. Plus, a relationship is not a book club; cultured relationship may lead to a nice crush, but togetherness requires a deeper kind of interaction.

I loved the intellectual snippets in Crush, although the premises of the story sounded weak for me. But relationship are a very vaste topic to think and re-think and this book was my opportunity of being faced with opinions contrary to my experience and way of seeing and living relationships.

Rating: 3.5 stars