Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

On Monday, September 8, 2014, the Booked for the Day book group met to discuss Me Before You by Jojo Moyes. Here is a brief summary of the novel courtesy of Goodreads:

Lou Clark knows lots of things. She knows how many footsteps there are between the bus stop and home. She knows she likes working in The Buttered Bun tea shop and she knows she might not love her boyfriend Patrick. What Lou doesn't know is she's about to lose her job or that knowing what's coming is what keeps her sane. Will Traynor knows his motorcycle accident took away his desire to live. He knows everything feels very small and rather joyless now and he knows exactly how he's going to put a stop to that. What Will doesn't know is that Lou is about to burst into his world in a riot of colour. And neither of them knows they're going to change the other for all time.

Overall, the group appeared to enjoy Me Before You. Below are some of their comments when I asked for their initial thoughts:

• I had positive reactions. I really cared about these characters and I really enjoyed the interaction between Lou and Will.
• I really liked it as well. Definitely made me think about assisted suicide in a different way.
• This was good writing that pulled at your heart.
• It read like a Lifetime movie. It was a decent read but not very challenging.
• I loved the first half and then the middle threw me off. I think it was when Will bought Lou those tights, I found that unbelievable. He would have never done that. But I thought her writing was really great.
• I enjoyed that Lou showed Will another side of life. Also, I would have liked to know more about Will’s parents.
• I’d really love to follow Will’s mother after Me Before You. She was a tragic character who lost everything. If there was a sequel about her life, I would read it.
• Will seemed superficial to me in the beginning, but I liked that Lou forced him to reexamine his own soul.

Next, our group discusses Moyes’ somewhat ambiguous title. A few book group members mentioned that they were rather fascinated with the title- and speculated who the “me” and “you” referred to throughout the novel.  Some readers thought that the title was a reference to Lou’s tendency to put everyone’s needs before her own (i.e. providing for her family); however, Will encouraged her to think of herself first by considering travel, school, etc. I also mentioned that in an interview, Moyes stated that the title was intentionally unclear but she wanted the personal pronouns to apply to both Lou and Will referring to “who I was before I met you.”

Due to the fact that this novel had a large cast of secondary characters, many readers wanted to discuss some of their favorites (or least favorites!) Here are a few thoughts our group had on Lou and Will’s family and friends:

• I really disliked Patrick but I think Moyes made him awful on purpose. Their relationship forced us to see that Lou would settle.
• As Will’s character grew and developed over the course of the novel, Patrick’s had the opposite effect. Patrick shrank in value
• Lou’s mother completely overreacted to Will’s choice and Lou’s decision to be with him. I found it unbelievable that she would shun her daughter.
• I couldn’t believe that Josie wouldn’t consider Lou’s feelings on this issue (accompanying Will to Dignitas). 
• My opinion of Will’s father changed throughout the book. At first I thought he was just a philanderer, but when Lou wanted to travel with Will he suddenly had a backbone and was very empathetic.

Of course we spent quite a bit of time discussing the novel’s ending. One reader described it as “haunting” while a few others confessed to crying at the conclusion. One member stated that she was a bit angry at Moyes in that she could have picked anything to happen in this fictitious story and she chose to end it with death. Another mentioned that she was almost hoping that Will would die from pneumonia so that such a difficult, moral decision regarding Dignitas did not have to be made. Yet when I asked the group as a whole if they would have preferred a different ending I was met with a chorus of: “No!” So overall it appears as though most readers in our group respected Moyes’ conclusion.

These are just a few notes from our discussion. Please feel free to add additional thoughts on Me Before You in the comments section.