No Two Persons by Erica Bauermeister

No Two Persons by Erica Bauermeister

ARC from St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for an honest review

Book Blurb:

Alice has always wanted to be a writer. Her talent is innate, but her stories remain safe and detached, until a devastating event breaks her heart open, and she creates a stunning debut novel. Her words, in turn, find their way to readers, from a teenager hiding her homelessness, to a free diver pushing himself beyond endurance, an artist furious at the world around her, a bookseller in search of love, a widower rent by grief. Each one is drawn into Alice’s novel; each one discovers something different that alters their perspective, and presents new pathways forward for their lives.

My Review: 5 stars

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No Two Persons by Erica Bauermeister swept me away into this luscious and tender literary masterpiece about books and their readers. As readers, we know that no persons read the same book in the same way. We each read with a bounty of collective differences that make us who we are.

In this gem, we see how Alice’s book, “Theo”, touches nine people, in a myriad of distinctive ways. Many are singular and specific, while others become interconnected as we get inside the head space of the other characters. This book is unlike any I’ve ever read, but something I often think about. I believe not all books are read at the right time for the reader. Our personal human condition at that moment time is how we will interpret the book.

I’m not new to Bauermeister’s work and have read most of what she’s written. I urge you to check out her older titles. This book is a reader’s manifesto, an ode to the written word and a joy to read.

Quotes I liked:

At some point it’s written down, and that’s the book readers hold in their hands. But the story isn’t done, because it goes on to live in the readers’ heads, in a way that’s particular to each of them.”

“We’re all caretakers of the stories, Alice. Writers are just the lucky one that to know them first.”

“It was something she would tell her son later, when he was learning to read himself – how your first read of an extraordinary book is something you can only experience once.”

“There were times when he yearned to spoon his soul into the warmth of her belief that people were essentially good, and things would always turn out okay.”

“He was a book yenta…”