“Lucky Us” by Amy Bloom – Life in Disappointments

When most people are dissatisfied with what they have, they either tend to: complain about it and pretend that will fix something or actually try and make incremental improvements to their lives in the direction they see fit.

And then, of course, there are those like Eva and Iris in the novel Lucky Us by Amy Bloom, who decide to journey across the country in search of some kind of fulfillment.

The novel basically tells the story of these two sisters, relating to us the many different experiences they undergo while traveling from one end of the country to the other. We get to witness the country from its discreet small towns to the grandest and most luxurious of casinos and hotels, but perhaps more importantly, we are given an opportunity to explore its equally-entertaining spectrum of people.

I believe that despite Lucky Us feeling like a story centered on the travels of two young women, that it is, after all, a study of character, contrasts, and the various reactions people can exhibit when face-to-face with duress in real life.

Eva and Iris constantly have the reader going back and forth between what they feel for them, leaning towards sympathy in one instant and then swinging over to hatred in the blink of an eye.

I believe this was done with the intention of hammering home what I think to be one of the real main points of the book, the idea that no one person is made good or bad by the mere virtue of one action, or even the sum of many actions. Rather, it is the sum of all our actions as well as our mindset and the world we have cultivated for ourselves that make us into the people we really are.

The title of the book does feel rather ironic, considering most of the story is rather heavy in its tone, teaching about the various pitfalls of life and the many cruelties and betrayals the people in it are capable of.

Though Iris and Eva certainly do go through a lot of muck in hopes of making it to the coveted tomorrow where all their dreams are fulfilled and worries washed away, it is a road they are traveling together to the last, chronicling along the way the decisions they've made for the reader's benefit.

In terms of pure writing, there is certainly not a shadow of a doubt that Amy Bloom has a lot of talent to spare. The text flows smoothly as a river, with my only gripe being that the letter format wasn't exactly used to its full potential, or perhaps misused entirely, because it feels like a tacked-on device to explain and advance the story whenever necessary.

Nevertheless, that takes away nothing from the interesting characterizations and vividly lifelike locales brought to life by Bloom's stroke of a pen (or keystroke, as the case may be).

All things taken into consideration, Lucky Us brings to the reader a rather beautifully-written somber, heavy and introspective story which still manages to be uplifting and thought-provoking in the right moments; if given the chance, it will make you re-evaluate your priorities in life, at least in terms what is really ought to be considered important.

I recommend this book to those who don't shy away from a tougher kind of read and yearn for an exploration of life in all of its beauty and horror.

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Amy Bloom Personal site Amy Bloom is an American psychotherapist and author who has been nominated for both the National book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. She wrote a number of fictional stories, including Away and Where the God of Love Hangs Out, but also a non-fiction book titled Normal, and the screenplay for the 2007 movie State of Mind.