We begin November with In Five Years, a quietly hopeful novel from Rebecca Serle. And what goes better with an NYC career woman than a bagel?
In Five Years hinges upon an intriguing (if daunting) question:
"'Where do you see yourself in five years?'"
Queen of Checklists
Dannie has it all figured out. Meticulously detailed and always in control, Dannie knows exactly the path her life will take. She's a breath away from her dream job as a corporate lawyer at a competitive firm, is happily settled with her long-term boyfriend, and has a great apartment in NYC. But the night after she nails an interview for her dream role with the law firm and her boyfriend proposes to her (which was obviously part of her life plan), she falls asleep and dreams that she is five years in the future, in bed with a different man in a different apartment. When she wakes up, everything is back to normal; David is in the next room of their perfectly-curated studio apartment, and she has a ring on her finger. So what could this dream mean?
Despite its jarring detail and the achingly handsome man starring in this flashforward, Dannie elects to forget all about it and move on as if nothing has changed. After all, nothing has, right? Her life will go to plan without a hitch, she'll be married to David five years from now, and everything will be perfect. Dannie's life continues as if the dream never happened. That is, until she meets the starring man in real life, and he turns out to be her best friend Bella's amazing boyfriend. Naturally, she begins to question how she could dream about someone she's never met, and more importantly, WHY HIM?
Could this dream have really been a premonition? What does this mean for her life plan?
The novel goes on to explore friendship, fate, and what happens when you lose control. (I can't say anything else without spoiling the whole thing!)
In Defense of the Career Woman
In Five Years left me with very mixed feelings. On one hand, the narrative took (to me) an entirely unexpected turn, and I enjoyed reading an unpredictable romance novel for once. The premise of the book first drew me in, and I wasn’t disappointed by this intriguing mystery. In fact, Dannie’s flashforward into the future was very well-integrated into the book and made so much sense when it finally came to fruition. By that point, I felt like I could really empathize with our main character.
Yet for much of the novel, I had a hard time liking Dannie. Aside from being very Type A and controlling, she was so emotionally closed-off and denied her feelings towards, well, everyone. (Except her best friend, Bella.) Don’t get me wrong, I like to set goals and make lists. I love a character with dreams! And I respect women who put their careers first, being one such a woman myself. It was just frustrating to witness a character’s conscious choice to settle with a man simply because it worked with her grand life scheme. She couldn't even admit to herself that she was unsatisfied with her "plan." Like, was it just me or did it seem like even her dream job didn’t make her that happy? I know the point of the book was mainly to illustrate who and what we should prioritize in life, but I wasn’t even confident by the end that Dannie had come to terms with these questions yet. (At least not on a professional level.)
I did love how much of the book was dedicated not to romance but to Bella and Dannie’s friendship, but on that same note, I really wish we’d gotten to know Bella better. She felt pretty one-dimensional and exactly the manic pixie dream girl Dannie described at one point, though there was obviously more to her. I have a feeling that a better-developed Bella would have really improved my understanding of Dannie.
Because I can’t lie, Dannie gave me subtle Rachel Berry and Netflix Christmas romcom vibes in which the career woman discovers there’s more to life than her uptight job in the big city. And though Dannie did undergo some serious character development in light of the novel's events, like I said, I never felt like I got to see how complex she was. Even as she was breaking out of her comfort zone and straying from the boxes she'd planned to check off, I just know there had to be more to her! I love that she began to hold the reins of life a bit looser, and I think that can speak to many of us who struggle with spontaneity or control issues.
Awarding this novel between 3 and 3.5 stars, I'd recommend this book to anyone who loved watching the movies The Proposal, Work It, or About Time, or enjoyed reading The Switch.
Note: This novel pretty exclusively revolves around white characters and white lives (unless I'm missing something) and does not represent the ethnically, culturally, socially, racially, and sexually diverse city of New York (or the world we live in).
NYC Eats
I actually really wanted to try whitefish salad on a bagel like Dannie often enjoys in various NYC delis throughout the novel, but shocker: the midwest is not rife with such delis. There were a few around me (a bit of a drive away) that sold this mysterious treat, but I took the easy way out by simply going to Panera and getting an asiago cheese bagel.
Could I have attempted to boil and bake my own bagels? Yes. But my years of obsessing over The Great British Baking Show have taught me nothing if I thought that that would be a simple or possible task for me today. Is it not even more New Yorker of me to reject expectations and norms and do what I want? (Genuine question, as I've never been to NY.)
I'm pretty sure that Dannie and probably most cultured New Yorkers/bagel connoisseurs would scorn my choice, but I'm content with it for today. I'll update this post when I finally get around to trying the coveted whitefish salad. Until then, I promise to actually bake something myself next week.
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