S.R.C. Book Review #2 - Message In A Bottle

I've decided that this whole 'reading for comprehension' kick that I am on what with being influenced by Sage's book reviews and things like the Southern Reading Challenge, sucks. In the good ol' days, I'd read a book quickly and superficially and either enjoyed it enough to keep it or passed it along to others. Now that I am reading more closely, I'm finding fatal flaws in books that I once loved.

For the second book for the Challenge, I decided to revisit an old one that I had enjoyed very much. It had made me cry during the first reading of it and when the movie was released, I adamantly refused to see it because I didn't think it would do the book justice and I didn't picture Kevin Costner as this particular character.

Message In A Bottle begins with Theresa, a single mother in Boston who seems to be rather lonely since her divorce a couple of years ago. She writes a locally and nationally published newspaper column about parenting and happens to find a bottle with a message in it during a trip to Cape Cod with, get this, her boss, Deanna, and Deanna's golfaholic husband. The first four chapters irked me because no one in their right mind could or should be this buddy buddy with their boss. Theresa decides to use this letter in a column and it gets a huge response from the readers. Deanna uses her pull as the newspaper's editor to get the lowdown on the writer of these messages once Theresa's article about it appears and a person in New Jersey comes forward about the message that she found as well which was written and signed by the same person - Garrett. With Theresa using her investigative skills and $300 of her own money, she tracks down a third one. All of these heartwarming, romantic messages from a man to someone named 'Catherine' touches a note in her.

Deanna then tells Theresa that she should head down to Wilmington, North Carolina, and find this Garrett to see if he is the right man for her. If he turns out to be 70 years old, at least she could return and not have to wonder any more. This jump from reading the messages in the bottles to thinking he could be the right man for her is too big for even me to comprehend. I'm all about mushy love stories and finding one's kindred spirit but, upon second reading, I'm not there with her now as I was the first time. Have I become hardened in my old age?

Theresa reaches Wilmington and visits the surf shop that Garrett runs. Thanks to the newspaper articles on the wall, she sees that Garrett is definitely not a 70 year old man. A worker there tells her that Garrett can be found at the marina. Theresa heads there and loiters around the old boat that Garrett had upgraded. He sees her from afar, notices that she seems interested in the boat and approaches her. Just like with all warm-blooded, heterosexual men (widowed or not), he notices that she's pretty and has a modelesque figure. They get to talking about the boat and out of the blue, Garrett asks if Theresa would like to go for a sail the next evening. Since that is part of her master plan, she says yes.

After her ride on the boat, Theresa strategically "forgets" her sweatshirt on the boat and calls him the next day to get it. He invites her over for dinner that evening after spending lunch with her and revealing that he had been married but she had died three years ago. After dinner of steak and salad-in-a-bag, the dessert was multiple orgasms which lead them to spend the rest of her week there together.

As she readied for her departure back to Boston (without ever having told him the real reason behind her trip despite his truthfulness about Catherine), he became needy and not believing a long distance romance could work and she became a heartless b&*ch by telling him that he needs to get over his dead wife. At this point, the book loses me again. Theresa fell for this guy because of his love for Catherine which came through in the messages that washed ashore yet seems to expect him to 'get over it' after 4 days of mattress push-ups. Yes, we women love to fix broken men like this but I think she shouldn't have even bothered with meeting him. Does any woman in her right mind want a guy who has so very obviously already had the love of his life? That would mean that she would always be in second spot; not quite as good as the original. I think I would pass on that. I would, however, enjoy an approved week away from work, spending it in a land where guys have a Sage-like accent.

Over the course of a couple of months, she flies down there to visit for a few weekends and the he flies up to Boston to see her. When she has to cancel a trip just before Thanksgiving, things come to a head and they are faced with the question that they were both avoiding: In order to continue the relationship, who would move where? During his last trip to Boston shortly after, Garrett asks Theresa to move down to North Carolina. She's perturbed that he would ask that after getting news that her column will be in even more newspapers so she heads out for a walk to cool down before returning to discuss this. When she does, she finds that Garrett has discovered his letters. She tries to explain but naturally, he feels used and heads back home early. She flies down the next day to see him, to explain things properly. By "explaining things properly", I mean she starts off by taking off all of her clothes and pulling him into his bedroom. The next day she finally gets around to telling the whole story and then proceeds to break up with him, saying that she can't compete with his dead wife and heads back to Boston. Garrett's distraught (and I'm sure his ego had a nice boost seeing that basically, Theresa paid for a last minute, roundtrip ticket just to have sex with him) and realizes that it's Theresa that he wants.

The end of the book could be debated on if it was tragic or perhaps a good thing. After the first reading of it, I'm sure I fell into the tragic category but now, after being irritated at Garrett's neediness and everything about Theresa, I'm just happy it ended. I will try and save this book to read one more time in the future in the hopes of that reading it the third time will tip the scale in the 'I loved it' or 'I didn't like it' direction for the final, official verdict.