REVIEW: Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell

JayneB Reviews / Book ReviewsAmerican Navy / divorcee / Dual Timelines / friends become lovers / friendship / high-school / Nebraska / single mother1 Comments

Back in high school, everybody thought Shiloh and Cary would end up together . . . everybody but Shiloh and Cary.

They were just friends. Best friends. Allies. They spent entire summers sitting on Shiloh’s porch steps, dreaming about the future. They were both going to get out of north Omaha—Shiloh would go to college and become an actress, and Cary would join the Navy. They promised each other that their friendship would never change.

Well, Shiloh did go to college, and Cary did join the Navy. And yet, somehow, everything changed.

Now Shiloh’s thirty-three, and it’s been fourteen years since she talked to Cary. She’s been married and divorced. She has two kids. And she’s back living in the same house she grew up in. Her life is nothing like she planned.

When she’s invited to an old friend’s wedding, all Shiloh can think about is whether Cary will be there—and whether she hopes he will be. Would Cary even want to talk to her? After everything?

The answer is yes. And yes. And yes.

Slow Dance is the story of two kids who fell in love before they knew enough about love to recognize it. Two friends who lost everything. Two adults who just feel lost.

It’s the story of Shiloh and Cary, who everyone thought would end up together, trying to find their way back to the start.

Dear Ms. Rowell, 

I was excited to learn that you were going to be releasing another adult romance this month. “Attachments” is still one of my favorite books and also one of the most unique ones I’ve read. Aha but this isn’t just an adult romance as we will jump back and forth through the story between Shiloh, Cary, and often the other member of their trio of best friends, Mikey as teens and as adults. 

“Slow Dance” is a quiet story that sneaks up on you. These are characters who have been through a lot even as teens. Living in north Omaha (and I’m sorry I don’t know north Omaha but it’s made to seem like a place that people do desperately want to leave) is hard but Shiloh and Cary have extra burdens they’ve carried. Shiloh’s mother has no idea who Shiloh’s father might be and the two lived alone with Gloria often bringing men home and then later reminding Shiloh to keep her door locked. Cary’s got a complicated family with siblings, step-siblings, half-siblings, stepfathers – who were mostly drunks and abusive, and a mother who isn’t his mother – exactly. 

It’s fifteen years since everyone fled – Cary to boot camp and the Navy, Shiloh to college, and Mikey off to do his art. And somehow everyone is now back in Omaha – Shiloh and Mikey to stay and Cary to be there for Mikey’s second wedding. Shiloh misses the wedding, because her ex (probably deliberately) isn’t on time to pick up the kids, and wonders if Cary will be there. Cary is there and wonders if Shiloh, who wasn’t in the church, will be there at all. Could this finally be the right moment for everything to work out between them?

The dual-ish timelines let us see the three friends as they were and as they are now. Think back to how you were at age nineteen and compare that to your mid thirties. Things change, right? Life knocks you around, things don’t turn out quite as you thought they would, people mature, and other people get older and need help. “Slow Dance” takes these characters through all that. 

Shiloh is the left-leaning rebel who wants to be a theater actress and who is appalled that Cary wants to join the military. Cary has had a plan of (J)ROTC and then entering the Navy as a way out of his homelife. Both have done well professionally and I love that we get to actually see them being competent at their jobs. We know that Shiloh was married but I was actually delighted that Cary had not carried a torch for Shiloh despite still loving her all this time. When they meet up, it’s only for a quick stay for Cary as he’s got a short leave. Life brings them back together and things get messy. 

There’s no “WOW we’re in love” moment. After they’ve finally started to communicate all the things each thought the other knew, these two will need to sort through fifteen years of what they’ve lived, argue a little, talk a lot, reflect a great deal and only then start to make decisions about how to move forward. Even the sex is non-orgasmically real. This is the good, the bad, and at times the ugly. Cary and Shiloh know each other better than almost anyone else and even though the love is there, it’s still hard. It’s still work. Still at the end of the “day,” I think they’re on their way to finally getting it right. B

~Jayne

    

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