If I Could Turn Back Time: Thoughts on Landline

Landline (2014)

By Rainbow Rowell

Yes, I decided to title this post with a Cher song. I read Rainbow Rowell’s Landline more than a year ago and I should have written about it around the holiday season because it has that holiday feel to it, but I didn’t and I am just now going to write about it.

Landline focuses on the life of a workaholic mother/wife, Georgie McCool. She is a TV show writer and is constantly busy that she never has time for her family. In fact this Christmas, she has a deadline that prevents her from traveling to Omaha for Christmas with her family. This time, though, it’s different. Her husband, Neal, and their two kids left without her. Georgie discovers a magic phone that allows her to talk to Neal from the past. Now she must figure out whether she should marry Neal or just let him go.

First of all, if you don’t know what a landline is, it is a telephone that has a cord. It allows people to talk to others from far away places using phone lines and cables. (I think that is a good explanation for it.)

In this particular novel, communication is everything. Whether it is through emails, text messages, or phone calls, this novel gives us a clear indication that relationships can only last if you talk to your significant other. To be honest, your partner cannot read your mind. No one knows what you think, and if you don’t say anything or tell how you feel, your partner will start to assume things and all these misunderstandings will happen and what not. Hence, Landline does a great job establishing the key of importance to every relationship, communication.

Furthermore, Landline reminds its readers that life is too short and that we should actually spend more time with our loved ones. We are sometimes too wrapped up on all the little things that we forget what’s important and why we do the things we do. Now although I may not have lived many years yet, I do know that I should be living my life to the fullest and making the most of my time here on earth with the people I care about, which is what I’m doing right now.

I would like to also mention that the usage of time is interesting because the events happen in a span of a couple of days and also, readers are time traveling back in time to past events.

Landline is a contemporary novel geared towards readers that are married. I feel like a person who is married could appreciate the novel more than I can because it begs the question of whether or not you would still marry the person you are with if you got the chance to start over. For me, I am not in that situation yet, so I couldn’t enjoy it like other readers can.

3/5