Debut novelist Evann Normandin chronicles the birth and death of the love of a lifetime in THE GOOD PARTS, which is full of poignant takeaways on love, identity and memory.

When Landon spots the drop-dead gorgeous girl in the stunning black dress at a party his freshman year of college, it feels a bit like coming home. Upon learning that she is Rose, a double-major in English and theater who is learning to reinvent herself, he knows that he has finally come home, the place where he can be truly seen. The sparks are flying just as fast for Rose, who is grappling with her father’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis, which is slowly stripping him --- and all the memories of her childhood she has long housed in him --- away from her. Worse, her mother has fallen into despair at the thought of losing her soulmate, leaving Rose neglected and dealing with her own inescapable grief. 

Though Landon harbors no such traumas --- earnest and goofy, he comes from a loving family who has always given him the support to be himself --- their love affair is like a balm for them. Each is so enamored of the other that the entire world and its myriad disappointments fall away when they are together.

But THE GOOD PARTS doesn’t begin here. Instead, it starts 14 years later, with Landon desperately checking his mailbox for a return letter from Rose. In the years since their love affair began, a controversial new medication has hit the market: a pill that promises forgetfulness, perfect for anyone grieving or otherwise ready to start over. And despite their picture-perfect relationship, Rose has decided to take one, forgetting Landon and all their stories --- even the good parts. 

"Normandin is a truly gifted writer, and her emotional acuity is matched perfectly by her lyrical, resplendent prose. Sure to be a 'Best Of' title by year’s end, this remarkable debut is perfect for readers of Emily Habeck, Mary Beth Keane and Tracey Lange."

When Rose’s letter arrives, it confirms the unthinkable. Not only has she completely forgotten Landon, but in honor of her past self, she has refused to even consider meeting him. Believing that if she could just see him, their logic-defying love would reignite, Landon prepares to chase Rose across the world. So he departs their former home outside of Boston for Edinburgh, where Rose, his practical, logical wife, has taken up a life of painting. You see, not only does the pill allow one to forget, it also infuses one with a boundless sense of joy and optimism, a gift that leads many takers to embark on a life of creation.

Upon arriving in Edinburgh, Landon is able to track down Rose at an art school, where he is shocked to learn that she is both a painter and a model. Gazing upon his wife’s body --- replete with every scar and stretch mark he remembers so dearly --- he recognizes that while she is still the same, she is also different: lighter and unburdened, funnier, and far more confident in herself and her wishes than he can remember in a long time. Posing as “Jamie,” Landon secures a coffee date with Rose, only to learn that she has a dreamboat boyfriend who is exactly the man she deserves: wealthy but modest, a spectacular cook, and a terrific host to their club of pill-takers. 

In order to get close to Rose, Landon knows that he will have to infiltrate the group, pretending to be a pill-taker himself…despite the urgent, frantic and often angry warnings from the couple’s best friends, who choose to honor Rose’s choice. But how could the people who knew them best, who saw the awe-inspiring power of their love, want anything other than for them to be together again?

The answer comes in alternating chapters, with Rose detailing the early days of their love affair --- the fervent makeout sessions, the family meetings, the unpacking of deep-seated secrets and hurts --- and Landon continuing to attempt to force Rose to just remember. 

Romance stories are well-trodden territory, so it seems impossible to reinvent the love story. Yet, in her writings of the couple’s early days, Evann Normandin does just that. “When she was a girl and had fallen asleep in the car,” Rose thinks, “her body felt the last three familiar turns, heard the car pull up on familiar gravel. Being with Landon felt like that. Even half asleep, her body would always know it was home.” These and more poignant, vividly rendered descriptions of love populate Rose’s telling of her beginnings with Landon, even as a present-day Landon grapples with Rose’s decision to forget him. So what exactly happened to decimate the greatest love Landon and Rose had ever known?

Unfolding the couple’s journey to adulthood, dead-end jobs, marriage and family, Normandin traces a love so transformative and irrefutable that it seems impossible that it could ever fall apart. But in Landon’s present-day storyline, as he continues to deceive Rose in his attempts to win her back, it becomes obvious that some hurts cannot be forgiven or forgotten. As he starts to woo Rose --- and as she slowly begins to recognize him, the real him --- alarming reports of the pill’s side effects begin to surface, and Rose starts to exhibit signs. 

Racing against the clock and (the astute, compassionate reader will note) Rose’s very wishes --- Landon fights for the love that they once shared, even as it starts to dawn on him that what he wants and what she wants are very different things. As their new love begins to heat up, Normandin raises complex, thought-provoking questions of consent and agency, grieving and healing, and, perhaps most poignantly of all, who our tragedies shape us into and what we can do with the people we become.

Much like the romance it chronicles, THE GOOD PARTS is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Though her premise at first may remind readers of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Normandin makes the “willful amnesia” plotline entirely her own, allowing her pill-taking characters not just to forget, but to reinvent themselves. Though the idea is controversial at best, she takes a wide-scoped, compassionate approach to exploring all the reasons one might choose to forget who they are and what has happened to them. At the same time, through Landon and Rose’s reignited love affair, she questions what it might mean when the body cannot help but remember and if anyone --- even someone who loves you wholly and deeply --- can ever choose for you what makes the cut. 

The story of Landon and Rose is wholly realized and fleshed out, so much so that readers will be left frantically turning the pages to determine what possibly could have broken them apart. The big reveal is utterly heartbreaking, but it is matched by an ending so astoundingly beautiful that you will see your heart shattered and taped back together in one fell swoop. 

Normandin is a truly gifted writer, and her emotional acuity is matched perfectly by her lyrical, resplendent prose. Sure to be a “Best Of” title by year’s end, this remarkable debut is perfect for readers of Emily Habeck, Mary Beth Keane and Tracey Lange.