Link :Amazon, Goodreads. Price: £8.99
Jerome has fallen deeply in love with his cousin Allissa, a couple of years older than he but who shares his love for literature, for poetry, and for musing on philosophy. Yet, much as she admits her love, she refuses his proposals for engagement and over time seems increasingly to push him away. His desperate attempts to overcome her reluctance are hindered by his own timidity, and it seems their love is doomed for reasons he cannot understand.
Wow. This book is incredible.
I was hesitant at first. It seemed it was going to a repetition of the cliché about how intelligent artists are doomed to unhappiness. This annoys me, first, because both intelligence and being involved in artistic activity strongly correlate with happiness. Second, because I conform entirely to the cliché of the depressive writer. I don’t need anyone enforcing the stereotype I’m living, thank you.
Thankfully, this book is much smarter. Strait is the Gate is the tragic tale of a deeply damaged young woman who convinces herself that she is underserving of love, and a young man who despite his best efforts is unable to persuade her otherwise. Gide keeps everything in the description, in the action, in the dialogue, so that often you – like Jerome – are left to puzzle why Alissa is hurting so badly, why she consistently declares her love but pushes him away.
If this were a contemporary romance, Alissa would quickly come to realise that her aestheticism disguised her true hurt – her abandonment by her mother – and after some grand gesture from Jerome they would marry and have many babies. But these two characters are too real, and too weak, to overcome their frailty, and Gide is too strong to let us off the hook – or ever directly tell us what is wrong with these doomed lovers. Utterly unusual, utterly believable, and unutterably sad, this is one of those books that deserves the title classic. Just be sure to have an irreverent comedy (e.g. Deadpool) lined up on streaming for when you survive the last page.
