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how the characters were viewed in an omniscient way; all their cracks and flaws laid out for us to comprehend. It is certainly a literary work, and all the heady topics of time theory and reflections and analysis of art are handled in accessible yet ponderous ways that are folded productively into the larger themes of the book. There is also the issue in which medication and therapy are painted as obstacles to true love or feeling anything at all. The way they love each other, the way they know each other ahhsjajajjak I am utterly, wholly, completely ruined by this book and aldoregan.
Following two vulnerable and flawed characters who come together to form a deeply unhealthy, sex-addicted, codependent relationship, this book left me baffled that people can romanticize and idealize the relationship between Aldo and Regan when I was actively rooting for them to separate and seek help. i don’t know how it is to anyone else, if it’s aggressively unrelatable or boring or weirdly paced, so don’t listen to me. Gallery images of our book boxes show an example of what may be included – treat and gift content may differ. This is a love story, but not a love story, because it's complex, it shatters, it sometimes has jagged edges, which gives everything life. Blake brings Chicago alive here, taking us through the streets, the classrooms of the University of Chicago where Aldo teaches and into the absolutely amazing Art Institute where Regan works as docent.i will cherish this book with every fiber of my being for the rest of my life and i want it engraved upon my heart. Alone With You in the Ether by Olivie Blake is a glimpse into the nature of love, and how to face the fractures of yourself. It does touch close to the romanticization of mental health struggles being a gateway to good art, which is a troubling perspective, though that doesn’t seem the intent. They'll need to face their fears and the fractures within themselves - and still love as if they've not broken.
There was something about 'Alone With You in the Ether' that drew me in, tangled me in its abyss, trapped in the world of these two complex characters. this is a character driven book and the plot is the characters lives so don’t go into it saying “omg it’s so pretentious” like that’s the point. They are difficult characters but they still deserve to feel love and there were fleeting moments I felt this book was akin to Sally Rooney characters.
but this one is different, it’s not for anyone else just because i don’t know how to describe this book for anyone else.
Told through prose that has passages so ethereally gorgeous it could only exist in service of love and with a dual narrative that threads their lives together, Alone With You in the Ether is a gorgeously interior and intimate portrait of difficult love that we can’t help but dive into even if it is destined to burn us down to ash as Blake’s storytelling beautifully cuts right into the troubled heart of matters as deeply as she cut into the heart of the reader. She doesn’t know what to deal with first, the use of ‘love’ or the fact that it isn’t what she was expecting, or the idea that anyone can possibly think fondly of her brain when she has put almost no effort into molding it. Regan and Aldo fall into something far beyond existential, beyond the quantum physics Aldo obsesses over. For Regan and Aldo, life has been a matter of resigning themselves to the blueprints of inevitability—until the two meet.Perhaps the easiest to love character is Masso, Aldo’s charming, well-meaning father—a sharp juxtaposition from Regan’s mother who we see as highly judgemental through Regan’s perceptions—though even he warns Aldo that Regan is the type to burn someone up. but unless you can understand having an issue, a permanent, unrelenting and innate part of your brain, ruin so many parts of your life, yet you still feel like you need it, like you’re not whole without it, like there’s no point without it, please don’t criticize it. if art is supposed to make you feel something, then this book is art in its purest form, for there is no emotion this book hasn’t made me feel. People who are difficult to love still deserve to be loved, and that is captured so elegantly in Alone With You in the Ether. At many points, Regan is truly manic (not in the funny personality sense but as in DSM criteria mania sense), makes questionable personal decisions, commits a criminal act (this is never really addressed) and shapes her world entirely around Aldo and how him being a genius and wanting her somehow elevated her personal value.
the book has six parts, and each part had it’s own voice and pacing that distinguished itself from the rest.this is kinda a side note but this book takes place in chicago and that alone can be a five star read for me, but my point is that olivie blake describes chicago so accurately that only a person who has lived here could ever do. As someone who can't imagine going off medication atp, the author's story was so relatable and so inspiring. I love that museum intensely and the pair having an affection for the Armory there as the place of their first meeting steals my heart. This is, ultimately, a literary romance, one with grit and uncomfortable explorations into themes of mental health, co-dependency, compulsive self-sabotage and the ways the veil of illusion begins to slip as relationships progress and we must decide to crack or embrace that ‘ it is perilously wonderful to suffer so sweetly with you.
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